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This update, as usual, opens with some grinding, mainly for Amelia and L'Arachel because they're necessary for this next chapter and I want to make sure they're close-ish to my A team in terms of power.
Gilliam: 3 levels, +3 HP, +1 Str, +1 Skl, +2 Def
Neimi: 2 levels, +2 HP, +2 Mag, +2 Skl, +2 Spd, +1 Lck
Artur: 1 level, +1 Mag, +1 Lck
Joshua: 2 level, +2 HP, +2 Skl, +1 Lck, +1 Def, +1 Res
Natasha: 2 level, +2 HP, +1 Mag, +1 Skl, +1 Lck, +1 Res
Amelia: 3 levels, +3 HP, +1 Str, +2 Skl, +2 Def
Duessel: 1 level, +1 Def
L'Arachel: 7 levels, +4 HP, +3 Skl, +3 Spd, +7 Lck, +2 Def, +5 Res, learned Seal Luck (-6 to enemies that survive combat with this unit, increases by 1 each turn)
Gerik: 5 levels, +3 HP, +3 Skl, +1 Spd
I may have gone a little overboard... Joshua and Natasha hit their A support, and Neimi and Artur also started their support, because healers have to watch each other's backs.
L'Arachel actually hit her defense growth! Twice! 
Amelia continues to not get speed (though Darting Blow helps on that front), and Gerik's levels are also pretty disappointing, but a little less so when you consider he already can't raise two of his stats. (Only a little, though.)
And now for the main event.
Vigarde's a Rogue, it seems. Hopefully he won't be as annoying to fight as Aias and the first encounter with Riev were...
Here's today's janky party. Not using Cormag is... probably not the greatest idea, but I want to be able to bring my A-team plus Amelia (because the randomizer has once again screwed me out of all the droppable keys), and there's only so much room in the party.
Also, in a decision motivated by my annoyance at having only a single competent magic attacker (Cormag doesn't count), I pulled the trigger and promoted Artur early. I wish Artur had become a Priest instead of a Cleric, because light magic is still shit in this seed.
But who cares about that when he picks up Slayer and has a very high chance to proc Lethality?
I don't think I showed off Lightning in this seed yet, but it's almost as bad as Shine. I should have bought this before the chapter but 
L'Arachel kicks things off by ending this Thief.
I can't even really call this a bad level given she has two stats capped.
The game also did the thing again with unreachable enemies that can't attack. Unless this guy moves, he may very well survive the chapter.
Man, remember when Ephraim was the worst character in the party? It only took several runs of grinding to get him to turn out, but he's done amazing.
And he's only getting better.
Well, hello, Rennac.
SKILLS:
Smite: Command that pushes an enemy two tiles away.
Lethality: (Skill/2)% chance to instantly kill the enemy.
Fortress Defense: -3 Str, +5 Def.
Lancebreaker: +50% Hit/Avoid if the enemy is equipped with a lance.
And hello, Amelia's replacement! Lancebreaker on a sword unit is very nice. I just hope his growths won't undermine his strong start... Since he's not a Rogue and has no keys, he's probably going to be running towards us, which will help with recruitment.
Without Slayer, Artur would be doing 5 damage with Lightning equipped despite his high stats, and that's sad.
Tana is still here and still unstoppable.
The RNG is a fickle mistress, ain't it?
So many 20s in her stats... I bet I can guess what her vision is 
Kyle continues to not get Speed after fighting a pegasus.
Joshua continues to do what he does best...
...get bad levels.
Amelia and Natasha get to work on opening up the treasure room.
You know, I rag on Kyle, but Amelia has not gotten a single point of speed since she joined.
Oh, right, Pegasus Knights have Bane. Fortunately, there aren't any other enemies in range that can capitalize on Artur now only having 1 HP.
Speaking of pegasi, Vanessa gets a pretty good level from an enemy pegasus attacking her. Resistance on her is very nice.
Seriously, in any other game, this enemy probably wouldn't be able to get a hit rate like this on a thief. But alas. Gilliam takes care of her on the player phase, and...
...the monk in the treasure room also goes out like a chump.
Another pegasus knight spawned in range of Artur, so let's just nip this in the bud.
This is kind of a gamble, but L'Arachel hits the first time and none of the other enemies try to punish her.
Except for one of the Shamans by the Wyvern Knight, but uhhhh
Shine is still bad! Admittedly, I had used a Barrier staff, but this would be 0 damage even without it.
Some reinforcements spawn in the treasure room, but Natasha burns this guy so Amelia can loot things unchallenged.
And loot she does! I can think of at least three units that would want this.
Get outta here, you.
Moulder hurtles towards the level cap with a bad one.
These dudes are content to guard the door and not respond to attacks on them, which Kyle (and Vanessa) gladly capitalizes on.
Gilliam wipes out another treasure room guy for a nice level!
And then - ah. This is... actually the second Nidhogg I've gotten from a chest, the first one being one from Chapter 8 that I got before the route split and never had a chance to really show off. I had wanted it to be a surprise for when I got the real Nidhogg, but I can't keep the secret now 
It's, uh, it's really fucking good is what it is. Because event items aren't randomized, I'm guaranteed to get a third one as well, and Joshua can use all of them once he promotes and there's nothing anyone can do to stop him.
