Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon Part 9: Smooth Operator

In which Caeda takes a break in the middle of a fight to flirt.



Chapter 8: Port Warren

Upon reaching Archanean soil, Marth gives his soldiers leave to recuperate in Port Warren. It's a commerce town, which has kept autonomy by paying taxes to Dohlr. Due to this, the town welcomes the Archanean league, but we soon receive word that the enemy approaches...

I'm switching Barst back to Fighter, he got some skill last map, back to what he does best for now, hitting things with an axe! I also check the forge again, and it looks like I just picked an Iron Bow with low durability remaining, because I make another Gordins Bow (no apostrophe but it lets me finish the word bow!) and it keeps the durability it had before (this time a full 40). I also realized Wolf is actually a prepromoted character. I'm not as familiar with this game's classes, later games have a Horseman equivalent who use bows from horseback called a Nomad that promotes to Nomad Trooper. It looks like the Horseman in this game is the Nomad Trooper. I figured this out because Wolf can class change to the promoted units like Berserker or General. Good to know... I hope he gains some massive stats though because he's started at a similar place as my as yet unpromoted peopled... I'm leaving Rickard, Bantu and Matthis on the bench this fight, and bringing all my remaining people. Let's see how this goes!

Immediately two new people, a Mercenary and a Myrmidon based on their sprites, walk up to Marth. The mercenary introduces himself as Caesar, and the other man is Radd. They're hired swords serving Port Warren. This time we're up against the knights of Grust, who gather north of us, but they've left an eastern castle relatively unguarded, so Caesar recommends we head that way.

Hi Caesar. I already have a hired sword, Ogma, and he came with more guys than you. Of course half of them died...

He starts at level 1, it could be a pain to level him and I already have Athena. But I'm tempted anyway just because I always liked using Rad in Final Fantasy Tactics when he joins with Lavian and Alicia...

Hi Caesar. Only level 3 huh? Ogma's already level 7...

Uh oh, they're tempting me with an arena this map...

That's a lot of horse guys.

And a lot of knights...

He's not even promoted like Harmein was, what's he doing out here by himself?

Hmm, so I need to head north and past the two concentrations of enemies to get to the eastern fortress where the boss is. I'll have to be careful.

Barst gets first blood when an enemy cavalier charges him, misses Barst, and Barst double attacks with his spear, finishing off the foe. Unfortunately, another cavalier takes the dead man's place and hits Barst, Barst kills him, then a third cavalier pulls the same stunt. Barst loses 13 HP in the exchange, though he did take out 3 of the enemy...

On my turn, Abel visits a nearby house, and a villager wars us about loads of knights in the northern fortresses who will be charging out the gates any minute! Sounds like there will be reinforcements on this map too... Another villager that Ogma talks to says a princess of Macedon is being held captive inside Castle Deil. She thinks it odd that Dolhr would imprison their own ally, but we have the omniscient narrator's advantage of eavesdropping on the conversation with Minerva last map. We don't tell the nameless villager this of course.

One of the enemy knights is a named character named Roger. Looks like Caeda can talk to him, though he's got archers around so I need to be careful not to leave her vulnerable to arrow fire... Wolf takes out one archer from some hills while Merric kills the nameless knight nearby. This leaves the second archer open for a double attack from Cain and Gordin. Gordin hits level 8 and gains only HP (though he's up to 25 HP, not too bad for an archer!)

Caeda greets Roger: "Good day, sir." Which seems a little odd on the battlefield. Does she know him?
Roger: "Ack!" so, maybe? Hmm, maybe not, she just introduces herself. Ah, Roger voices my concern. "Wh-what are you talking to me for?! This is a battlefield!"

Ok, I'm laughing, Caeda responds to that with "Might I trouble you by asking your name, good sir?"
"M-my name? That's- It's Roger... Why?" Oh my god Caeda, you're amazing. "Hee her, forgive me, Roger, it's just- you looked so sweet and kind. I just had to stop and talk to you."

Poor Roger doesn't stand a chance.

Poor Roger, this is absolutely flummoxing. This is why you wear a helmet in battle, apparently! So enemy pegasus knights don't decide they fancy you mid-fight.

Oh, now she's guilting him. "Roger, think of the children - the poor women and children who shed tears every day this war drags on. I joined the Archanean League to put an end to it, but I just... I just... *Sniff* Oh Roger, doesn't it just break your heart?" Laying it on a little thick there Caeda?

Their portraits blinked occasionally as I sat in the dialogue screens, and my timing on this one was perfect for the moment.

Roger doesn't want to betray his kingdom to join us. Caeda says she sees his point, he must have family in Grust counting on him. He says he doesn't have any ties, but Grust is his home and he won't betray that. Caeda says she's glad they had this chance to talk, and makes to leave. Roger: "Wait- you're leaving?!" Caeda: "Well, yes, Roger, I must! Every moment I stay here, I put you at risk. What if your comrades thought you were conspiring with the enemy? No, I must go..." Caeda we killed all his nearby comrades already.. although this conversation has gone on awhile, maybe some more wandered over to spectate. Roger says Caeda is very kind. "Um... perhaps... I suppose I could... ... Aw heck, I'm going with you!"

Well. That's certainly one way to go about it. Caeda you smooth operator.

