In the last Tactician's Journal, a break was had in order to allow the characters to become stronger and develop bonds. Those bonds that have been built won't be properly revealed until the appropriate side stories. Anyway, back to the plot, Red and the Shepherds find themselves at Fort Steiger.
Chapter 17: Inexorable Death
We arrived at Fort Steiger, and Basilio, Flavia and Say'ri all made comments about our upcoming battle. Say'ri got straight to the heart of the matter; she knew that we would be able to claim the fortress if we struck down the enemy's commander. In order for this to happen, Say;'ri had Khan Flavia and her men take on the forces surrounding the castle.
With the opening that creates, a smaller team led by Chrom and Say'ri would then enter Fort Steiger. Say'ri apologised for putting Chrom at the forefront of battle, but Chrom was more than happy to have such a role. Say'ri also told us that we had reinforcements on the way in the form of other Resistance forces.
Once inside the Fort, we made our preparations to engage the enemy. The extra training everyone had really paid off, so choosing who to bring along was somewhat tough. However, there was no doubt that Chrom, Say'ri and I would be on the team.
Treasure chests were waiting to be claimed within the Fort, so we naturally brought Gaius along with us as well. His skills as a thief would allow him to pick the locks on the chests no problem.
Lucina joined the fight as well, and both Nowi and Panne offered their assistance. Oh, and Tharja naturally came along as well; she really seems quite attached to me...
In addition to the aforementioned people, we had Vaike, Sumia, Virion, Miriel, Maribelle and Olivia. This allowed us a large variety of weapon users, and as each one had managed to grow stronger through the user of Master Seals, we had more than one reliable healer.
Chrom, Say'ri, Tharja and I entered the fortress centre entrance, whilst Virion, Sumia, Miriel, Vaike and Maribelle took the left. On the right were Nowi, Panne, Lucina, Gaius and Olivia.
Two enemy heroes, a war monk and a valkyrie guarded the left entrance. However, both Sumia and Vaike were able to defeat the heroes thanks to a little help from Miriel.
On the right hand side, there were also two enemy heroes, though they had two war monks and a sniper as well. Lucina was able to make short work of a war monk. Gaius defeated the second one, with a little help from Olivia. Nowi and Panne then worked together to bring down one of the enemy heroes.
My group entered through the middle door, though our foes weren't close enough for us to attack at first. However, they did move into our range quite quickly, and soon suffered for it.
In addition to the enemies who were trying to stop our advance through Fort Steiger, there was an enemy thief who was racing towards the treasure.
All three groups were able to enter the Fort successfully, whilst avoiding any major injuries. I was able to meet up with Chrom, and we teamed up in order to chase down the enemy thief and prevent him from claiming my treasures.
An enemy sniper was shooting at the left-hand team as they made their way deeper into the fortress, but Virion and Maribelle worked together in order to counter him. In our rush to get to the thief, many enemies targeted Chrom and I. However, none of them came even close to inflicting any damage upon us, and they fell before the might of my magic and Chrom's blade.
We were able to catch up with the thief and kill him before he could even think about touching our treasure chests. The right-hand group caught up with Chrom and I at that point, though there was still the presence of an enemy hero for us to worry about. Vaike managed to take down the aforementioned hero, though he did take some damage. Still, it probably didn't feel like very much to him.
The right-hand team remained on the right in order to claim a couple of treasure chest, though they would have to deal with a few enemies first. Everyone else started heading towards the throne, ready to take down the enemy commander, Pheros.
Say'ri then warned us of sound coming from the floor below; possible reinforcements. Everyone steeled themselves for more fighting, but nobody lost sight of our goal in the Fort.
In order to get to the treasure and the throne room, I had our allies draw out the enemies that occupied them. The plan worked successfully, clearing our way into both rooms.
There were still a couple of enemies inside, and we had the impending reinforcements to consider. However, there were treasure chests in those rooms, and by all rights, every item in a treasure chest belongs to me.
Gaius started making his way to the leftmost room in order to unlock more doors, whilst Tharja and I lent our aid to the right-hand group.
Chrom and Sumia dealt with the enemies coming out of the throne room, making fairly light work of them. Maribelle came under attack from an enemy troubadour stationed in the left room, but both she and the troubadour possessed quite a resistance to magic so not much damage was done.
Vaike, Sumia and Chrom mopped up the enemies from the throne room, Lucina finished off the lone enemy left on the right-hand side and Gaius continued towards the left treasure room.
