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Welcome back. Today, we hopefully get a thief.
...she says, wielding a lance.
Meanwhile, Bazba is now a monk. In fact, so are several of the other bandits, so Moulder's in for a fun time.
What the fuck happened to Neimi?! Somehow, between me going into the chapter last time to see what it would be like and me restarting the game and actually playing it, she lost points in all her stats. Oh, that 7 strength looked so good...
She definitely has the growths to compensate for her lost bases, though. Other than the Def- you know what, I'm just going to stop pointing out that everyone is made of glass until I get someone who isn't.
Anyway, skills. She has Critical Force, which makes her base chance to crit equal to (skill * 1.5), which, uh, really does wonders when she has 0 skill. She also has Shove and Reposition, a command that lets her move an adjacent unit to the space behind her.
Vanessa gets us started, and Ross then gives her a second wind to start poking a hole in the wall.
Maybe if I put them together, their ugly palettes will cancel out into something nice.
Aw, man. I was hoping this guy would go for Moulder instead.
And he's... not a thief. Maybe Colm is secretly a werewolf...
That's a lot of Skill. 
Garcia seems to have started a trend of units with personal skills that are totally wasted on them - Colm gets Staff Savant, which increases the range of staffs he uses by 1.
Anyway, Neimi goes to recruit her werewolf childhood friend. Let's see those growths!
More defense than strength? It's like I'm playing a brand-new seed! And it's a damn good thing he has so much Skill, because he probably isn't getting much more.
And here's the weapon he's stuck with. It could be worse, but this is a little weaker than the original Fiery Fang.
In checking to see if any of the enemies happened to have keys on them (they don't), I found that Aura's been nerfed to hell. Good thing, too - this would be really nasty to run into without randomized stats.
Vanessa dispatches a fighter with a well-timed crit. Hawkeye is really doing wonders for her accuracy.
Huh, Garcia's actually turning out pretty alright so far. He's doubling enemies pretty consistently... hopefully he's able to keep that up.
Colm's color scheme on the Mauthe Doog makes him look like some kind of zombie dog.
versus
Then Ross dances for him and he does it again.
I guess I shouldn't have been worried about Moulder after all. It's not like he's really in danger... for now 
Oh hey, someone's getting defense!
Gilliam heals him up, and it's at this point where I realize the game might be mocking me.
Ross gets Neimi onto the front lines (what's left of them, anyway) to reveal probably the nicest color palette the randomizer's come up with so far.
...and getting her onto the front lines turns out to be a really bad idea!
But then Vanessa gives her the slim lance and softens him up, and suddenly things are looking a lot less scary.
Maybe her baiting out this Knight will go better...? Can't make use of her growths if she doesn't see any fighting.
That's about the best I could have expected.
After going another round with him, I realize I've just put Gilliam into another position where he can die instantly. I really need to stop doing that...
Operation "use Seth as bait", go!
It works. He manages to hit Seth, but it's not enough to drain his Herculean HP pool.
No skill, but I'll take it!
Bazba actually poses a threat to Moulder, on account of having a tome that isn't dogshit.
Hawkeye is also paying off by being able to totally ignore his Avoid boost, though. 
Gilliam heals her up after they go two rounds, and Ross gets another fantastic level from refreshing him.
Will I get lucky...?
Nope. He manages to dodge the counterattack, at least.
My luck is even worse as the fight goes on, as Bazba hits him on both the enemy phase and the player phase, and doges both of Colm's attacks.
And then I thought to myself "why the fuck am I trying to feed a level to Colm?" and just let Vanessa finish the job.
Flashy Mode even works when you aren't supposed to be able to crit
Gilliam heals everyone up and immediately makes up for his previous level. He'll make a fine Mage Knight... maybe.
You, uh, you really couldn't have.
That's also debatable. Neimi can stay, though.
Meanwhile, Glen, Duessel, and Selena have all been randomized into monsters, while Vigarde has become a sniper. Will this actually be the case when we encounter them? Who knows. Lyon's class always remains the same, though - no matter what, he'll always be a Necromancer.
And Valter definitely isn't a General anymore, so no more of that sweet black-and-hot-pink armor. 
Oh well, we won't be running into any of these guys for a long time, anyway.
NEXT TIME:
We get ripped off.