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Chapter 8x: Up All Night



Welcome back to randomized Thracia. This is still fog of war.



This chapter can get a bit tricky, so I'm bringing my good foot units. So, Nanna, Lithis, and Macha, kinda. Nanna gets the Hezul scroll for more beefing up, Marty gets the Njörun scroll, because if his offensive growths are gonna be bad, might as well he gains some Defense.



Thanks to Finn's Bargain (in the form of holding a Devil Axe to the shop owner's throat, I'm sure), Master Seals only cost 4000 gold, which is about the same as two full-price Iron Swords. Thracia's economy is wack.



The Master Seal is because today, Lithis is going on a mission!





: The soil itself don't want us here! Nothin' grows! Tryin' to till a field is like sawing through rock! All I wanted was a full belly, but you let that wench Eyvel cheat you outta the good land! She's got you wrapped around her little finger! You so desperate that you'd let everybody starve just to get lucky? Shame on you, old man!

From what our translator was saying, in the Japanese script, Gomez is fairly direct about this, accusing Dagdar of wanting to get laid. A lot of JP>EN fan translations seem to mistake Japanese being direct for Japanese being crude, but that's not us, so we used this euphemism. As it turns out, Heather uses the same turn of phrase in the Radiant Dawn localization, when talking to Brom.



: You know why? Cuz I knew I could never trust you with more! Fact is, I could barely trust you with my laundry, junior! But all these years, I still gave you a roof over yer head...! Fine! You want yerself a fight so bad, you got one!

Lots of embellishments compared to the raw Japanese script, maybe a bit too much at times, but it does make for a fairly believable epic smackdown shittalk between those two. That laundry line...



As a mercy for what is to come, our vision has been increased to 4 tiles, which is pretty nice.



Because, if you'll remember, I loaded the wrong save, and these two are unarmed. No chance of getting captured, since all their opponents are ranged, but it does also mean they don't have antitoxins, and Dagdar won't be able to slowly trim down the opposition.



Halvan lights up the place, and gains about as much magic as Fergus did, but at least he also gains skill, speed, and also has Astra, so he'll be good eventually, I swear.



Hey, I heard you like bow armors? This seed loves bow armors. We're just fighting so many of them.

You can see a lone sword knight replacing a Thief. All he has is a Shortsword and a Door Key. He doesn't move or attack.



Let's get this started. I need Lithis to meet up with Dagdar as fast as he can. Nanna deleted an enemy, and Lithis stays just in range of Marty when popping his Master Seal. It's time!







Yeah, you saw those numbers right! The base stat difference between Pirates and Berserkers is insane, so now Lithis has endgame stats even though we're still in chapter freaking 8x. Oh, and 8 move, too!



He gains Sol as his class skill, and he'll be learning Nihil on the way, since he's definitely going to be our main boss killer. You know, that's starting to become a trend in my Let's Plays, having boss killer Berserkers.





Just look at him go, trying out his new toys right off the bat!



Dagdar positions himself in just the right spot so Tanya can't get attacked on the first turn. She also jumped on her horse, because she needs all the stats she can get, right now.



Leif will be very slowly soloing the left side.



And then enemy phase, which is just Dagdar dodging arrows left and right.



I wish this was FF Tactics Advance.



Lithis plows his way through a guy. No one can stop the Lithisnaut.



Dagdar is going to stay here for a couple turns. Nothing much he can do but block one of the positions Tanya can get arrowed from.



This would have been a great time to level defensive stats instead. Right now, it takes about 3 arrows to fell Tanya.



Berserkers gonna Berserk.



Thiefs gonna open doors. One of the armors has a Rapier, which are always a nice, easy steal.



Macha will stick around here and Accost anyone getting too close to the wall.



With two rounds of combat and some unlucky RNG, she does take a bit of a beating. Good thing Halvan will be sticking around.



And this is where it's chapter 4x all over again. Time for savestate abusing.



Or not. We're good for this turn.



Meh. Man, Dagdar really pales now, in comparison to Lithis. Can you imagine his personal base speed is 0...?



And Nanna keeps making great use of her Hezul scroll. Some strength would be nice, though.



Lithis, during a very brief lull in-between various murdering, taking a moment to sit down and read a book on battle strategy.



Then it's back to the grinder!



Tanya, meanwhile, is still being incredibly cooperative. She'll still hit the bench pretty hard, but not nearly as much as Asbel.



Lithis has finally joined up with the Dagdar family. Nanna will stick around here to steal weapons.



Marty's growths are awful, so his levels have been pretty bad. After promotion, he'll have Paragon, and by then I should have more useful scrolls to fix his stats.



Things that I could have put in Lithis's inventory, to help this situation:
Bows, Vulneraries

Things I did put:
More axes



Nanna joins in to be a distraction and hey, more poor levels. But if it means Tanya miraculously keeps dodging arrows, I'll take it.



Hey, remember when people hated Accost because of ballistas? Accost fucking rules. That's 33 damage on this guy, and she still had one thunder strike to go.



And with that, Tanya is now safe.



