Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia Part 7: Priestess of Mila

Celica heads to sea. Saber. Pirates.

Act 2: Skirmish

Picking up from last time, we head into the graveyard on our way from the temple where Celica has been sheltering to the port town. For some reason the road goes through there, and there are Terrors wandering about? Well, the Terror's I don't question, just the choice of road locations.

I completely agree with Boey here.

Anyway, Boey has reservations about facing Terrors. Mae pokes fun at him, as he is still afraid of ghosts at his age. What is his age though Mae? I genuinely am curious. He looks late teens to early twenties to me, and I'm thirty six and still afraid of ghosts. Boey rightly points out that "a man can't help what gives him fright."

The exchange elicits a chuckle from Celica, who apologizes for laughing. The conversation apparently reminded her of her half brother, born of a different mother. He was sweet, meek and scared of ghosts. Sadly, Celica's half brother passed away.

Mae chastises Boey. "Way to go Boey, you've dredged up sad memories for Celica!" Boey responds with a put out "Why is this my fault?" And Mae says "It's always your fault."

I'm not sure if I like Mae? I like her brash attitude and her sense of humor, but not so much what feels like bullying toward Boey. But maybe she'll grow. I liked her first appearance, it felt more like gentle teasing amongst friends, but this exchange felt much more harsh to me. But maybe that's because like Boey I cannot help what gives me fright, and I'm always worried people will use that against me.

We proceed to the fight in the graveyard. Before we start, Celica gives a pep talk to Boey and Mae. (And presumably Genny, but I think Genny is like Kliff and Faye an addition for this version of the game. As they were not in the original release, they get no direct dialogue outside their support conversations.) Celica reminds them that their magic is very powerful, and game mechanics wise ignores terrain benefits. That's good to know!

The fight is over almost before I know it. The Terrors rush me, but Boey and Mae's magic, combined with Genny's healing and Celica's golden dagger cut the zombies to shreds.

We move on to the port city. I do like the style of exploration in these towns. I think I've talked about it before, probably in part one, but I thought I'd mention it again here. Someone online referred to it as a sort of Visual Story setup, where you are presented with a single screen on which you can talk to the people you see, or examine the area, or move on. Talking gets you rumors and information about the world and sometimes recruits people (like Genny). Examining the screen lets you move a magnifying glass around and select objects. Some are items you can add to your inventory, and others are just descriptive. I will now provide four pictures I got from examining the town, because they're all of cats. Cats! And if you can't pet them due to the nature of the game, you can at least examine them and Celica has a different thing to say to each of them.

Kitty!

 As I explore the town, we learn that there is a sell sword named Saber in the village. One hundred percent we will recruit him later.

We also learn that the ships are not sailing at the moment, because a group of pirates has taken over the sea lanes nearby. The villagers are not happy; they make their living fishing the waters around their island, and the pirate activity has put a major dent in their ability to get by. Unfortunately, nobody in town is strong enough to take the pirates on, although someone is trying to after his family was killed.

There are a lot of villagers here. I also learn that there are rumors of an otherworldly sword in a shrine on a nearby island. But it would be impossible to get it because a Necro-dragon makes its home there. I remember a Necro-dragon in the prequel DLC when Clair and Mathilda took that ring from the shrine full of Terrors. It showed up just as I was escaping, but moved fast and looked very scary.

Give the cat all the love.

Another villager complains about Desaix taking the Zofian throne. "The villain things slaying a king makes you next in line, he's a right tyrant!" So apparently the villagers are concerned about what happens with the nobility? My understanding from Act 1 was that the common people in Zofia were already suffering so much under the "rightful" king Lima because of the draught that they didn't notice much when Desaix took over. The Deliverance was mostly a group of knights trying to hold the usurper to some form of honorable accountability. But then again, the whole reason Clive wanted Mycen (and then took Alm) to lead the rebellion was because there were a lot of commoners joining as soldiers. So I guess people did take notice. And maybe Desaix managed to be worse than Lima had been.

Can I have a Fire Emblem where all my soldiers are just cats?

 Moving to the docks, we learn that the pirates are lead by a man named Barth. Barth has styled himself the Pirate King of the Waters, and because neither Rigel nor Zofia have done anything to stop him, he has gathered a large band of pirates and is terrorizing the sea around the island we're on. I didn't catch the name of the island. Or at least, I didn't write it down. Oops.

