It's been pointed out I never mentioned the Chaos Gate in Organa. There's a reason for it: It leads back to Muspelm. We did Muspelm, so the gate is pointless.
Eitherway, with two of the three legendary knights, and Aisha a mighty princess, our army is bolstered like never before. Our next map is our biggest yet, 33% bigger than the Slums of Zenobia and boasts and impressive 21 towns. Most of it is easy, though it ends with a gauntlet of small towns trough narrow corridors. Without further delay:
Scene 14: The Prince
The City of Malano
◊ is essentially a two stage map: The area outside the walls, huge by any standard, then the three layers of walls and the towns herein, which form something of a gauntlet if you do not use the Zenobian Uber Termite to drop the walls.
Our first goal should be to move as many units as we can to the Roshian temple north of Malano, right by the northern entrance. The walls force most enemies to leave from there, especially if we have not freed any towns to the east of Malano. Said towns will be our second objective, letting us form a two pronged attack. I personally prefer leaving the walls up as they force the non-flying units to leave by predictable paths.
Uhjine is freed first, but I do not draw a Tarot - My deck is full, and I need as much reputation as I can.
From Labenna:
From Lobeeg:
Slust makes it first to the temple I pointed out as our gathering point. Pity the units who try to leave and get a faceful of Slust the Red.
Padova is freed by Ashe as Slust meets his first enemy, An Evil One with two Cockatrice. This ends badly for them. [[quoteblock]]Everyone is here for the wedding ceremony in Malano. But just between you and me, I heard the Baron's wife has ran off! I heard he sent out many bounty hunters to look for her!
Slust meets what has to be the most annoying enemy to date: An Evil One, leading two witches and two wildmen. The 4 stuns are pretty much garanteed to eventually put the entire party out of action. The evil one is in the back though, so that's a waste, he uses mere fireballs then it's awesome melee attacks. So even everyone wailing on Slust does not manage to top the damage he did before being stunned.
Felala is freed.
Ajij adds some
The hidden town of Sanbelnar. There we meet Toad, from the Pogrom forest again. He thanks us for our courier work there with a Statue of Sodoh. As he explains, this is a statue of the demon Diablo. It is forbidden by the temple, but a mage would pay a fortune for it, which we can always use. However we will need to avoid visiting the temples, or they will confiscate the statue. The item is not worth _that_ much, so I don't really care if I do lose it. Meanwhile, there's more units to be fought. Mostly low alignments, none of them are much trouble, except for the dual witch one which is just an annoyance. By this point Slust has been joined by three low Ali units, including Warren's band of sorcerors.
Monfalkone is freed and I draw a IV Emperor to replace a World card I used on the witches.
Mons Nirra warns us that the Baron uses black magic, and thus will decimate Angels and clerics. Bolon Ya (Bolonia?) recaps us on Rauny's tale. Yes, I know about Rauny, I recruited her.
In the town of Sharmony, a monk offers me a jar of Zenobian Super Termites. I will save them, no use in getting rid of the walls when they hinder the enemy more than they hinder me. We also find a spiked shield, +6 physical resistance. Sadly the witch unit manages to win against one of my squad, repelling them on a temple, making me loose the statue. What dumb luck. In Mon Bizoh, we meet a monk.
I free the temple NE of Malano, finding a royal crown (not the cool, princess-making kind). Physical resist +7, White +13. We freed the town pf Bel Chelry, there we meet the Valet of Prince Tristan.
Eventually Ashe beats his way past the Evil One-led units. There, Rauny and Apros meet for the last time. Apros' class is "Dandy". Essentially, he uses three black magic attacks chosen at random. These can be simply nightmare or the more powerful phantom or even the Devil's deadly Meteor attack. Which means he's easy, or really tough. This means a world card is recommended. Since I have only one, I used an emperor card to finish him off. He has two demons tanking for him. Nothing Paladin Ashe wielding Brunhild can't handle.
Our biggest payout yet!
I return to the map, time to go get the hidden treasures I missed. First is another Ice Charm and Samurai armor. Followed by a Musashi Blade, Fire elemental, str +12. Then another Pristine Sword, white element, Str +8, Int +10, then a Magic Ring, Int +16 Str -12. Needless to say that ring goes to Warren. Next is another Dragon's claw, a broken blade str +4, black element and a white garb, white resist +4, physical +3.
Returning to Malano castle, I find the "Book of the Dead" which you may remember we were asked for back in Sharom. Trading this in gets us an Undead Ring, which lets me transform Warren into a mighty Lich! Revisiting the monk with the dead daughter gets us a "Promote", an item that automatically levels up a unit. It seems his son was mistaken as a dissident by the empire, and he now wants us to destroy them. Refusing would cause a HUGE hit to our reputation.
Back at the world map, I assign Tristan to Lans' unit. Since Lans served his father, only natural he'd serve the son too. I keep Lans as unit leader for now, because his charisma and alignments are maxed. I also give Tristan the mighty Sigmund sword. I have 4 knights up for promotion to paladins (5 after I use the promote item on one of them).
Nezt time: Return of the Dark Prince.
