Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon Part 17: Victory and Loss

In which we locate the Starsphere and Lightsphere, meet another great character in the form of Tiki, and face off against General Camus.




Chapter 19: Manakete Princess

Apparently the Sable Order fought valiantly to keep Marth's army from reaching the Fane of Raman in Chiasmir, according to the introductory text. I'm starting to feel like the evil empire here... considering how easily I defeated them.

"But in the end, Grust's knights buckled; the world's mightiest only in song". I mean, they just needed to do some more arena grinding, then we would have been on par! Right? Also named people, that's the secret. You need to get knights with names, rather than faceless mooks.

So apparently the Fane of Raman was built as a sanctuary and storehouse by the divine dragons for their most priceless treasures. Have the divine dragons been mentioned before? What's their relation to Medeus the shadow dragon? I have questions. Also, all these dragons coming out of the woodwork here...

So the map has a bunch of closed rooms, so Julian needs to come open them all up for me. The boss is Tiki, presumably the Manakete Princess. A little guide recommended I bring Bantu for this one, and now that I think about it, wasn't he looking for Tiki way back when I recruited him? It's been awhile. Anyway, welcome back level 1 Bantu. I'm bringing Est instead of Catria, since Catria will hit level 20 soon and I want to have a Master Seal on hand so she can promote when she does, while Est is still only level 17 (yeah, I did a lot of grinding last map...) Athena, Cain, Abel and Catria are in, as they're already promoted. I'm going to leave Beck behind and bring Xane, I read that he has dialogue options with Tiki and I want to see them if I can manage it. I'm going to drop Merric for now and bring Linde, she has overall better stats (he beats her by one point in speed and three points in defense, otherwise she has superior scores everywhere), and I think I may give her my single Master Seal because she's almost at level 20 as well. Barst is coming in case I need axes, but most of the enemies on the map are mercenaries and heroes, with some mages tossed in, so I'm looking at mostly enemy swords. So lances will be key, but Est, Caeda, Cain and Abel have that covered. And I'm going to bring Palla, just to see if I can get her a few levels and/or a conversation with Est a chapter later (I doubt it, I think those are map specific...) and maybe if I can level up Palla enough I can try the super attack the three sisters can pull off.

Alright, so here's my team:

Marth, Abel, Cain, Barst, Caeda, Julian, Linde, Athena, Est, Xane, Bantu, Palla. Wait, I have no healers there. Sorry Palla, you have to wait a map. Lena you're up.

Fight!

Gharnef teleports in and hypnotizes Tiki, or has already hypnotized her, it's hard to say.

I mean, he was already creepy...

He tells her defilers have entered the Fane and she must punish them with fire.

He reminds her that all her kin have died and Bantu abandoned her (there's my in game hint to bring Bantu, if I hadn't I could restart now and bring him along). Gharnef asserts he is the only one protecting Tiki from Medeus. So that explains some of my earlier questions. Apparently she's the last of the diving dragons, and has been hiding from Medeus. Gharnef has used this to his advantage to leverage control over her it seems.

I start the battle with Julian opening the first small room on my left, revealing an enemy archer. Abel dispatches the foe quickly. Xane then assumes Julian's form, so I can open doors on both sides of this map more quickly. The first mercenary in the hallway falls before Linde and Cain as I advance, but I'll hold position here in case there's a surprise waiting for me. I should only draw the second mercenary's enmity here. Oops, I didn't notice the second mercenary had a Killing Edge. I need to be careful who I allow to attack my people... The enemy rushes three thieves and two heroes from the topmost room at me, but they're still a ways away.

Ah, the enemy thieves are opening the doors so the enemy soldiers hiding inside can come out. That's fine by me! Although now I'm facing four enemy heroes and three enemy thieves at once, and an enemy mage that may still come outside the small room... hmm. I'm going to be wary of the one hero with a killing edge, but try to tank the others this turn. Two of them rush me, but Abel takes the hits pretty well. Cain finishes the first and Linde the second of them. I run Abel forward to the Killing Edge foe, but he's not quite able to finish the job, leaving him open for a possibly critical hit next turn. I'll retry if I need to, I didn't have my fastest people in a good position for this rush... Yeah, the enemy hero gets the critical hit and Abel goes down. Let's try to be smarter about that.

