What's the harm in a little reckless besieging? Let's Play FE: The Sacred Stones

It seems quintessentially contemporary to my ears, at least, so there.

I... don't really use Kyle, all that much. If I need a great knight i use Franz. also Forde even though he's kinda the worst cavelier imo but he gets a pantyshot of eirika so he is officially a pimp

PR EDIT: Doublepost sry im new to this "posting' thing

There's an edit button you know.

Anyways, if you decide to support them I demand that Forde get supported with Vanessa and Kyle with Syrene. It's like a neat little package.

Eh, I'll just merge them.

THANK YOU

the problem was because i didn't realize I posted it and then I posted it again. your argument is valid for the last one though

It's been a while, but Thanksgiving.

Chapter 6: Victims of War

Eirika suppresses her feelings of unease and continues to search for her brother. Passing through Serafew, the group crosses into the Grado Empire. From here forward, there is no doubt that they are walking through hostile territory. In hopes of avoiding unnecessary trouble, Eirika and company head for a sparsely populated region of Grado. However, it is too late. Their movements are already being tracked.

Chapter 6 features my least favorite thing about Fire Emblem: fog of war. In the game of chess you can never let your opponent see your pieces. In a game with permanent death and positioning is all-important, having a map where you can’t see the enemy in the opposite of fun. While this is the toughest level yet, it is not as hard as it could be.



I sent some of our men to follow the princess as she fled Serafew. They tell me Eirika and her friends will be coming this way shortly. Our ambush is ready and waiting. There's no way they can escape. Like rats in a sack, as they say. Heh heh heh...

Riev:
Very good... Won't that wretched Valter be delighted. Now about this Princess Eirika... I hear she's quite a handful. They say her paladin withstood Valter's lance... Tell me, Novala, are you certain you can handle this assignment?

Novala:
Don't worry. Everything is under control. I've brought along a certain something from Renais. It will negate whatever futile resistance they offer. Ha ha ha...

Riev:
Heh heh heh... Pray it goes as you say. Very well. Do what you must. I must return to the capital.

Novala:
Will you not stay and see how Eirika looks in captivity?

Riev:
Unlike two other layabouts I know, I do not have such time to waste. I have much to do for out master. A mountain of tasks awaits me. My time is far too precious to waste on the likes of that royal whelp.




You should have watched. You might have learned something. I will capture the princess, and I will replace you at our master's side. You will stew in regret, and I will enjoy every moment.



Eirika:
What?! Who are you? And where...where did you come from?

Novala:
You're as beautiful as I'd heard... And you're even wearing your bracelet. I suppose we should begin there. Would you surrender your lovely little trinket?

Seth:
Ah!




Come, hand it over. Do it quickly, and I'll leave you alive.

Seth:
Princess Eirika, you will do no such thing.

Eirika:
Of course not.

Novala:
Obedience will save you pain. You came all this way to aid Prince Ephraim, have you not? A fool's errand. Ephraim fell before the empire's might. As we speak he wastes away in a cell in Renvall, meekly awaiting his execution.

Eirika:
My brother?! You lie! A pitiful worm like you could never defeat my brother!

Novala:
Bah. Protest all you like. It does not change the truth. Ephraim has lost, and it was Grado that defeated him!

Eirika:
......

Novala:
You're not going to acquiesce, are you? Very well. Bring me the child.




Eirika:
No, please... You win. But I must have your word the child will suffer no harm.

Seth:
Princess, wait. That bracelet--

Eirika:
It's not worth a child's life. Forgive me, Seth.

Novala:
Yes...there can be no mistaking it! Next, your weapons. Take them off and hand them over.

Seth:
No. Surrendering our weapons would be tantamount to suicide. You demand too much of us.

Novala:
I see years of peace and idleness have not dulled the wits of all Renais's knights. Well then, my hostage has no more use to me, does she? Ah, such a waste. Wait a moment... I've just had a delicious idea. Have you heard of the giant spiders prowling about this region? They'd appreciate a nice, hot meal, wouldn't you agree?

Eirika:
You can't--

Girl:
Nooo!

Novala:
Ha ha! This will be a delight to watch! These fools will curse the day they were born to Renais!

Eirika:
Why...why would you... How can you do such a thing?

Novala:
Wha...what?!

