Now, after a far longer wait than I’d have liked, I can continue with Genealogy of the Holy War.
After taking Yied, Bramsel tells Jabarro to open the border, so that they could usher us into the narrow road to Melgen, and ambush us as we pass. Jabarro seems less than fond of that plan, stating that Bramsel never likes to face the enemy up front, but he won't complain, since he's on the merchant's employ.
In Melgen, Ishtor asks Liza what she thinks of the rebel army's capture of Yied. She believes we aim to assist Lenster, and notes that they can't let us reach Alster, since Blume is so preoccupied with Leaf's group, he would never see us coming. She suggests leading a large force to intercept us and bring us down, which Ishtor agrees with, and has her lead their troops.
Alright then, that is a large force, and it's a healthy mix of mages and armors, meaning mixed defending and ranged attack. This is gonna be tricky. Serlis rejoins the party, and they all slowly make their way south towards Melgen, though I'm worried about Bramsel's little plot against us. I'm hoping that will only happen after I take Melgen, but knowing my luck I'll be caught between him and Liza's forces.
After the party moves, Bramsel compliments Leen on a dance, and offers her something, but she refuses, prompting him to command his guards to bring her to him. Eltshan Jr. demands that Bramsel release her, which angers the merchant. He orders his men to kill him, but Elty Jr. reveals that he has the Mistoltin, and warns those who might come forth to fight him that his blade craves blood. Bramsel is surprised by this, and refers to him as Aless, the Black Knight, which Aless confirms. The terrified merchant agrees to let her go, and after checking to see if she's alright, the two of them leave while Bramsel swears vengeance.
The party treks through the desert, down towards Melgen, and eventually reach solid land, quickening their pace significantly. The entire stretch from the desert all the way down to Melgen is composed of mostly road, so evasion will likely be an issue. I decide to test the waters, sending down Oifaye to see if he won't trigger some sort of event to get either Darna or Melgen moving.
He doesn't spark any dialogue, but when I put him in range of Ishtore's bolting spell (also, yeow that stings. Reaching him is gonna be difficult), and he got the Melgen troops moving, so I have him run back to the main group, ready to get healed and then assist them in fending off the enemies. Serlis, Lakche, Johalva, and Scathach form a line, with Arthur, Julia, Lana, and Lester waiting behind them. Shanan, Oifaye, and Delmud are ready to swap out for a wounded fighter, while Fee will hit and run, leaving Patty to sit and wait for it to finish, where she will help finish off the weakened foes. Oifaye must first coax them up however, but takes down a couple mages in the process, while Julia heals him. Melgen's force reaches the party, and the initial clash leaves both Lakche and Scathach wounded. Now the issue is dealing with them without anyone dying. The party holds formation, the horsemen and Fee doing hit and run while the healers fix up Lakche and Scathach.
Dammit, Liza was able to exactly kill Johalva. Reset Counter: 16, I think.
I replace Johalva with Shanan (equipped with the Balmung) in the line, and then hope that this will be enough to stave off the foes. Through some miracle, no one dies the second time through (fuckin' Liza, with her good magic and everyone having crap resilience, nearly killed Serlis this time, but he dodged since he had his slim sword equipped), and I have Lana and Julia heal the wounded, while the rest of the party cleans house, ignoring the group of enemies who've climbed up the path to Darna. Once the first group is dealt with, Oifaye lures out those who split away, and the party crushes them as well.
Once these guys are done, the party moves on towards Melgen, though mindful of the ballistas and Ishtore's magic. After moving everyone just outside of the range of the ballisticians, I look them over, and see that they only have 18 might total. Thus, Oifaye can take them on without fear, but would have to worry about Ishtore's bolts of doom raining on him, and if he triggers adept... I decide to roll with it, since it seems like there isn't any alternative, and it goes swimmingly, Oifaye dispatching the ballistae without getting zapped to death by Ishtore, though he was left pretty badly burned. I then look over the options for dealing with Ishtore himself, and those seem to be either Shanan yet again banking on Balmungs avoid boost to get close and take out the target (not something I want to do if I can help it, since Shanan doesn't need to eat up all the experience), or have Arthur and Julia charge in and use their resistance and Julia's healing abilities (Nosferatu for herself and Mend for Arthur) to survive his attack.
The second plan is put into action, and Julia picks off the guards while Arthur tries to fight Ishtore, but they at first lock in a stalemate, and are unable to hit each other. After all of the guards are defeated, Julia heals up Arthur, and he and Ishtore battle. Arthur comes out on top thanks to Wrath and Pursuit, but it was close, and he only won due to luck and Julia's healing. He then claims Ishtore's Thoron, either to use after promoting or to give to a mage with better experience in thunder magic.
Before taking Melgen, this respite is used to get some pending talks out of the way. First is Oifaye and Delmud, where after they discuss the fact that Nanna, Delmud's sister, is at Lenster, Oifaye gives Delmud some tips on combat, providing him with +1 to strength, skill, and defense. Next is Serlis and Shanan, where they talk about what happened recently, thank each other for their mutual assistance, and Serlis gets +1 to skill. Following that is Patty and Serlis, where Serlis is at first apprehensive about letting her join, but she convinces him, and she also gives him a Brave Sword. Finally, we have Lakche and Shanan, where she is elated at his return, and he gives her a battle tip, giving her +2 to strength. The only other talks are Delmud with Nanna, and Leaf with Serlis, so that will sadly have to wait.
Serlis then captures Melgen, and speaks a bit with Levin about the war. Levin tells him that, while Ishtore and his general likely weren't bad people as Serlis thinks, they were still supporting Alvis and his tyranny, and thus were enemies. Serlis understands this grudgingly, and Levin points out that they still need to save Leaf and his group at Lenster.
We will stop here for now, and hopefully pick up sometime soon.
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