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Welcome back. It's time for the one where I really resent the self-randomizer taking away all the keys that enemies normally drop.
Eirika flashes back to hanging out with Lyon and has a sad about them having to fight...
...while Carlyle the incel takes over.
Dozla being the only unit with any ability to unlock anything means that, short of me spending half my money on keys for everyone (though I do still buy a few door keys), this is a chapter that warrants fielding both dancers.
Oh, hey, Rennac. Let's see about getting you on our side, shall we?
Here's Dozla's palette, because I never had a chance to show it off.
What is this seed's aversion to giving me magic users that aren't on horses? Seriously, besides Moulder, Saleh and Gerik, all my magic users have been troubadours.
But that's the least of our worries. 
I mean, at least he dump-statted Resistance and Skill as opposed to Luck, but this is... bad.
Also bad is the fact that he has no Member Card, which means that unless I get it from a chest here, I can kiss the secret shop here goodbye. And for skills, Rennac has Natural Cover, making him take -3 damage on any terrain with some sort of effect, Paragon, which doubles the EXP he receives (which I'm sure would be lovely on someone who isn't already level 4 promoted), and Mirror Stance, giving him +4 Magic/Resistance when he's attacked. Not the worst set of skills, but I'm not sure how much this helps his viability.
Anyway, Tana gets things started. The Shadowkiller and Tana's high stats do a lot in making Baels less scary.
The archers in this corridor have been replaced with enemies who... don't all have ranged weaponry. The other two have javelins, but this guy is a sitting duck.
Critical Force is a really good skill when its user actually has, uh, Skill. Also, Neimi seems to gain experience faster than anyone else despite having the same, if not higher, level as most of my army.
Then these jabronis show up and Caellach makes off with Ismaire.
Dozla gets into his first fight, and it's... not pretty.
Neimi stabs a soldier for another 1.5% crit and a B rank in lances.
Oh hey, an enemy Bard! I was wondering when I'd run into one of these. These guys are functionally identical to dancers, they just don't show up in Sacred Stones normally.
Some Bad Levels happen during this turn, in both phases. Tana at least hits D in swords, so now she can use Iron Blades!
And here's the totally ineffectual Bard in action.
Lute pretty much singlehandedly clears out the rest of this room so L'arachel can talk to Rennac.
You know, I was almost inclined to call this "good", but 20% in Magic when he starts with 3 isn't really doing anything for me.
Artur breaks his steel sword on the bard to get... this.
Your lack of ranged weaponry will be your undoing!
Dozla circles back around here to get a new toy for Tana. Who cares about 20 weight when you have 20 speed? 
Also, Fury still takes effect even when you're attacking walls, which can be kind of annoying.
Rennac takes one of Saleh's staffs off his hands to fix him up. That dark blue hair is a good look.
...Huh. Why did I think HP capped at 40 on lower-tier classes?
After getting the wall busted open, Lute pokes a Troubadour to get Skill, something of a rarity for her.
Buuut that's as far as she goes, because this Hero is packing a Tomahawk and I'm not about to put a lance user up against that.
Another scuffle with an Enemyphraim brings Neimi ever closer to the level cap. As an aside, it's at this point that I really regret only buying 2 door keys, to pop open the initial 2 doors, because now I get to wait for Dozla to come around this way and pop open the other doors and chests. It's a good thing there's no timed sidequests in FE8...
Oh, well. We have reinforcements to kill (the time).
Those are some beautiful combat numbers. Tana is basically invincible with this equipped.
Saleh ends up leveling up off some reinforcements. When HP and magic is a better level than you anticipate, that's how you know your growths are bad.
Also, he procced Lifetaker from getting a kill, but it turns out Fury takes effect after that for some reason, effectively making Lifetaker useless. Lovely!
Rennac's weird stat dumps makes him good for tanking magic, at least. He does a way better job than Forde, that's for sure 
And that's the level cap for Neimi! I had been hoping to save my two Master Seals for Lute and Moulder, but I guess I'll give one of them to her instead.
Can't really complain about this, given Artur's just broke.
The reinforcements come to Lute like moths to a lamp, and she gets a good level out of it.
Another one of these is always nice!
I tried to have L'Arachel finish off that Pupil, but she whiffed. She was only one off a level though, so it works out.
It's time! 
Unfortunately, Soldiers don't get to become Generals like they can in Yune. Instead...
We've got ourselves a hot pink Super Recruit!
The lack of Con is... unfortunate, but we'll live. The extra defense is good, though! What's also nice is that her Shove skill has become Crit Boost, giving her a 15% crit rate boost on top of Critical Force. She's now rocking a base critical rate of 39%.
An unspecified amount of time later, Dozla opens up this door so that we can get on with the map again.
Vanessa takes out a Dancer inside to become ever faster.
It's a good thing the randomizer doesn't touch chests with gold in them.
Rennac isn't completely terrible against non-magic enemies, but not really worth it unless they have little to no Resistance.
Another unspecified amount of time later, Dozla makes his way over to the other room and pops it open. Neimi dealt with a Bael outside the door, and then L'Arachel gives her a dance to deal with the cav too.
Some reinforcements spawn over here, but this group is in a good position to deal with them.
Dozla loots the last of the treasure after the soldiers inside suicide on Saleh. Getting a Killer Lance of my own is very nice, and the Body Ring will be good on someone like Artur.
That's more like it.
We've really come a long way from Sharp Claws being the scariest weapon around. They're still scary, mind, but the party is much better equipped to deal with it now.
The Killer Lance is immediately putting in work in Lute's hands. Hopefully, she can hit level 20 so she can get the other Master Seal this chapter.
And Neimi is even more of a force of nature than she used to be. Remember, the Javelin still has 0 crit - she's getting that crit rate naturally.
Lute screams at some Troubadours to try and hit the level cap.
And she hits it on one of the last enemies on the map. Way to go out on a whimper, there.
Seeing crit rates higher than hit rates will also never not be funny to me. Unfortunately, he totally whiffs, so Eirika and Tana take this guy out, leaving...
...Carlyle. Okay, while his stats are completely and utterly 
, he has both Aegis and Countermagic, which is an... interesting combination. Aegis gives him a Skill% chance to nullify a magic attack on him. If he doesn't land that 4% chance, Countermagic makes it so that all damage he takes from that attack gets reflected back at the user anyway.
See how he also has Life and Death? This, combined with him holding an Axereaver, is basically an open invitation for Joshua to come smash him in the face with a Swordreaver.
Before that, though, let's use the other Master Seal to get Lute promoted. She becomes...
...a Deathgoyle! Given that they're just palette swaps of regular Gargoyles, her sprite doesn't change at all.
Her promotion gains are okay, I guess, but only 1 point in skill kind of sucks.
Seriously, look at this. Joshua is capable of one-rounding Carlyle.
Carlyle's palette on the Great Knight sprite is actually pretty cool, other than the weird splotches of color on his shield.
Joshua misses his first hit on the player phase, but all it takes is for Carlyle to attack him on the enemy phase for him to go down.
Carlyle sucks so much that he can't even give Joshua a good level.
Kyle gets a better one out of patching everyone's wounds.
Neimi and Artur start their support, because more support bonuses are always good! And then we seize.
Oh come on, Ismaire, you couldn't have dodged Caellach? You're faster than him... somehow!
Excalibur has become... a Steel Bow. 
And instead of Audhulma, we get a Speedwing.
NEXT TIME:
We slog through the desert to deal with probably the two most threatening bosses yet.