Eirika:
I... We, the people of Renais, have long honored our allegiance with the Grado Empire. And you invaded without warning. You ravaged our land. You killed my father... Even then, I told myself, I must not hate Grado or her people. If I gave in to my hate, the bond between our lands would be lost forever. I refused to hate. Instead, I lived for the day our nations would know peace again.




Novala:
Impudent girl! Do you expect your words to save your countrymen? They will not. Your beloved people will all die, as will you.

Novala:
Ha ha ha! If you must curse someone, curse your dear princess.




Girl:
Are we gonna get eaten?

Mother:
We're going to be fine. Someone will rescue us.

Father:
......



This poorly spliced map is the battlefield. It is quite small, but there are quite a few enemies hidden out in the fog. There is also a spider, but I shouldn’t have to deal with him. My “strategy” for this map is to move as a big mob to the right, slowly. Vanessa will visit the town and the rest will stick together. There are no new characters, on this map or during the rest of Eirika’s opening third of the game. Except the inevitable meet-up with Ephraim and his men. I benched Gilliam and added Artur just to make it harder I guess. I’ve taken a torch or two to try to deal with the fog, and thieves get a boost in their sight range.




As I said, a slow advance. Without knowing where the enemies are I am wary of spreading my team up too much.

Not pictured: the enemies come storming out of the fog, but not quite far enough to attack me.



Artur opens the fighting by nearly killing a soldier that advanced too far.



And Vanessa finishes him off.



The rest advance through the woods and wait for the enemy assault.



Colm and some knight have a pointless showdown. I’m going to get Colm killed eventually.



This is my favorite kind of enemy attack; the kind where the enemy misses and my guy doesn’t quite kill his opponent, leaving the valuable exp. for whoever I choose to get it.

Colm fends off two more attacks and takes only minimal damage.



Axe-man here takes a poorly aimed swipe at Vanessa, who counters with her patented weak lance jabs.



A mercenary appears out of the mist and is nearly killed by Franz.

My turn now.



Ross takes down a soldier, but does not quite get a level.



Lute takes out the other one, and nets a somewhat lackluster level.

Neimi and Artur both take out a weakened enemy. No levels, though. I’m cutting through the enemy lines like a hot knife through butter.



Eirika continues to rain destruction down on the battlefield, and gets a level up.



Hahahahaha, my Eirika is great. And now she has an iron blade.



The boy in the village tells us the giant poisonous spiders are poisonous and gives some little needed antitoxins. Poison is not a frequent problem, but hey, free stuff.

Joshua in not quite able to kill this mercenary, which is unusual, but Colm is right there to finish him off.



Natasha tops off Colm to end my turn. So far things are going really well.



A knight attacks Franz, who nearly counters him to death.



Just to spite me for trivializing poison, this fighter connects with Franz using a poison axe. Franz gets some pretty sweet revenge, though. Good thing I have those antitoxins.



I did not realize I put Franz in a position to get attacked so much. Were it anyone else in his position I would fear for their survival, but my Franz is pretty sweet. I do wish he weren’t hogging all that experience.

Just to change things up one of the Cavaliers attacks Eirika, and this stage nearly went disastrous. Luckily, her not having her rapier equipped means that he gets to survive and that no one else will be able to attack her.



And Franz fells another one.



And another one. With this is a perfectly fine level up, Franz is starting to get quite a bit ahead of most of the rest of my team, which means he’ll be taking a backseat for a while. At least I have a safety valve that doesn’t eat the experience like a promoted unit.




Some ranged attackers I can’t counter do their thing and that ends the enemies turn.



First things first, I must make sure Eirika doesn’t die. I’m still stupidly using the mend staff, but it’s not a big deal.

Artur and this shaman engage in a magical pissing match that Artur is the victor in.



And Neimi cleans it up



Lute gets in on the action, taking care or Eirika’s weakened cavalier.



Franz finishes a knight and Colm takes a bite out of crime, this archer.



Ross kills a soldier and gets a level up. He’s looking pretty good so far. Only three more levels for Ross before he becomes a Pirate, if I tallied the votes correctly. And even if I didn’t it’s too late to change now.

Eirika downs the archer. I do some not pictured moving and end my turn.



Joshua murderizes a dude and gets a typical myrmidon level up. And that’s the enemy’s turn.



That’s not a bad first level up for Natasha, not that is matters because I need a healer so I will be using her. Screw Moulder.