Anyway, Celica tries to book passage to the Shrine of Mila, but the old man at the docks who is apparently in charge of such things says there are no ships sailing that far due to the pirates. Which we have heard about several times already, but I think he is the "move the story forward" interaction so even if we skipped talking to everyone else he'll fill us in. He ends his explanation with "If milady were to do something about those pirates..."

Celica responds (appropriately): "You want me to... fight pirates?"

So now we're mercenaries? Celica wants to help anyway. She is a good hearted person and does not like seeing people suffering at the hands of others. However, we're a little short handed. All our magic was amazing against the Terrors, but if the pirates get too close Boey and Mae will be in trouble. Sounds like we need a front line fighter. And I heard about just the man earlier.

Cats are opportunists at heart.

We find Saber at the inn. Celica asks him to help deal with the pirates, but he's an actual mercenary. He won't help her out of the goodness of his heart, he wants payment. Of course, as what I assume are clergy of the Mila religion, Celica and company don't have loose cash on them to pay for a bodyguard. But Celica offers him her dagger in payment, if he would come along. Her golden dagger. I noticed that in the last fight. 

Saber takes it as payment, but says he's giving her a break. After Celica leaves (or possibly in his own head, it's hard to tell) Saber says he actually smells good easy money in the arrangement. "Who hands over a treasure like this [dagger] without batting an eye?" He figures Celica is a spoiled noble. Well, he's not entirely wrong.

I like the goatee.

With Saber in tow, we can now set sail.

Immediately the scene cuts to Rigel. The blue skinned man, Jedah, summons a giant eye? He addresses the eye as Duma, the god of the north. Jedah knows Duma is in pain, but reassures his god that Celica has left the island so Duma need not be in pain much longer. Well, that's not ominous or anything. His last words are of Celica: "She of the fated children, bearer of the brand."

Back with Celica's group, we get the First Pirate Raid battle. The fight is pretty easy. The battle takes place on a pair of ships, side by side. There is a single boarding plank laid between them, and the whole fight is basically a logjam as pirates run to the plank, preventing me from getting onto their ship and take them on more than one at a time. But of course, I have magic at my disposal, so while Saber takes the front, Mae and Boey take out the pirates from behind him.

I found this in my phone from last session.

The Second Pirate Raid is up next. The setup is similar to the first fight, but there are two boarding planks this time, and the pirates have an archer in addition to all the axe guys. During the fight I get Mae and Boey to their first support conversation. Mae finds herself a little shocked to be actually zapping people with her magic. Of course she and Boey learned magic to protect Celica, but it is a different matter to actually be using it in a fight. Boey says he always knew this was what his magic would be used for, and so he has been preparing himself mentally for a long time, and is ready for what is happening. Mae teases him a little bit for sounding so adult.

Genny did not get a support conversation, so here is her level up.

Energy and zapping. Not bad selling points.

Then I also get Mae and Celica's first support conversation, which is more light hearted. Celica remarks on Mae's seemingly boundless energy. Mae says Celica needs to learn to slack off a bit, and Mae is more than happy to help with that. Moments like this sort of make up for the harsher teasing from before, so I think I like Mae again.

After the fight, the old man from the docks, who is apparently sailing our ship, points out that the current is going to force us past Pirate King Barth's island to the east. He begins to give orders to move past quickly and quietly, when Celica volunteers to attack Barth. Saber is against it. He doesn't think he's being paid enough to do that. Celica retorts that all he has to do is make sure she is safe, he doesn't have to fight the pirate at all.

We move to the final battle of the session, Assault on the Pirate Throne.

The battle is on a shore line. My people begin on the ship, and have to fight through pirates to get to Barth. And there are green units? A trio of allied units is in the northwest. We get a brief conversation amongst them before the fight. Valbar, in full yellow armor, Leon wielding a sword and Kamui, an archer. Oh, this must be the man seeking vengeance for the loss of his family! It must be Valbar, the other two seem to be following him.

Again, the fight is pretty straightforward. Kamui gets the final kill on Barth though, the experience thief. I get the opportunity to recruit all three of them, and I take it. New people!

Leon is just off screen. I thought I'd gotten the whole picture but my phone must have cut some of it off.

After the fight we free a trio of Rigelian sailors, who are bitter that Emperor Rudolf refuses to do anything about the pirates who are even threatening Rigelian interests. They say he used to be a model crown prince, but something changed in him when he ascended the throne. Someone offhandedly mentions that the Necro-dragon can only be hurt by Serafim magic. Welp. 

Next time, what is Serafim magic?