Fire Emblem: The Random Stones

[Simon]

Chapter 1: Get On With the Real Game!





Where we last left off, Seth and Erika were en route to Border Mulan in order to make a man out of Erika escape into Frelia. Unfortunately, Grado is a step ahead of them.



Princess Tana, supposedly one of Erika's good friends, came to the fort to ensure Erika got into Frelia safely. Alas, she's not a soldier.

Her guards insist to retreat, but like Erika, she's more insistent on staying.

Dumb princesses. :getout:

Meanwhile, outside:


Breguet's a lot of things, but he is not a patient man. Considering what you're about to see, he is neither patient nor a man.


...Yeah, you saw what I read.


By the way, that battle is 100% not in her favor. Even with a crit, she would only be dealing 2 or 3, but the magical powers of cutscene land allow her to kill this stalwart mercenary easily.


...Geez, this guy (girl) is really confused.

So anyway, he captures the princess who just happens to be in this fort like a stubborn mule, and now we have to do something about that.


Back outside again, Seth sees the incoming army and suggest they use their combined powers of flight to skip past Border Mulan altogether.

But like any good princess so far, Erika is very certain that they should stay and deal with these soldiers (especially considering Tana is in that castle :frog: )


And so the battle begins.


First turn, standard routine of "Seth weakens, Erika kills." I make sure to keep her behind Seth so the soldiers won't be able to go for her.



The enemies encroach on us a little bit, and then we get some backup of our own! Franz the archer finally shows up again with Gilliam... another archer.

He says that he'll take point, since he has thicker armor. Before that, though, let's see what we've got:


In the base game, Franz was our first Cavalier- a basic mounted unit with the potential to promote into one of two better ones. Alas, he's an Archer now, which isn't quite as versatile considering we have a unit with Evil Eye.


But holy now, look at that equipment! The Poison Bow poisons enemies on hit (obviously), while the Short Bow has an increased crit chance.


Now we have Gilliam, formerly a Knight - a heavy armored unit who is basically meant to be a tank. Now, he's also an archer. Because he starts at a higher level, his starting stat spread is better than Franz, at least - and to his credit, he does actually have better armor, like he said!


And also a poison bow. Because if it was worth giving once, it's worth giving again.



Anyways, time for progress. Second turn, we gang up the archers on the Soldier, with Franz getting the kill for some EXP.


Then we do the same routine once again with Seth and Eirika.



And she gets another level out of it, yay!

...Still could be better. I could REALLY use some Luck or Defense there, game. :frog:

For the Enemy Phase, I make sure to keep Gilliam in front of Franz so he can take a blow, like Seth and Erika. And he does, spectacularly.

I mean, just look at where that lance is sticking! Good think he's totally got heavy armor on, totally, because he would probably be dead from getting stabbed in the heart!

...Right, anyway. Moving on.

It's our third turn, and time to end some fools. Our archers are fast enough to get two attacks, as show below, so Gilliam double-taps this guy, no problem.


Now we'll have Franz go in for the kill-


...ahem, I said we'll have Franz go in for the KILL-


:frog: ... Fine, then. You can just die a poisonous death, nerd.

We leave Seth and Erika to do more murder on the fighter here.


And then the bravest Soldier ever dies due to poison. RIP in pepperoni


Oh, enemy reinforcements also appear, to make sure we don't get away.

iren: Spoiler Alert iren:
[spoiler]We get away.[/spoiler]

Enough of that, time for the boss! Franz softens up this goon here, while everyone else moves in to take on Breguet. We're aiming to capture the fort back same turn, folks!



Well, you're not wrong...


but you're not exactly better off, you know? Especially with Seth putting you down to 2 HP-


...I said, you're not exactly BETTER O- fuck it, Seth, just take her out.


And we're done. :frogc00l: Missed out on sweet boss EXP for the units that could use it, but small losses.

FUN FACT: That sword you saw Breguet using, Shadowkiller? That's an unused weapon in FE8's data. Like bows against winged units, it would've been a special weapon that did extra damage to monster units... like the one Erika is right now. Good thing I didn't get her next to the guy, ha!


We meet with Tana, who is quite surprised to see us- either that, or she's making sure the giant eyeball she's seeing is a princess and not a regular giant eyeball.


Wards are exchanged, and we move on to plot development.


King Hayden is pleased to see Erika is alive, considering the twist he drops right here.


However, there's not simply bad news- Ephraim is still discovered to be alive, marching into the heart of Grado with his own small entourage of knights.


Overcome with relief and determination (or just more stubbornness), Erika wants to do the same thing to meet him.


Hayden disagrees. And I don't blame him, considering we have more squishy units than solid ones. :crossedarms:


Eirkia's stubbornness wins out, however. Or she just glared really hard at him.
He provides us a couple of trustworthy units, instead of any sort of military team (justified, considering all their resources are being spent repelling Grado).



And with that, we set off again, cutting through the remnants of Renais to forge into Grado!



Next time, we begin Chapter 2: Axes and Archers, where we meet the Great Garcia and Ross the Boss!