Take 2:

Est kills the archer in the first room so Cain and Abel and rush the hallway. However, I realize after movement that in order to get the mercenary with a killing edge, Cain was left in position to be hit by the hero with a killing edge. Not nice game. Fortunately, the hero misses Cain, leaving Cain in a position to kill him next turn with no chance of damage. So that worked out. Xane finds treasure chests in the second room, and everyone moves forward. Julian finds two more treasure chests in the third room.

The combination of Caeda, Abel, Cain, Athena and Linde are too much for the enemy hero and thieves, and two heroes and one thief all go down this turn. I'm not much worried about the final hero with his steel sword, nor the final thief. Athena plucks the lithosphere from the corpse of the thief she killed. And indeed, Abel kills the hero in one shot, leveling up to 2 and gaining HP, Strength, Skill, Speed and Defense. Impressive!

Caeda kills the last thief with her javelin, and then the enemy mage when he attacks her. Road is clear, let's just... loot the place on our way through. Xane levels up to 2 on his second Imitation of Julian, gaining Skill, Speed, Luck and Defense (although his base form stats only matter if I let an enemy attack him when he's not imitating someone, since he gains all the stats of the person he imitates). Xane then finds an enemy sniper with a killer bow in the fourth room, but Barst was waiting and one-shots the foe with his silver axe. Julian finds an enemy sniper with a silver bow in the 5th room, but this is why Est was standing behind him when he opened the door. Sniper down.

Xane gets lucky number 6, with two more treasure chests. The seventh room also contains treasure chests. One room still to open up... Julian finds a Master Seal in one of the chests! So worth the looting. The 8th room has another sniper, who drops a second Master Seal when Caeda murders him. Hurray! Caeda hits level 8 from this, gaining Skill and Luck (she has maximum speed for a Dracoknight already...)

Cain and Abel lure the remaining enemy mages out away from Tiki's throne space. Linde and Est kill the pair, then take out the enemy bishops. Julian finds the Starsphere in a chest. Mission accomplished! But what about Tiki? I send Bantu to talk to her, to see if we can't get her to let us go.

Bantu is happy to finally have found Tiki, but she warns him off, "Come no closer..." Bantu realizes she is in Gharnef's trance, and breaks her out of it.

Uncle, guardian, mentor? I'm not positive i know the relationship, but they seem close.

Oh my god she calls him Ban-Ban. Why didn't I know that earlier? I'd totally have used Ban-Ban all game! Tiki is confused, and doesn't know where she is. Bantu reassures her it is him, and asks if she is hurt. She is just scared, poor thing. She feels as though she just woke from a nightmare. Bantu promises not to let them be separated again.

Aw, poor kid. Don't worry, I have plenty of people on the bench who can keep you company.

Tiki joins me! I have her go talk to Marth.

She asks if Marth will take her with him, and Marth agrees if that is what she wants.

Oh my god again, she calls Marth "Mar-Mar"! Marth is like "Mar-Mar?" Tiki asks "Am I not allowed to call you that?"

She's adorable.

It's a nickname now Mar-Mar, don't fight it.

Poor Marth.

He can destroy entire armies, but is absolutely flummoxed by children I guess.

"Thank you Mar-Mar!" "You're... welcome?"

And she knows Xane! That's why he gets dialogue with her! This is great.

I like how she has nicknames for everyone.

What are you, 7?

Xane imitates her (repeats what she says too) until Tiki gets angry and storms off, and Xane is like "Wait, I was just joking around! Trying to lighten the mood!" Pushed it too far Xane. He transforms back to himself, protesting it's not like he can turn into a dragon like she can. She calls him a meanie. But he does seem to care about her, and asks "How are you holding' up, kiddo?" She's still having bad dreams.

Sometimes its hard to relate to a centuries old dragon-child.

He reassures Tiki that she's a special kid, and she says she knows.

And we end the chapter! Marth tells Nyna we found both spheres, and we can take them to Gotoh to undo Gharnef's Imhullu magic. But first, Marth wants to defeat Grust once and for all, so we don't leave ourselves vulnerable to an attack from behind. And he is sure General Camus will be there to meet us when we invade Grust proper. Nyna agrees with Marth's reasoning, but says there is something she must tell him first. But not just yet, she has to sort out some feelings first...

