Still, doesn't matter too much, since I'm going to get The Bow of Winds
◊ one way or another!
Roy hears of the ruins which hold the divine weapon of Sacae, and must contend with the remaining forces of the Djute clan (the leader of whom is Monke's twin brother apparently. Seriously? That sprite was used, like, 4 chapters ago, what gives?) in order to retrieve it.
I equip the party, and then take a quick look at the map. I notice that not only is the boss a Monke recolor, he's six. Yes, this guy can apparently clone himself, and gave himself different names for each form to hide which is the true one. Three of him are druids, each with one of the three status staves, and three are nomad troopers, and are likely irrelevant until I go to kill them. The normal mooks aren't anything to write home about, but with three status staves and a decent amount of magic for each of them, those druids are going to be a pain in the ass. I give Geese a talisman, Ellen a dragonshield, and Sue a longbow, and deal with the second problem of this chapter; the fact that my units are split up into three of the corners. Roy starts off in the top right corner, and I have Sue, Lance, and Miledy there to back him up, while Dieck, Rutger, and Clarine hang out in the bottom right, and Geese, Percival, Ellen, and Lugh start off in the top left. Thankfully, the druids shouldn't move, so if I'm mindful of their ranges, I can deal with them when I'm ready. The berserk is what scares me most, because if they berserk Sue, Miledy, or Lance, what with Roy being nearby... We'll burn that bridge when we come to it, I guess.
Also, Map placement, for those who haven't played this; Top leftmost tent has Kudoka, a nomad trooper. Tent nearest that one, off to the right a bit, is Marral, a druid with Sleep. Bottom left tent is Kabul, a nomad trooper, and the tent to the right of that one is Chan, a druid with Silence. Tent at the top right is Thoril, a nomad trooper, and last, but most certainly not least is Brakul, a druid with Berserk, and the least inviting person of the lot. There are plenty of nomads as expected, as well as a few myrmidons, some dark mages, and some wyvern riders. Standard Bern/Sacae unit spread, nothing too scary.
A soldier warns... whatever his name is that we're here, and he says that they shall stop us at all costs. Roy meanwhile asks Sue if she is familiar with this place, and she says she isn't but that the bow of winds, the Murgleis, was wielded by Hanon, and rests here. Let's get this started!
I have Roy's group veer away from their druid/nomad pair, heading instead towards where Lugh's group is, since their group lacks a way to heal status'd people. Dieck's group crosses the bridge nearest them, preparing to hunt down the druid with silence before he can throw a wrench into the restoration plan. I have Ellen prepare to test her newfound power on the group of enemies in the northernmost stretch of land, with Lugh supporting her after she uses the Dragonshield (I note that she has 4 defense afterwards, and she got 2 from promoting. Yeah...) Geese uses his talisman, and Percival keeps close to Ellen and Lugh to make sure they don't get thrashed. Ellen takes out the foes without any issue, and Clarine deals with an uppity wyvern rider with little trouble. Berserk dude afflicts Rutger, but Clarine sets him straight while the other druids keep quiet. Roy's group continues to approach Lugh's, which is now heading south towards their nomad/druid pair, preparing to nip that problem in the bud before it becomes a serious issue. Sue waits a bit behind to take care of a pair of nomads coming from behind them. Percival finishes off the nomad trooper that Ellen couldn't take out, and Geese, Ellen, and Lugh take on incoming nomads.
Roy's group just keeps running towards Lugh's, who are fighting off some nomads. Well, to be more precise, most of Roy's group does that, while Miledy flies down and kills a nomad. Dieck is the one berserk'd this time, and Clarine does as the healer does, curing his ills. I accidentally misclick, and end the turn before Dieck and Rutger can kill someone. The berserk druid finishes his staff with a miss at Dieck, but the sleep druid knocks out Miledy, and she's out of the reach of help. Thankfully, her Delphi Shield makes the nomads attacks bounce off, but she's still an invalid for a couple turns until Ellen can get over there. Lugh immolates a nomad who's harassing the sleeping Miledy, who, although she is unconscious, has a perfectly awake wyvern that is now devouring nomads left and right (no it isn't). It does amuse me that her mount can dodge for her though. Dieck's group moves further up towards the other two groups, who have now joined together, and are planning to kill the two bosses near the top left area.
Ellen instead joins Lugh in blasting nomads, although she isn't nearly as good at it as him yet, as they try to reach Miledy. Marral wastes his last sleep staff use on Lugh, missing, while the nomads continue to shoot at Miledy to no avail. Ellen awakens the sleeping dragon rider in the meantime, and Lugh incinerates a nomad, Miledy taking down the final one that had attacked her. I throw Geese at Kudoka, who only has a Lancereaver for close range combat, so Geese will eventually get him. I notice that the druids and nomad troopers all share stats with the units of the same class (they aren't very threatening, so it's no real issue), so this will be very repetitive.
Soon, the last normal units are dealt with, and I challenge the bosses. I plan on feeding as many of the druids as I can to Ellen, since she needs experience. Ellen goes after Marral first, whose tome is Fenrir. Geese gets the eventual critical on Kudoka, and kills him flat out. Ellen eventually kills Marral, and she and Lugh head for the next druid, while I have Miledy go after Thoril, the nomad trooper whose melee weapon is a silver sword. Rutger meanwhile shows Kabul how a real Sacaen uses a Killing Edge (him being the nomad trooper with a killing edge), and rips him to shreds. Percival and Lance offer their services to Lugh and Ellen, carrying them to the next druid, the Nosferatu wielding Chan, who actually still has his silence staff. Miledy takes down Thoril pretty easily, and heads down to pick up Ellen, since she isn't having the best time with Chan and will prefer the better experience from Brakul (since she is less likely to miss him with 77's, grumble grumble...), another fenrir wielding druid. Instead, while Miledy ferries Lugh and Ellen over to Brakul, Clarine takes on Chan. He's taken down about when Miledy finishes, and Ellen goes to fight Brakul and finish the last of the bosses. With Brakul down, it's time to play...
Guess the Tent!
Roy enters the top left one, prompting enemies to appear, and whateverhisfaceis to appear from the grave and tells us that we fell for a trap. We kill the mooks, and Roy enters the tent nearest his previous try... Another trap. More people die pointlessly because the boss (y'know what? He's Moron now) decided to try to trick us with multiple tents rather than letting us have our bow in peace (we'd have taken it in peace too, and the fuck are these guys even fighting for? Bern is gone from these parts). Miledy ferries Roy over to the next set of tents, the ones in the south, with Dieck, Clarine, Rutger, Lance, and Percival by them. Roy enters a tent, it's a trap, and Moron rises from the dead to repeat the same thing he has twice before. Fourth tent, the one where Chan was, is also a dud. More senseless slaughter that could have been avoided, and yet another trip across the map, this time to where Lugh and Ellen wait. 5th Tent, the one where Brakul stayed, is this the one housing Moron's true identity? (god I hope so).
And there we go, Moron is actually a druid named Brakul. It explains his cloning abilities and his ability to talk from beyond the grave. Roy obtains the Murgleis hidden in the altar of the tent.
Murgleis: 16 mt, 80 hit, 0 crit, 9 wt, increases the wielders speed by 5.
So yeah, this chapter was nothing but annoying. Those traps weren't threatening, and even without the advance warning, I wouldn't have been daunted by the reinforcements, since they were all wimps. It literally existed to waste my time.
Congrats Brakul. You have come the closest to defeating me, since you and your traps very nearly bored me to death. Pah, can't wait for Bern...
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