The Fiend's Lair
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“
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All right. Farden, kill the children who have escaped. Show the people who are still left what will happen if they try to run.
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”
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— Raydrik to Farden
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The Fiend's Lair (Japanese: 魔王の城 The Demon King's Castle) is the twenty-third chapter of Fire Emblem: Thracia 776.
Plot
- Main article: The Fiend's Lair/Script
Leif's army approaches Munster as its citizens try to flee, but even though Ced is in the city, he cannot protect those citizens himself. He leaves the task to Saias, who volunteers to help, and also asks Saias to give Leif the Bragi Sword, as he will need it to break Raydrik's defenses of the Loptr Sword. Raydrik sends Farden to hunt down the citizens escorted by Saias, and in the chaos, Altena and Coulter arrive, with Coulter carrying out an immediate attempt to seize Munster as per King Travant's orders. Altena tries to protest and change her father's mind, but to no avail.
Eventually, Leif reaches Munster, and as he does, Ced kills Alphand – the Loptian defending the castle – and seizes the gates in preparation for Leif's arrival. Leif can then talk to Ced, and if he does, Ced joins his forces. Saias also gives Leif the Bragi Sword either during the battle, if Leif talks to him, or after the battle, if Leif does not talk to him. Once the battle ends, Saias leaves for the Tower of Bragi and promises to pray for Leif – but if Leif did not recruit Ced, Saias instead stays with his army to help it for some time.
Chapter data
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Victory: Seize the gate
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Player
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Partner
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Other
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Enemy
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Third
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Defeat: Leif or Ced dies
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8–16+2
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{{{partner}}}
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6+1−1
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17+107
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{{{third}}}
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Units are arranged based on their position in deployment order after Leif.
Character data
- Saias does not receive bonuses from authority from Leif's forces, nor does he provide them. He does receive and provide bonuses in the following chapters.
- If Ced is recruited or any of the Civilians are killed or captured, Saias will leave at the end of the chapter.
Item data
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Name
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Obtainment Method
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Vulnerary
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Visit left house
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Pure Water
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Visit middle house
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Physic
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Visit right house
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Bragi Sword
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Talk to Saias with Leif, or at the end of the chapter if Leif did not talk to Saias and Saias is alive and uncaptured
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Enemy data
- Stats with two figures separated by a ~ are presented as a range, representing stats that vary due to random growths. The figures to the left and right of the ~ are the stat's minimum and maximum possible values respectively.
- Enemies will not attack the civilians, except to capture them.
Reinforcements
- Turn 2; halted if a player unit enters the plateau surrounding the castle (columns 14–24, rows 12–19)
- Turn 3
- One Thief from the northeast corner of the map
- Turns 3–10
- One Great Knight from the left fortress
- One Duke Knight from the right fortress
- Up to ten Dark Mages, each with a 25% chance to appear each turn, from various spots on the map:
- From near the western mountains (column 3, row 23)
- From south of the player's starting location (column 4, row 12)
- From the southern edge of the cliffs (column 10, row 26)
- From the southern edge of the map (column 17, row 28)
- From near the gate (column 16, row 16)
- From south of the Poison Ballistae (column 18, row 11)
- From east of the Ballistae (column 23, row 10)
- From northwest of the eastern houses (column 23, row 2)
- From west of the eastern houses (column 26, row 6)
- From east of the player's starting location (column 13, row 5)
NPC data
Reinforcements
- Turn after a unit enters the plateau surrounding the castle (columns 14–24, rows 12–19); halted upon Alphand being defeated
Boss data
- Main article: Alphand
Strategy
This section details unofficial strategies that may help with completion of the chapter. This may not work for everybody.
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At the start of this chapter, the High Priest named Saias, whom you previously saw as an enemy in earlier chapters, is now on your side, volunteering to escort six NPC civilians to safety at the request of Ced. Compared to when he was an enemy unit (where he had 10 leadership stars granting a whopping +30 hit and avoid to everyone in the army), Saias only has five (three after this chapter) leadership stars as a playable character, granting only +15 (later +9) hit/avoid. If Saias speaks to Leif, he will give him the Bragi Sword, a sacred blade which negates the damage-halving effect of Raydrik's Loptr Sword. As long as Saias survives, he will give Leif the Bragi Sword at the end of the chapter. Saias starts very close to the enemy forces, most of whom are cavalry, meaning they can quickly reach him and the civilians. If you want Saias to stay in your party, you also have the additional task of keeping all of the NPC civilians alive and uncaptured; Saias cannot defend the chokepoint to block their advance on his own, as he is very liable to being one-shotted.
The two easiest ways to beat this chapter depend on whether Ced is going to be recruited. If Ced is not going to be recruited, the player can use Warp to skip to the boss and kill and seize the chapter in one turn. Doing so means that the two Sleep Dark Mages will not be able to inflict their statuses.
If the player wants to recruit Ced, they will have to spend at least two turns to recruit him. This means that the two Dark Mages will have to be neutralized or they will status your units. Use your own status staves to sleep/silence them or Thief their staves to prevent them from interfering. Alternatively, if the chapter is to be two-turned, it is also possible to bring two high-HP units to be intentional targets for the Dark Mages that can be safely put to sleep without affecting the rest of the chapter. The easiest way to beat the chapter is to have a unit (preferably Saias, though he will likely need to be Rescued) enter the area that causes Ced to kill Alphnad, then end the turn to activate the event. After that, the player can then Warp in Leif, talk to Ced, dance for Leif, and seize the castle.
If a player unit enters a certain range surrounding the castle, a scripted event will trigger, in which Ced will kill Alphand with a critical hit from his Forseti. After that, he will remain on the gate for the remainder of the map. While he is in range of the ballista, the defense and avoid bonuses granted by the gate (even before accounting for the +10 speed offered by Forseti) makes it nigh impossible for him to be scratched. If the event is not activated by turn 2, a squad of Thracian Wyvern Knights will appear, and after Alphand's death will chase to attack Ced and any unit within their range.
Dark Mage reinforcements will appear in random spots around the map. The boss Alphand will get a Poison tome starting from turn 5, so don't dawdle too much.
During this chapter, you have a choice to have only one of two units to accompany you for the rest of your journey: Saias or Ced. Recruiting Ced will make Saias leave, so it is recommended to give Saias's inventory to someone else if you decide to recruit Ced. If you desire to keep Saias, then you need someone to move Ced out of the way via rescuing, since he is occupying the gate that Leif needs to seize to complete the chapter.
Note that this is the last map in the game that takes place outdoors. This is something important to note, as all of your mounted units will be forced to permanently dismount in the next chapter onwards. Additionally, as a result of the forced dismounting, all of your mounted units who specialize in using axes or lances will be forced to use only swords for the remainder of the game.
Etymology and other languages
Names, etymology, and in other regions
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Language
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Name
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Definition, etymology, and notes
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English (unofficial)
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• The Palace of Evil • The Fiend's Lair
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• Used in FireLizard's translation. • Used in the Lil' Manster fan translation patch.
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Japanese
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魔王の城
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The Demon King's Castle
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Gallery