In preparation to meet the reinforcements, I had our other allies position themselves near the stairs that led to the lower floors.
Reinforcements did appear from the stairs, as Say'ri had mentioned before. However, they were allies of ours... or it initially appeared that way.
A strange man appeared out of nowhere, and gave orders to the Resistance members who had just arrived. He made mention of a "promise", and we found ourselves facing down more enemies. Some of those enemies were people that Say'ri knew by name; that didn't matter now, though. They were our enemies, and we would have to kill them before they killed us.
The strange man then reported to Pheros, claiming that he had saved Fort Steiger and her life. The man mocked Pheros for failing to crush us. Pheros suggested that she tortured the Resistance members or their families, but he wasn't too forthcoming with the details. He slipped away after that.
Gaius continued on towards the treasure room, whilst Tharja, Nowi, Panne and I dealt with our new enemies. Thanks to Olivia, Lucina was able to come over to help us out as well.
The next enemy reinforcements were quickly dealt with by Miriel, Virion and Gaius. They were the ones who happened to be nearest to their arrival point, so they dealt with them. Gaius immediately returned his focus to claiming the treasure right after lending his aid.
Finally getting to the treasure chests, Gaius opened the first one to claim a pair of Boots. Of course, more enemy reinforcements appeared, but Say'ri, Chrom and Sumia quickly eliminated that threat.
Another treasure chest opened, this time with a Seraph Robe inside. Of course, there was an enemy hero, though choosing to appear on his own was a mistake I imagine he quickly regretted, especially as Miriel and Virion were nearby with their magic and bow ready respectively.
As Gaius made his way over to the other treasure room, the rest of us fought off the remaining enemy reinforcements as they trickled in.
Once the reinforcements had ceased, Chrom, Sumia, Say'ri, Tharja and I made our way to the enemy commander. Pheros was a troubadour, who held a Fortify staff and a Bolganone tome.
Before we engaged her in combat, Gaius was able to claim a Master Seal and a large bullion from the remaining treasure chests.
When Chrom started to fight against Pheros, she revealed that she once followed Emmeryn. However, she then went on to explain that she considered Walhart a god, as he could unite all people, which no religion could ever do. With help from Sumia, Chrom was able weaken Pheros considerably. Say'ri stepped in and performed the finishing blow, thus ending our battle for Fort Steiger.
Even though we were able to cause the fall of Fort Steiger, we had a new enemy; the former Resistance, who had now surrounded the fortress. Say'ri expressed her shame for uniting the Resistance, though they were united against us.
A soldier then reported to us that our forces both to the north and south had been decimated by Walhart and Yen'fay, and most of the survivors had joined the empire. To make matters worse, both of them were marching towards Fort Steiger as we spoke.
We were left with no choice; I knew we had to get everyone out of Fort Steiger at that very moment. Despite the fact we were surrounded, escaping sooner rather than later would be our best option. Having both Walhart and Yen'fay upon us would almost certainly spell our doom. Say'ri agreed with me, and said that the dynasts outside the fortress would only put up token resistance without their masters watching.
Chrom knew we wouldn't be able to keep running, so that would mean we would have to strike at either Walhart or Yen'fay before either could unite their strength.
Both Chrom and Say'ri knew that doing that would result in trouble for us... however, we would be attacking them both. Flavia wasn't too eager on having our army split in half, though she failed to realise I never mentioned anything halving our army.
Our strongest force, led by Chrom, would attack Yen'fay, whilst a smaller one would go against Walhart. The smaller force wouldn't have to defeat Walhart; just distract him. Basilio volunteered to lead the smallest team, on what I described as the most dangerous mission yet.
However, Basilio's resolve was strong. Before he could leave, Lucina stopped him. She knew that Basilio would be killed in the battle, having come from the future. Basilio was more interested in hearing who killed him, and supposedly it was Walhart himself. Gaining that knowledge did not deter Basilio; instead, he promised to be careful.
Flavia had decided to accompany Basilio on the mission as well, and completely ignored Basilio's protests. Although Lucina still tried to prevent Basilio from leaving, he and Flavia departed anyway.
Well, the Shepherds certainly manage to get themselves into dire situations. Things manage to work out, though Lucina's grim prediction was slightly worrisome. Still, I don't believe that Khan Basilio would just die that easily. Besides, he's our only hope of allowing us to defeat Yen'fay's forces in peace.
The time draws nearer; Say'ri will have to confront her brother in battle. I just hope she has the resolve to carry out this mission, so we can focus on putting an end to Walhart.
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