Leif has been slowly dealing with armors one by one on his side. He's now at A Axes, and won't get access to bows until chapter 19.



Some of the armors have started going for Marty, so I take the opportunity to raise his weapon levels a tad.



And Nanna finishes off the last one around Tanya. It's so nice having what's basically an early Mareeta, except with Steal.



Skipping ahead a little bit, Nanna's rampages continues. She gains Con again from it.



I got a Shield Ring from Rumaigh last map, which goes to Leif, since his stats are going to stall for a little bit until promotion.



There's still 5 or 6 bow armors in this room, which I'll be luring with Lithis and Macha.



I only had 6 uses left of a Handaxe, so it'll mostly be Macha. The next few turns are a bit tedious, so here's the recap:









First level was thankfully the exception. Macha's doing pretty good. Her magic isn't growing much, but since she'll promote to a Mage Knight, worst case scenario she can always switch to swords.

Or, you know, just Dire Thunder. Which she can use, now.



Here she is, doing a badass, to celebrate her growth.


Halvan, meanwhile, is getting another bad level.



Well, all right, this is pretty good. Now he's at C, like Fergus.



Never mind, that level was perfect!



This one was pretty good too.



Nanna reached B Swords somewhere during all this. And Marty is still being Marty.



We also get a quick peek at Gomez, who's in a class way more befitting of his enormous defense stat in vanilla.



He's still a tough boy with great weapon ranks, but garbage weapons. I can even steal his bow so he won't be able to retaliate against magic.



Time to open the door, mop up the armors on the north and north-west and south-west and—




and lose some footage. You know what, it's fine. Little of value was lost.



Nanna opened 6 chests. Here's our haul:
An Iron Sword (worthless)
An Iron Blade (same)
A Light tome (no one can currently use it, but it's a good tome)
A Sleep Staff (Halvan can use it! Could be clutch.)



Mareeta's Blade, which is identical to the Shadow Sword, meaning we're at 3 of these, right now.



And this little beauty, which gives:
20% Mag | 15% Str | 5% MHP, Skl, Spd, Def | -5% Lck

Macha (and Marty) are going to love this scroll, I feel.





Leif also gets a little chat with Dagdar, who keeps reminding us that, despite all of Leif's best efforts carrying a stone statue across chapter 5, Eyvel just wouldn't leave Manster.



There were a bunch of bow armors in this side room. They're gone now. Lithis tanked them. Macha and Marty killed them.







I might have also grinded Macha on the boss a bit.



Had I been smart about it, I'd have stolen his Vulnerary so he wouldn't use it right before I'm out of magic tomes and I need to kill him.



Ah well, what's a couple more Brave Axe uses in the grand scheme of things?



I loaded Lithis with scrolls for this, though it's not like he's lacking in stats right now.



I'm just going to let this entire scene play out, because it's definitely one of this game's highlights.

: Many of these men were children of Thracian farmers. Abandoned by their parents, they turned to banditry out of sheer necessity. Their choice was simple: steal or starve.

: Then they had cowards for parents, to have forsaken their children so!

: And how would you know? You've been on the run for your whole life, true, but you've never known the pains of hunger. Just where do you think your food came from during all those days you were fleeing from the Empire?

: Where my food came from? I... don't know. I never had to worry about hunger.

: Then you were fortunate to have had such loyal allies and retainers, but it has left you lacking the perspective to truly understand how the common folk suffer. South Thracia is a land dominated by mountains—steep, imposing crags dot the landscape, and a cliff lies around every corner. By nature, the land demands severity and discipline from all who live in it. Farmers work themselves to the bone to cultivate what few crops the land will provide, but even so, it is not enough to survive on. And thus they are left with a terrible dilemma: for every one person who gets fed, two others must go hungry. Dagdar's men, abandoned in their youth, are the result of this ruthless arithmetic. This is the reality of living in South Thracia.

: Th-Then they should just import food from elsewhere! In North Thracia, cities had an abundance of crops—buy their excess!

: Ah, but the whole of North Thracia—the old coalition of Manster—resolved long ago to prohibit trade with South Thracia. Food, especially, was closely guarded.

: ...Wh-Why would the North do such a thing?!

: Historically? Recall the war between Njörun and Dain's children, 100 years ago, that led to the province of Manster declaring independence from the rest of Thracia. The two have considered each other enemies ever since, and this hostility persists because they are mutually unwilling to communicate. The noble houses of Manster, in particular, remained stubborn and selfish for a century afterward.

: I... had been told that Thracia was all but a military state, that it was an infamously belligerent kingdom. But if they are merely the product of such wretched conditions... How did things all go so wrong? The North and South were a single kingdom once...

: It all returns to the Tragedy of the Gae Bolg, to the misfortune that seems to befall all those who wield either of the holy lances. North Thracia has been plagued by selfish and short-sighted rulers. You must learn from their example—learn how not to govern. If nothing else, you must learn enough to not repeat your father's mistake...


Lord Leif, we live in a society... Seriously though, this scene is great, and the newer writing really made it pop.

Next time:



And here I thought you couldn't make this guy any worse than he already was.