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Chapter 20: Camus the Sable

Marth travels south to the Grusthold. Grust was put on the map by General Ordwin, one of the three legendary heroes, its knightly order securing both territory and Grust's place as one of the greatest of the Seven Kingdoms. However, current king Ludwik is weak willed, so Dohlr was able to force him into an alliance. The king has taken ill even as the Archanean League handed Grust a string of defeats. 

"The once mighty kingdom was poised to fall..."

Wait, are we conquering another kingdom?

Alright, most units here are promoted units, so this will be interesting. There are also three ballisticians, so I'll bring Beck and his Thunderbolts. Looks like one of them also drops more ammunition for Beck, so that's positive. I'm worried about the Arrowspate ballistas, those could probably kill even Caeda if I'm not careful. 

General Camus is here with a special named weapon, probably the final of the Three Regalia? I know we got the bow from Nyna, and we got Mercurius from Est, I don't remember getting the third one. This is Gradivus, looks like a lance. Camus is not the boss of the stage, that honor goes to Lorenz, a general in the castle.

I also see an arena, so I'm going to bring Palla along and see if I can get her to be decent, maybe try the Sisters Triple Pegasus Attack thing this time, just to see it.

I have three Master Seals right now, I'm giving one to Barst, one to Linde, and one to Catria, who are all level 19 and about ready to promote. Let's see if we can get there this chapter.

Roster is: Marth, Abel, Cain, Barst, Caeda, Julian, Linde, Athena, Est, Xane, Lena, Palla, Wolf, Beck, Catria. 

Fight! 

But first, Marth asks Nyna what she wanted to tell him.

She explains when the Dohlr-Grust alliance first seized Archanea, they killed every member of the royal family except Nyna. She was spared, but given into the custody of the Sable Order. Dolhr wanted Nyna executed, and Grust was willing to do so, except that Camus of the Sable Order came to her defense, even at risk of the Shadow Dragon's wrath. And later he arranged for her escape to Aurelis.

Nyna wishes to see Camus again, her initial hatred of him has been tempered by his compassionate actions. But she doesn't want that if he has to fight Marth.

Marth certainly likes his elipses.

Ooh, Palla can still have her conversation with Est!

I didn't think I could like Est more than I already do, but here we are.

Aw, Est worries that because she isn't as experienced as Catria and Palla, she's not doing enough. Palla reassures Est that she's doing just fine.

Ok Palla, you're awesome too.

Est always feels better after talking to Palla. Aw, and she asks Palla to promise always to be there for her, and Palla promises.

I wonder if Minerva also gets to chat with Est? I will check that next map.

Est and Catria fly over the river in front of us and destroy the first enemy ballistician. Est levels up to 18, gaining Skill, Luck and Defense. Caeda follows and makes short work of one of the enemy generals waiting there with her Wing Spear. I move Beck into range and Thunderbolt the second Ballistician, taking them out in one shot. Barst moves ahead to lure the first group of four enemy paladins, though only one can reach him where I positioned him. Everyone else lines up behind Barst except Athena, who crosses the river in an attempt to lure the remaining general into attacking her with her armorslayer instead of Caeda or the Pegasus Knights. 

My lure works! Foolish general, Athena cuts him down and reaches level 3, gaining HP and Luck. The four paladins in the south charge at Barst, but only the one reaches him, and they trade blows. Barst comes out the better in the exchange. Three more paladins up north charge my people, as does a Thief with a Devil Sword.

Caeda takes out one of the northern Paladins, and Athena and Catria team up to take out the second. west hits the third, but doesn't quite kill it. In the south, Barst finishes off his foe from last turn. Wolf takes a shot at one of the remaining three paladins, and gains a level. At level 8 he gains HP, Strength, Skill, Speed, Luck and Defense. Xane, pretending to be Cain, kills Wolf's target. Abel gets a third with a critical hit, and Linde and Cain take out the last paladin. Cain reaches level 2, gaining Skill, Speed and Defense. In the north, the last paladin attacks Athena, who leaves him on 2 HP, for fun, I surround him with the Whitewings.

That paladin doesn't stand a chance.