Colm does his thing by attacking a defenseless woman, getting stellar level up and his weapon level increased. I hope I get some more good levels for Colm, I really do not want him to be totally useless. Good thing Neimi is near enough to come over and finish this troubadour off.




Damn it. Luckily Artur is near enough to come over and finish this troubadour off.

He kills the troubadour, but gets this unfortunate level up. I’m going to blame it on Neimi.



Another turn of killing defenseless opponents and getting a poor level up. Maybe the game is trying to tell me something.

Enemy turn



A short turn for the enemy, with a miss at Joshua and a hit on Colm.



I start with ranged attackers first, with Lute killing a knight and Neimi hurting a mage.



Natasha keeps Colm from becoming a casualty.

Artur takes out that pesky mage.



The line advances and the turn ends.



The alluded to earlier giant spiders are now in view of the unfortunate hostage family. Can I save them?



Colm is targeted but dodges, as he should most of the time.

My turn again.



I think Neimi knew that killing that troubadour would get her the bad level up that Artur got and deliberately missed. If so, I approve.



Vanessa tries her luck with the spider, but has terrible aim. I could try to stick around and kill this thing, but it is dangerous and I’m going to play it safe by beating the boss and ending the stage.

Ross, the eager little guy, gets the first shot the sociopath Novala. He does some damage.



Colm takes a swipe.



Artur takes his turn.




Franz gets the last shot, despite my earlier comments about him taking a back seat. But looky here, another good level up for Franz.

Time for post-battle blather.



Mother:
Thank you. You saved us both. If you would like, please take this... And thank you again.



You only get this if you save the family, so beating the spider, or beating the boss before the spider gets there is pretty important. This is the only Orion’s Bolt in the game, so if you intend to use Neimi this is not optional. It’s not hard to get, though.



I feel it imperative that I tell you everything, Princess Eirika. Are you ready to hear the secret of the bracelet you wear?

Eirika:
I am...

Seth:
As you know, Princess... Renais houses one of the legendary Sacred Stones.

Eirika:
Of course. It's in the temple. It's supposed to be a ward against evil.

Seth:
Yes, the true stone is. But the stone in the temple is nothing but a forgery. The real Sacred Stone of Renais lies beneath the royal castle. Guarding it is a powerful seal, an infinitely complex lock of sorts.

Eirika:
What? Is this true?

Seth:
Yes. King Fado confided in me himself. The Sacred Stoned banished evil long ago and possess power beyond our ken. The ancient kings of Renais felt it prudent to seal ours away. They feared its power could be misused. They thought to remove the temptation.




How could Father keep this a secret from me for so long?

Seth:
“They must know nothing of the bracelets. Tell them only if some great peril strikes.?These were King Fado's exact orders. Prince Ephraim knows nothing of the bracelets?secret, either. The king told me this out of fear that something might happen to him. So that, when the time came, the two of you would learn the truth.

Eirika:
The bracelets have such meaning...

Seth:
Yes. And we are the only living souls who know the secret of the Stone of Renais. At least, that's what I was given to believe. And yet...

Eirika:
Yet the Grado army has made it clear that they want me only for my bracelet.

Seth:
Yes, quite clear at that... I don't know how, but Emperor Vigarde must have learned the secret somehow. And now, his troops pursue the bracelet, and we are no closer to knowing his motives.

Eirika:
He would use the bracelets to unlock the Sacred Stone and destroy it in secret...

Seth:
Perhaps.

Eirika:
Which means that my brother... and his bracelet...

Seth:
If he's been captured, they may have the bracelet already, and he may be--

Eirika:
Ephraim...

Seth:
Princess, we must take Novala's words to be true. We must hurry to Prince Ephraim. The enemy soldiers who fled the battle will have reported our location by now. If the prince is being held prisoner at Renvall...




So the bracelet’s are the key to getting the stone? I’m shocked. Good thing they kept their importance a secret so the bad guys don’t know… Oops. Well at least now that Eirika knows the bracelet’s importance she’ll take better care of it.

Look out, there's a ghost following you! Yes, I know it's the healer.

Did you mean to say that you can never not let your opponents see your pieces?

Because seriously, I don't think chess players are allowed to hide their pieces.

Though it brings to mind a hilarious image.

Obviously you've never read Zapp Brannigan's Big Book of War.