Ooh, Roger has a very nice 13 defense starting out, although Draug has 13 defense too and is a level behind. Although I may have to keep Roger around just because of this conversation, that was amazing. He's pretty amazing against these knights he was just now allied with, even with steel swords they're only hitting him for 1 damage.

Lena levels to 10, gaining luck and resistance. I form a wall of people between Caeda and the enemies, as they have some Horseman units and I don't want her anywhere near enemy arrows. We get a lot of experience for killing these Horsemen though. I guess that whole promoted unit thing... Marth levels up and I saw a lot of green stat increases but I accidentally clicked continue without writing them down. He's level 9 now. Wolf hits level 6 and does not disappoint, gaining 2 HP as well as Strength, Skill, Speed, Luck and Defense. Live up to that hair man!

Sometimes enemy archers are not the smartest... this one could have fired at Ogma, or Cain, or Athena, and not been counter attacked as those three are all melee units. Instead, the archer attacks Merric, who has range 1-2 magic, and promptly gets lightning bolted almost to death. Ogma finishes him off and achieves level 8, gaining HP, Strength, Speed and Luck. Pretty good actually, I like that level. Gordin hits level 9 shooting at the remaining enemy knight, and gains Strentgh (yes!) skill and speed. Basically all the stats he needs to be a good archer: hit harder, with better accuracy, and more chance to double hit. Good one! Cain finishes the knight off and attains level 8 as well, gaining HP, Skill and Speed. His strength is lagging behind a bit, but speed 11 is pretty good.

Ooh, Roger can talk to Marth! "Prince Marth, I'm a Grustian Soldier." Why do they always open with "Hi Marth! Please kill me I'm your enemy!" He continues: "Well, at least I was. I'm through fighting against you. Let me join your League." Marth's like "Sure! Why the change of heart?" And Roger says "Well... uh, there's this girl named Caeda and she asked me to and, uh... I think I'm in love. Try saying no to a girl who comes racing up to you in the heat of battle just to ask if you believe in love!" Marth's response: "....."

Alright, the enemy leader is Kannival, and I'm attacking with Merric. Kannival: "What are you doing all the way out here? Blast I'm finished!" Yes you are sir. But wait, enemy reinforcements just spawned! Guys I thought you weren't coming! I killed your friends already! Oh well, I'll leave Kannival be and go kill the rest of Grust's army. I guess that's why even with just 15 people Marth has an army; the enemy hasn't much chance at stopping us despite their numbers. No archers with the reinforcements, but there is a Horseman, so I'd best leave Caeda over by the knights... Oh, no turns to rest another batch of reinforcements appear the same turn the rest leave their forts.

Draug hits level 5 fighting reinforcements, and gains strength, speed and luck.
Barst continued to devastate the enemy cavaliers, going up to level 9 and gaining HP, strength and skill. Julian hits level 8, gaining luck and a much needed point of defense. Lena's doing a lot of healing this battle and hits level 11, gaining only a point of resistance. Roger makes a good wall, which means he takes a lot of hits and dishes a lot of hits out. He levels to 6, gaining HP, Strength and luck. Caeda gets a good hit in on an enemy Horseman and reaches level 9, gaining HP, Skill, Speed and luck. Her strength is still lagging, I wonder if I can cross class her to fix that... Abel's javelin skills earn him level 9 where he gains HP and defense. Athena reaches level 11 and gains HP and skill. She actually has pretty good stats to begin with, 9 Strength, 13 speed and now 13 skill, with 7 defense. Barst just destroys enemy knights using the anti-armor axe called a hammer. (So, not an axe at all, but I've seen the hammer episode of forged in fire so I have a pretty good idea of how that works as anti-armor...) and levels to 10, gaining HP, skill, speed and luck. He now has a whopping 29 HP, 9 skill, 12 speed, and 9 luck backed up by 13 strength and 6 defense. He's turning out amazingly well actually. Draug hits level 6, gaining speed, luck and defense. Cain reaches level 9, and finally gets some strength! He gets HP speed and luck as well.

This whole time Merric has been hitting the boss for 12 damage a turn, letting the boss heal up 6 HP on the enemy turn, and hitting the boss again, but I'm not quite finishing it while the reinforcements are such good experience for me. Merric hits level 10 for his pains, gaining a point of magic, skill and resistance. Finally the reinforcements dry up, and Merric kills Kannival. At this point I remember that Marth needs to claim the throne for me to win... so I have to run him over to the place Kannival was in. Maybe more reinforcements will show up in the meantime to meet our waiting swords, axes, lances and bows... I use the excuse to keep healing with Lena, who hits level 12 and gains another point of luck. Luck lowers the chance of a critical hit landing, and that's really nice for a healer.

The end of chapter dialogue with Malledus begins with him saying it's too dangerous to stay here, and we must flee to Pyrathi. Hey Malledus, we're not fleeing anywhere, if we wanted to do that we'd have stayed on Talys. We're conquering Pyrathi! Maybe. If we need to. Where's Pyrathi?

Oh boy, the Pyrathi king, Mannu, is said to be descended from a Manakete. But we've no other choices so we'll have to risk it and see if Mannu likes us or Medeus better.

Next time: Chapter 9!