Palla glows a moment and does the critical attack animation. It doesn't look super flashy in this version, but I bet the attack does massive damage. That's pretty cool ^_^ Palla starts Arena training next, and levels to 9, gaining HP, Skill and Speed. Not bad. The rest of Team North heads south to join the rest of my army, where Beck has just arrived in position to Thunderbolt the next ballistician. Beck hits! And levels up to 7, gaining HP, Skill and Luck. The way is clear to a village here. Linde murders an enemy thief that had been making its way towards that village, and levels up to 20, gaining gHP, Magic, Speed and Luck.

Marth visits the village, and meets Lena's grandfather! Who is "Villager". Grandpa Villager gives us a special Hammerne staff for Lena, which she can use to repair weapon durability. Nice!

And I'm realizing that the path to the boss and General Camus is blocked from the south by a pretty substantial mountain range... I may have to send my mounted people back east and across the river where the flyers have been. As I start moving my people back to skirt around the mountains (most of them cannot cross them) two enemy generals spawn in the south. Julian and Marth both have armorslayers, they can handle these guys, I think... Well, Wolf actually kills the first with a critical hit, so it may be a moot point. I can't seem to cross the bridge to the east. Is it broken? Maybe I have to go the long way around, and cross a bridge to the west... hmm. Well, Barst makes it across, because he's still a pirate and can walk on water. While I sort this out, Linde uses her Master Seal and promotes to Sage, gaining 6 HP, 3 Strength, 1 Magic, 1 Skill, 1 Speed, 1 Defense, and 2 Resistance. And she gains the use of staves it looks like, so she can also heal, that's handy.

Basically she gains pants and really neat elbow length gloves as a sage. 

As all this happens, I slowly move Beck into position, where he lobs a Thunderbolt across the mountain range at the final enemy ballistician, killing it instantly. Beck levels up to 8, gaining gHP, Strength, Speed and Luck.  He also gets the enemy's Pachyderm ammunition.

Julian kills the second general just in time, as a paladin and three cavaliers spawn in the way of my ground forces. One of the cavaliers has a Killing Edge, so I need to make sure he dies quickly. The paladin rushes Cain but dies on Cain's spear. One of the other cavaliers tries to hit Marth, but Marth destroys the enemy. And then of course their numbers are replenished by another cavalier and a  horse archer. I can't take out the killing edge cavalier, so I try backing up, forgetting that Cain and Abel were blocking the cavalier's movement. Basically, I make matters worse, but he can still only hit Cain or Abel. Then I realize Beck had a shot on him, and land a Pachyderm bolt on the cavalier, and if I hadn't moved Cain and Abel already, he'd be dead. Shoot. I hope this doesn't kill one of my noble paladins... No, I get lucky and there is no critical hit. Abel kills the cavalier easily, achieving level 3 and gaining HP, Strength, Skill and Luck. The recently spawned cavalier with a javelin decides to attack Lena, which is not a good decision, as she just murders him with fire magic after dodging his javelin throw. 

Julian levels up to 20 killing a horse archer, gaining HP, Skill, Speed and Defense.

As we approach the enemy, Marth calls out to General Camus.

Well, you seemed to think there was a point at the beginning of the chapter Marth or we wouldn't be here. But I know what you're saying.

Marth tries to persuade Camus not to fight, but Camus insists he must as part of his knightly duty to his country. Nyna steps in and begs Camus not to let it come to blows between the man who gave her back her life (Camus) and the man who gave her back her country (Marth). She asks him to join us. But he refuses. "Were my heart my master, I would do exactly as you say. But what sort of knight abandons his kingdom - his king! - now, when they need him most?" He intends to die as a knight the same way he lived. And he parts, hoping that Nyna can find someone to bring joy back into her life. (I think canonically Nyna marries Hardin, but I maybe got Hardin killed back in chapter 5, so...)

I am ambivalent about this. I get it, but it also seems like an excuse for not speaking up.

Well, sorry Camus, you're pretty cool and you gave me an item in a village awhile back if I remember correctly, but I need that lance you have...

Beck keeps pinging away at the enemy general over the mountains, and levels up to 9, gaining HP and luck. Palla keeps plugging away in the arena, and achieves level 10, gaining HP, Strength and Skill.