I haven't, but I doubt it tells chess players to pretend their chess pieces are ninja.

There's a variant of chess - Kriegspiel - which does indeed use fog of war (it's normally played with three boards, one for each player and one for a referee). It's actually a really interesting game. (Much of it consists of trying to make moves you think are probably illegal to gain information; this sort of thing is actually encouraged in Kriegspiel, rather than looked down upon.)

That sounds awesome and really complicated at the same time.

Now if you can find a way to blend that with chess boxing...

It absolutely does. And that was supposed to be in quotation marks, but I was in a hurry. That's also why that one picture came out wrong. "If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes should fall like a house of cards. Checkmate."

The delay has ended. I should be able to manage weekly posts for a while, so on with it.

It's time for Chapter 7





Not much more story to this battle than that.

Eirika:
My brother is somewhere inside that castle...

Seth:
Renvall is surrounded by lakes. The only entrance is the bridge to the main gate, and it's well guarded. Castle Renvall is a natural stronghold, easy to defend and difficult to assault. We must plan our attack carefully.

Eirika:
I agree...

Now it’s time for all of the people that have joined her on this quest to give Eirika some sort of heartening comment about their willingness to fight now that we’ve reached the end of the journey.



First up is the boring brigade, who are just as boring as expected.



Keep fighting for your father’s approval, Ross. You’ll get it one day.



Now this is more like it. Colm’s blade is actually something of a joke, which will be laughed at later. And Lute’s absurd confidence is actually backed up by her skill. At least Neimi’s not crying. Yet.

That was not very inspiring, was it. I hope it does not bode ill for this battle.



Well, that was pointless, let’s see the map.



Not too bad. Those ballistae might have been trouble if I were using Vanessa, but she’s turning out kind of crappy so it’s easier to just leave her behind. I needed room for Gilliam anyway. Other than that it’s the usual crew: Lute, Franz, Colm, Neimi, Joshua and Ross. I’m going to send Neimi and Joshua north to secure the ballista, then let Neimi do what damage she can from there. Instead of an actual strategy, I’m going to send everyone else east in a mob and steamroll over the enemies. Hopefully I’ll not lean on Gilliam and Franz so much, but we’ll see.



Joshua and Neimi go north, as I said, while everyone else tries to cross the bridge. Ross can take out this soldier, so why not?



As was mathematically guaranteed, Ross kills the soldier. The experience which he receives bestows upon him a level up of middling quality. Meanwhile, everybody else crams their way across the bridge.



Holy shit!! It’s Murray’s brigade. Had I known that we would have just went home and left Ephraim to rot. Murray is a military genius, a rising star in the Grado army. His inability to detect us until we started killing his men is not the sort of tactical error one expects from the Murray of Murray’s Brigade. This mission just got a whole lot harder. They’re an ambitious young squad with nothing to lose.

Do not let this sequence of a child easily felling one of the elite soldiers of Murray’s Brigade fool you, nothing can stand against his might. So far I’ve been very lucky.



Neimi takes a shot at the fighter up here, and Joshua finishes him off, though not before receiving the first deadly blow dealt by Murray’s Brigade this battle.



As per the strategy I outlined, the bulk of my forces move forward in a disorganized mob.



The fear along the lines is palpable as Murray’s brigade begins it’s second turn.



This is how Murray’s Brigade deals with children who misbehave. Oh, hey look:



This has been quite a battle for Ross, two levels and a weapon level already. Ross here continues to shape up nicely. I’m going to try to get him to level 10 before the end of the battle so he can class change before the next one. I believe we settled on Pirate for Ross.

To finish up the enemy turn, that mage takes a shot at Joshua, knocking his HP down quite far, leaving Joshua perilously close to death. Such is the wrath of Murray’s Brigade.



I have Joshua use his Iron Sword so that he does not kill the mage and Neimi can finish him off. I am taking a risk here, but I’ll trust my luck that he won’t hit my twice with a 30% chance.



I was getting a bit scared with that first miss, but Neimi is able to connect with her second shot. The mage dropped a Pure Water. Yay?



Lute starts off things for my mob. She can’t quite kill the Mage, but he’s now easy picking for whoever I want to finish him off. Also:



Lute is turning out quite nicely, not that it is a big surprise.



Ross finishes off the fighter. Unfortunately he didn’t get that last trainee level.