While we're still in the treasure room, Natasha gets a pretty decent level off of another Cleric.
That's speed capped for Tana! She was guaranteed to hit it after the first +2, but 
Very nice! Vanessa will appreciate this.
Joshua opens the door for Rennac, and L'Arachel continues to gain experience.
Artur heals some scratch damage, and it's here I notice that he still gets the effective damage flash even when healing monsters. Sadly, it doesn't mean tripled healing.
There's a Hawkeye Swordmaster on the other side of this door. She can't really do much in the way of damage, but I'd still rather not have to deal with it.
That'll do quite nicely!
There's not much that can hurt Kyle, which I'm grateful for.
This Shaman thinks she's cute trying to use Luna on a light user.
Then the Bishop on the other side of the other door nearly gives me a heart attack, but he wouldn't have hit Joshua anyway.
Ah, just my luck that one of the reinforcements is a Thief! Fortunately he'll be able to drop the item (unless it's gold), but that's assuming he doesn't leave the map first.
...This is also assuming Rennac doesn't, either.
One of the earlier enemies dropped this, and it's probably one of the best effective weapons yet.
Out of the way, please. I have an assassin to recruit.
This branch of the map has a grand total of one enemy capable of combat, so I'm ignoring it in favor of getting everyone to reunite.
After taking out said combat-capable enemy, of course.
L'Arachel continues to get Levels, but...
...she's too late. Rennac has bolted.
So much for Chapter 12's application of the Konami code being the last one... Let's walk this back a turn, shall we?
In setting up for the enemy phase, Artur gets some Speed which is always appreciated.
You're not getting away so easily this time, my dude.
And it wouldn't be enemy phase manipulation without making enemies blindly throw away their life.
Well, that wasn't so bad this time!
And neither are these growths, honestly! They're kind of low outside of HP and Speed, but that's to be expected from a prepromote. And since Assassins still have Lockpick privileges, Amelia's last appearance will be the following chapter, given Assassins don't have the ability to get hidden treasure instantly.
Joshua maxes out on a whimper.
Rennac's sprite looks pretty good, too.
I forgot to turn off the enemy control after recruiting Rennac, but I turn it off after this turn because I imagine Solitarie: Fire Emblem Edition is as boring to sit through as it is for me to play. Anyway, Lancebreaker means Rennac can basically ignore the weapon triangle (unless he's up against a dude with a Swordreaver or something).
I've run out of things to say about L'Arachel. All her levels are going to look like this until she promotes.
Same goes for Kyle.
Vanessa caps Speed and gains Resistance! Good shit.
Neimi is also working her way through the levels. Come on, Artur and L'Arachel hit their 5% growths, you can too. 
The map is pretty much over. All that's left is Vigarde and his cronies in the throne room, who don't exactly inspire fear.
As Tana demonstrates by one-rounding the Monk and getting even more bulky.
If only promotion items worked on monsters. Not that I'm complaining about a free 5000 gold, though.
The Elder Bael went down to a combined force of L'Arachel, Moulder, and Natasha, and the Super Pupil comes off his pillar to put a dent in Moulder.
Then Natasha takes him out to max out on a high note. This just leaves...
...Vigarde, who's employing the Runesword-Lethality strategy I used last run with Eirika. That's always fun on a boss! His overall high stats (further boosted by Spectrum Stance and his personal skill, Pursuit, which gives him +2 Attack Speed when under attack) and a way to drain HP means this is going to be a long fight, unless I get lucky with crits or something.
His sprite looks nice, at least.
And just when I was running out of gold from the Black Gem!
I don't have many options against Vigarde, sadly. Moulder is the best because Hawkeye, but I'd really rather just park him in front here so he doesn't get doubled. (Joshua also gives him a Rally Strength.)
Ah, that's more like it. He still gets doubled, but oh well.
Artur is good for dealing chip damage, too. Still need to watch out for Lethality...
Neimi patches Moulder up after he goes another round with Vigarde.
After another hit of lightning from Artur, Moulder brings it on home.
Sure, I'll take it.
Ephraim and Tana hit their B support, and that's the map!
Hopefully you won't be as much of a pain in the neck as you were in Eirika's route.
Knoll is here, too! We might as well take a look at him before the next chapter starts.
SKILLS:
Savior: No penalty to Skill/Speed when rescuing units.
Shove
Life and Death: +10 damage given and taken.
Forager: Recover +20% of max HP at the start of the turn if on a Plains, Forest or Mountain tile.
Wow. This is probably the biggest glow-up between runs out of anybody, given Knoll died pretty much immediately last time. I'm surprised it took me until now to get someone with Life and Death, too... I can't really complain about his growths outside of Defense and Luck, either. And the Sacred Twins of Grado...
...are disgustingly powerful. Where was this Garm last time? I may not have a wielder for Gleipnir unless I grind out Natasha's Dark rank once she promotes -- hopefully she gets there fast enough.
NEXT TIME:
Another powerful prepromote, brought low by the RNG shitting on his inventory. But more so by the fact that he's a horseman in the desert.