Traffic jam on the eastbound bridge

Caeda flies in to attack Camus with her Wing Spear.

I beg to differ.

Camus believes himself invincible with Gradivus, and pities the waste of life. Sadly for him, he didn't see the numbers I did, and Caeda kills him. He dies, bidding farewell to Nyna. Caeda reaches level 9 and gains just a point of HP from that. 

Sorry Camus, we tried to talk you out of it...

Hmm, Marth can talk to Lorenz...

Is it this easy?

Oh, Marth knows about Lorenz from the king of Talys, Caeda's unnamed father. Lorenz was opposed to the alliance with Dohlr from the beginning. Marth asks Lorenz to fight with us to defeat Dohlr. Lorenz raises the same objection Camus did, what about his country? Lorenz says he knows Marth's cause is just, but he wishes to remain a Grustian general until the end. Fighting here is how he honors his kingdom. 

And Marth says "Forgive me General, but... is it, really?" He points out that as a Grustian general, Lorenz should fight for Grust's future first and foremost. But what future does he see for Grust from where we are?

Couldn't have talked to Camus about all this before he died, could you?

Lorenz agrees that standing by Dohlr is not what is best for Grust. So he will join us, and hope the future is easier to spot from there. 

Too bad Marth couldn't have found those words for Camus. But maybe Camus didn't have the same misgivings Lorenz does. Anyway, welcome Lorenz! A level 5 general, and he's almost entirely worse than Draug in all ways. I'll need to get Draug two more levels and a Master Seal and see how he looks as a General...

Catria finishes the last bishop of the map, levels to 20 and gains a point of Skill. Next turn I promote Catria to Dracoknight, and she gains 4 points of HP, 4 points of Strength (19!!!!) loses one point of Magic (who cares, she doesn't use magic), gains 5 points of defense (18!!! That's almost Draug levels!) loses 3 points of resistance (ok I care about that one) and gains 2 points of movement. Wow. I bet she wrecks as a paladin even more. Oh yeah, and she can use axes now. Cool.

The pegasus doesn't really have 4 wings, that was just the animation captured by my camera

Ok, just a little more arena grinding... Palla hits level 11, gaining HP and Skill. Barst gets to 19, gaining Strength, Skill, Luck and Defense. Then level 20, gaining HP, Skill and Speed. And I promote Barst to a level 1 Berserker! He gains 6 HP, 2 Strength, 1 Skill, 1 Speed, 2 Defense, and 1 move. Lena achieves level 15 from healing, gaining luck.

Pirate Barst

Berserker Barst!

Palla at level 12 gets Strength and Skill. At level 13 she gains Strength, Skill and Speed. At 14, just Defense. They can't all be winners. At level 15 she gains HP, Strength, Skill and Defense. Level 16 gives her HP, Skill and Resistance. And she gets HP, Strength and Skill at level 17. At level 18 she gets Strength, Skill, Speed and Luck. Finally, at level 19 she gains speed and defense.

Linde, who I ran over to use heal staves on Palla while Palla did grinding in order that Linde's staff level could increase, reaches level 2 and gains Speed and Luck.

At level 3 Xane gains HP, Speed and Defense, all good for his base form (I realized he just needed 3 more XP and imitation gives him 10).

Final level up is Est, at level 19 she gains strength and skill.

Marth apologizes to Nyna for his failure to bring Camus over, but Nyna says she is sorry too, that she should never have made such a request.

Well, you both tried.

She knew it would come to this, ever since she gave Marth the Fire Emblem. Then she tells the story of Artemis's curse. 

"The last time the Fire Emblem changed hands to save House Archanea, it was not without cost. There was a princess named Artemis who loved your ancestor, Anri, with all her heart. He loved her as well, but when Medeus appeared, the two were parted forever. She cursed the Fire Emblem. Called it the end of war, but also the end of love. Now the emblem has changed hands again, and I am the one who is cursed."

Nyna is no longer able to contain her grief, and asks Marth to give her time to collect her feelings. Marth obliges, asking only that she call him if she needs anything. The last dialogue in the chapter is Nyna, crying for Camus and asking why it had to be this way.

And with that, I'll end this post. Five chapters remain in the game...