Everyone hates Jeanne!

Sorry for not updating over the weekend, but I was busy playing Smash Ultimate with friends. I'd like to congratulate Covid for winning the war on Covid. Unlike our best friend virus, I was unsuccessful at winning many games with my friends. But I had fun, and that's all that counts. Could have edited, though...

We're still on the march to Reims to crown Dauphin Charles King. On our way to the city, we come across Potay. We're stopped in our tracks, though, by the great and powerful John Talbot... Blah blah blah. The three beastmen we saw speaking to King Henry the night before show up and kill him. The tigerman seems to know La Hire, who I'm still not using, but the catgirl and the foxman are just here to kill us. But they're lazy, so they sick their henchmen on us. A pantherman, Bartolomeo, enters with his entourage, and this fight sucks.

We have to kill everyone, but there are two sets of reinforcements. Each time they spawn, they bring in five monsters: two crows, two orcs, and a giant. There are also two wizards and three archers we need to contend with. Stick to the low ground for now and let them come to you. After round two, we'll meet a new archer. An elf enters the battlefield looking for Bart, but he's not too happy to see her. Regardless, Beatrix becomes playable, and she's okay enough, I guess. Nothing really set her apart from Marcel. I can't give any strategies for this fight since I was left with only Jeanne, Giles, Liana, and Colet (and his seven HP) at the end. Expect to die! When the dust settles, Beatrix will tell everyone that she's the fiance of Bart. Bart, meanwhile, hates humans, and he blames them for ruining his race. Beatrix convinces her beloved that we're cool, and they both join the team. I was more concerned with Talbot's well being. I killed him five times, so why couldn't I get the final blow? Later on, Roger is in the midst of a nightmare while Liana watches over him. Jeanne enters the tent, and Liana tries to talk to her about Roger. Jeanne, though, thinks Roger is fine and blows the both of them off. As our main character goes to a strategy meeting, Liana yells "I hate you" at her.

The next location is the city of Troyes. On the Dauphin's behalf, we ask to spend the night, but the whole city is loyal to the Duke of Burgundy. Jeanne tries to convince everyone in town, but she ends up blocking a traveling friar. As she lets him by, he tells her to meet back here after dusk. Rather than wait, Jeanne runs after him. Giles knows the man as Richard, the greatest strategist in France. We couldn't find him, so we return to the gates of Troyes. The mayor comes out to meet us and informs us he's changed his man and will let us stay. As we enter the city walls, the gates drop, and we see Slinker behind the local militia. Slinker is the foxman who probably didn't kill Talbot, and he's convinced the entire city to kill Jeanne. The whole thing was a trap, and now we need to defeat Slinker!

The traitor, Richard, is standing before us. Giles asks him why he'd betray France, and Richard reveals that he's got an armlet. He activates his armor and gains a stupid hat. He then turns on Slinker. This whole thing was a setup for a setup! There are demons behind us, so get into the city as soon as possible. The humans are pretty weak, so they're mostly here to be annoying. I tried to focus everyone on Slinker, who runs away on turn one. Try to keep Richard close to him if you want to minimize French casualties. Rich's transformation lasts four turns, allowing him to get two special moves off. Slinker is a mage character, so he'll probably heal, but he's gonna stay away from us regardless. It took me five turns, and no demons got involved. Sadly, I had to kill a few humans.

Slinker will run away, and we'll have a talk with the mayor again. He gives up his resistance, real or otherwise, and will support Charles going forward. Jeanne will wonder why Troyes, a French city, would fight against the French with the English on the doorstep. Are Burgundians French at this point in time? Richard joins the group to fill them in on what Talbot never did. The Kings of England are descended from the French. This entire war isn't about nationalism, but it's more about the ruling class fighting a war for themselves. The commonfolk are suffering because rich people have always sucked. Jeanne becomes enraged at this, but nothing comes from it yet.

She's still marching to Reims, but another city, Chalon, lies between us. Once again, Slinker is convincing the mayor to turn against us. But he has to do so with force this time. He beats up the mayor, which does the trick. Jeanne and the crew reach Chalon, but the mayor still hates us. When he runs off, a random dude shows up saying he supports us. The whole town does except for that guy pretending to be the mayor. The real mayor has been kidnapped and replaced, so Jeanne promises to save him. The dude opens the gates, which triggers the mayor's attack. The random dude warns us that the fake mayor is about to kill us, so Jeanne kills the threat. The whole town gets up in arms because he killed their mayor. The random dude turns into Slinker to reveal that his plan worked. Jeanne doesn't want to spill French blood, so she plans to escape the town. The amulet agrees...

The goal here is to reach the cracks in the walls and leave. I only brought in Jeanne for this to make sure I didn't cause a traffic jam. I also wanted to kill as few humans as I could, but I get the feeling it wouldn't have mattered. Anyway, I went to the left side of the fountain and then ran up the middle. Past Slinker is an escape panel. Because everyone is focused on one person, they can't all get in range. Killing the trolls two battles ago got me an HP recovery skill, which did wonders. I also popped a movement up item and one that increases evasion by twenty for three turns. After a few counters, I saw an opening to transform and kill a deer, activating Godspeed. If you can make a chain of death, awesome, but I managed to escape the massive horde and reach the penultimate square. I ended up getting paralyzed just before the exit, but Jeanne was able to tank that round and get free the next. As we leave, something attacks Slinker...

The group is on the road again, but the catgirl catches up. She stops us and attacks Jeanne, not doing any damage, it seems. She and Jeanne have a mock battle while everyone looks on, but then Mawra gets attacked. Slinker hit her, and they both pass out. They both want the glory of killing us and taking the armlet. Just then, more townsfolk catch up to us. We switch to some anime, where they have us surrounded by a cliffside. Jeanne is trying to talk them down, but they've already begun to attack us. We're defending ourselves, and only La Hire is really doing any damage, but then Liana tells Jeanne to stop being naive. Jeanne's "French First" attitude doesn't always work, and she can't save everyone all the time. Talbot is never going to not be relevant, is he? From behind some stuff rises a man with a crossbow. He takes aim at Liana, which causes Jeanne to act. She pulls out her sword to defend her friend but gets shot for her trouble. She ends up rolling down the cliff, barely holding on to a rock. It gives after a moment, and Jeanne falls. Liana manages to save her, but her strength is already wavering. Liana promises she'll never let go, which causes the armlet to change. It glows and places itself around Liana's arm. Just then, the grip of both women give, and Jeanne falls. The death of the Pucelle really kills the mood, and all three parties go their separate ways. The townsfolk return home, the monsters return to England, and we go to Chapter IV.

Mawra, Slinker, and Blaze are before King Henry, and he's upset. It's entirely because Jeanne died in a boring way, but also because he didn't get his armlet. Mawre promises to get it for it, "even at the cost of death." Henry then attacks his underlings, so he's getting madder and madder as time goes on.

We're with our party now, and Marcel and Rufus are crying because their friend died. Colet is annoyed because he hates kids and dogs. Richard, though, goes to speak to Liana... Some days pass, and we're before Charles. Giles walked into their tent earlier and called Liana, "Jeanne..." Richard wants to keep the Pucelle's legend alive, and Liana will now play the part of her dead friend. Charles is an idiot, by the way, but we're still going to make him King. But that'll have to wait until...

...tomorrow!

Had William the Bastard not hated his epithet, would we have gotten this game. Should have stayed in Normandy, Bill!