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Chapter 14: Thievery Blues
Yes, the right side is blurry. No, I don't care.
This is going to be a short one, because there's nothing really new or interesting about Eirika's Chapter 14. It's really just an excuse to give you Rennac and serve as a prelude to the far more interesting Chapter 15.
To the right (and Rennac), we're sending Gerik, Tana, Neimi, and L'Arachel. Ninian actually gets some face time this chapter, primarily because it lets me recruit Rennac on the same time I reveal him.
Going up the center, we have Ewan, Amelia, Eirika, and Josh. I intended to max out Amelia this chapter, but she falls just short at the end.
Finally, heading up the left assault is Cormag, Forde, and Marisa, all of whom are fantastic picks to attack the room full of mages. 
Anyway, Caellach and Lyon do their thing, and Carlyle hops up on the throne like a proper boss.
Well, that's another 35 Grand for the pile. 
These shamans are particularly obnoxious, because Flux will do ~35 damage a shot to Cormag. Guy's a fantastic unit, but has fuck-all in the way of resistance.
Here we get to demonstrate the "That exists?" Unlock Staff. They were going for something similar to the Torch Staff, but made a wrong turn along the way and said "Yes, a 1-2 range Door Key is definitely a niche worth filling."
And Ninian quickly refreshes L'Arachel so she can do the other thing I brought her for.
Unfortunately, Gerik fell one point shy of knocking out this knight, and L'Arachel can't take a shot from both fighters. Rennac gets to run away and open the next door for me this turn.
Oh yeah, and this guy has a Swordreaver. That's a fun little surprise.
Rennac pops open the first treasure room, but that's as far he's going.
And speaking of the man himself, he's still not very impressive. Rogues share the Assassin's stat caps so he's never really going to make much of himself either way. He's not very tough, strong, or even all that fast, really. But he's still better than Colm and I can't promote Lyn/Guy into an assassin, so he'll have to do.
I guess I could have paid him with my dirty key money, but why bother when I can drag him along for free?
Marisa somehow manages to get hit by every single mage in the room, but she at least takes out a pair of shamans while she's at it.
Right, these fuckers. Aside from a single Steel Bow archer, every single one of these guys (and all of the reinforcements) have longbows. Ewan can reliably nuke them, but Amelia is the one looking for experience, and while she can double them, it takes three hits to put them down. Suffice to say that Ewan will be getting a lot of mileage out of his Mend Staff before this chapter is all said and done.
Were we not in the hack, I'd be quite thankful for those knights, because they have the door key that lets the south group move forward. Instead, we have infinite use door keys, so it's just more massaging of our treasury.
Also, I'm an idiot and have Forde attack the only one of the three mages he can't double.
I inadvertently dodged a bullet with this one, because last turn I had Tana equip an Axereaver. Killing Edge guy missed, on what was a 91% hit chance with 13 Mt.
Fortunately, he drops our second Hero Crest, so we can have some fun with Lyn and Guy. 
L'Arachel caps resistance by healing up Neimi. As grating as she is, she gets the job done when it comes to making numbers go up.
The rest of the treasure isn't really that important. A Spear, Dragonspear, Hammerne, Energy Ring, and 10,000 Gold round out the goodies this chapter, and we only really care about the Hammerne and Energy Ring.
Berserk asshole. In theory, we could steal if we can get him to heal someone before we put a lance through his face, but that's dumb and not at all worth the effort.
His shaman buddy has Luna, but it's basically useless after the huge nerf FE8 gave it.
A set of cavaliers comes in from behind, so Amelia moves back to hold the line. Ewan will be sticking around for healing duties.
Well, you had one shot and you blew it. Way to go, kid.
Ignoring Carlyle for obvious reasons, this sniper is probably the most dangerous guy on the field. He's packing a Silver Bow, so we have to tread a little carefully.
And just for posterity's sake, this room connects back with the other group. All three mooks are stuck with Iron weapons, so none of them are even remotely a threat.
And our Berserk friend gets a sword to the face. There's really nothing left that can go wrong at this point.
Naturally, Tana decides that she doesn't really have to hit that archer twice. Fortunately, we have the magic of AI manipulation on our side, and he's going to attack L'Arachel instead because Tana has her Javelin equipped.
Yes, yes, you're funny.
Gerik hops on the pillar to bait out the sniper. Once we've taken care of him, the chapter's basically in the bag.
A pair of shamans spawn in for two turns off to the left, but with Forde in the area, they're pretty hopeless.
Making progress, so, so slowly.
And Gerik knocks out the Sniper. From here, it's just cleanup.
What is it about being promoted that causes units' growths to drop by like 20% across the board? 
Hey, that's actually a good one, keep it up.
Carlyle was much less painful than I was expecting him to be. His Wind Sword is obnxious for having effective damage against flyers and striking at range, and 87 Avoid is a pretty tall order, but I was expecting it be much worse if the rangers were anything to go by.
+4 HP, +4 Str, +5 Skill, +5 Speed, +5 Def, +4 Res
Just a quick demonstration of how Carlyle stacks up. We're going to have to get a little creative on this one.
It's funny, until I was trying to figure out how to get Rennac without letting him run anywhere, I completely forgot that I even had a dancer. I did the same thing in Awakening, where I had so many good units that it was easier to just bring another murderchild than devote a slot to Olivia.
So let's take our dirty key money and go shopping. Anna stocks the ______ Blades, Killer weapons, Battle Axes, Lockpicks, Promotion items, Barrier, and Physic staves.
Because of Lockpicks and promotion items getting buffed in uses, they cost a lot more to buy (hilariously so when it comes to Lockpicks). However, we're only here for the Physic Staves and a few Killing Edges.
I like Valkyries. Do you like Valkyries?
Right around this time, I remember that supports are a thing. After getting everyone a C or two, Marisa is ready to go head to head with Carlyle.
...Well then.
What a way to finish up.
Next time:
The desert beckons.
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Level 1 Rogue
Swords - B, Affinity - Dark
Equipment - Steel Sword, Vulnerary, Member's Card
HP: 28 (+4) (65%)
Strength: 10 (+4) (25%)
Skill: 16 (+4) (45%)
Speed: 17 (+4) (65%)
Luck: 5 (25%)
Defense: 9 (+2) (25%)
Resistance: 11 (+5) (30%)
Con: 7
Rennac is a very...problematic unit. He's really not much better than Colm is right now and his growths are pretty shit, but we don't have any other options for general thievery. Myrmidons can't promote to Assassins, and Colm has been...well, Colm. Still, a blunt sword is still better than fighting empty-handed, so I guess he'll have to do.