I mean, end of the day, the only difference between what Archduke Leto wants and what Duchess Mantrae wants is whether Sypha goes straight home or if Mantrae has to apologize for trying to kidnap Leto's daughter and barter her to the Empire.
I'm not sure if you're picturing Mantrae delivering a formally-worded version of "My bad, seemed like a good idea at the time" and everyone calling it good, but the exact wording in the earlier updates was "She will see her mother again, but only after some terms are agreed to between Mantrae and I." We are not on good terms with Mantrae, she betrayed Artemis, kidnapped several party members, and violated an alliance with our nation. Our entire goal here, politically, is to penalize her appropriately for those crimes but without totally breaking the alliance in the face of the Empire's aggression.
If you think she's going to place both herself--the head of her nation's government--and her only heir irrevocably in the power of a semi-hostile foreign country with excellent reason to be furious at her...gonna have to agree to disagree there. I suppose Mantrae's done horribly stupid things for her daughter before, true, but I wouldn't count on it.
Admittedly, it might be more feasible to trick her operatives into cooperating by letting them think we're going to take Sypha back to Mantrae, but it seems like adding a lot more complexities to go wrong and, again, I don't want to place Ryza under yet more ethical stress.
[X] Have Robin deliver the note. He'll get some idea of their capabilities, and Belle's plan will proceed, but hopefully you'll be able to act to rescue Sypha in the end.
[X] Rest and plan. You're still a little tired; so taking a bit of time will mean that you'll be in top form for tonight.
[X] Have Robin deliver the note. He'll get some idea of their capabilities, and Belle's plan will proceed, but hopefully you'll be able to act to rescue Sypha in the end.
[X] Rest and plan. You're still a little tired; so taking a bit of time will mean that you'll be in top form for tonight.
[X] Have Robin deliver the note. He'll get some idea of their capabilities, and Belle's plan will proceed, but hopefully you'll be able to act to rescue Sypha in the end.
[X] Rest and plan. You're still a little tired; so taking a bit of time will mean that you'll be in top form for tonight.
I'm not sure if you're picturing Mantrae delivering a formally-worded version of "My bad, seemed like a good idea at the time" and everyone calling it good, but the exact wording in the earlier updates was "She will see her mother again, but only after some terms are agreed to between Mantrae and I."
We are not on good terms with Mantrae, she betrayed Artemis, kidnapped several party members, and violated an alliance with our nation. Our entire goal here, politically, is to penalize her appropriately for those crimes but without totally breaking the alliance in the face of the Empire's aggression.
If you think she's going to place both herself--the head of her nation's government--and her only heir irrevocably in the power of a semi-hostile foreign country with excellent reason to be furious at her...gonna have to agree to disagree there. I suppose Mantrae's done horribly stupid things for her daughter before, true, but I wouldn't count on it.
The whole reason that taking Sypha hostage is an effective way to get her to agree to unspecified terms when she wouldn't otherwise is because she'd do "stupid" things for her daughter. For that matter, since there's no way Archduke Leto is marching down to Mantrae's castle to discuss terms, she'd have to put herself into the power of a semi-foreign hostile country for any of this to work, unless this is the one Fire Emblem region where the telegraph has been invented. This argument makes no sense.
[X] Have Robin deliver the note. He'll get some idea of their capabilities, and Belle's plan will proceed, but hopefully you'll be able to act to rescue Sypha in the end.
[X] Rest and plan. You're still a little tired; so taking a bit of time will mean that you'll be in top form for tonight.
We could use the extra hands, even if only to distract the Talons while we Seize the tent. And who knows, maybe if we clear this chapter with all allied units alive (blue AND green), we might get Artemis' bow back (is it the legendary weapon needed to kill the final boss, or just an iron bow with additional Crit and rapier effectiveness in addition to the flying effectiveness?).
[X] Have Robin deliver the note. He'll get some idea of their capabilities, and Belle's plan will proceed, but hopefully you'll be able to act to rescue Sypha in the end.
[X] Rest and plan. You're still a little tired; so taking a bit of time will mean that you'll be in top form for tonight.
Neither Mantrae nor ourselves want the Talons to cut Sylpha's throat. Beyond that our interests, in many respects, are diametrically opposed. That is...not a minor detail.
For that matter, since there's no way Archduke Leto is marching down to Mantrae's castle to discuss terms, she'd have to put herself into the power of a semi-foreign hostile country for any of this to work, unless this is the one Fire Emblem region where the telegraph has been invented. This argument makes no sense.
Nope, no telegraphs around here that we've seen. But there is this odd local custom called an ambassador, with which a country can open a long-distance line of communication with another nation and even arrive at legally binding agreements, all while the head of state stays safely at home! Useful, no?
And who knows, maybe if we clear this chapter with all allied units alive (blue AND green), we might get Artemis' bow back (is it the legendary weapon needed to kill the final boss, or just an iron bow with additional Crit and rapier effectiveness in addition to the flying effectiveness?).
Neither Mantrae nor ourselves want the Talons to cut Sylpha's throat. Beyond that our interests, in many respects, are diametrically opposed. That is...not a minor detail.
Nope, no telegraphs around here that we've seen. But there is this odd local custom called an ambassador, with which a country can open a long-distance line of communication with another nation and even arrive at legally binding agreements, all while the head of state stays safely at home! Useful, no?
I want to continue this argument but I am a fcuking wreck right now and that response would probably use way more profanity thant is appropriate. I'd rather not get banned from another great community because I couldn't recognize when I was being an idiot, especially since I know better now.
(is it the legendary weapon needed to kill the final boss, or just an iron bow with additional Crit and rapier effectiveness in addition to the flying effectiveness?).
The Moon Bow is essentially Artemis's Rapier, with the caveat that it deals effective damage to fliers, cavalry and beasts to lean into her huntress archetype. No anti-armor effectiveness.
[X] Have Robin deliver the note. He'll get some idea of their capabilities, and Belle's plan will proceed, but hopefully you'll be able to act to rescue Sypha in the end.
[X] Go and see if you can find Jace and/or John. You still feel bad about abandoning them, maybe you can still make things right. Also, you are curious about what exactly Jace saw that scared him so much… it might be important.
My intuition is that they expect Mantrae to hire someone to rescue her daughter; that someone including some kind of short mage (I'm assuming the Talons won't have enough visibility to recognize Ryza as a literal child in the chaos) would be unusual, but not spy-worthy. A third party consisting of a short mage and a hunter probably would be, if only to figure out if they can recover the hostage.
I was thinking less spies and more the political ramifications of Mantrae sending forces and potentially opening combat in an Imperial town. I mean, given that Sypha will presumably end up in Agrithe this is also somewhat of a concern even with Ryza and Robin if things get all dragon-y but I think the general confusion surrounding Ryza actually works to our benefit in the short-to-medium term at least.
[X] Have Robin deliver the note. He'll get some idea of their capabilities, and Belle's plan will proceed, but hopefully you'll be able to act to rescue Sypha in the end.
[X] Rest and plan. You're still a little tired; so taking a bit of time will mean that you'll be in top form for tonight.
[X] Have Robin deliver the note. He'll get some idea of their capabilities, and Belle's plan will proceed, but hopefully you'll be able to act to rescue Sypha in the end.
[X] Go and see if you can find Jace and/or John. You still feel bad about abandoning them, maybe you can still make things right. Also, you are curious about what exactly Jace saw that scared him so much… it might be important.
[X] Keep the note to yourselves. You'll have to react quickly to whatever plan Belle has, but there's no way Mantrae's people could sneak Sypha out from under your noses.
[X] Go with Robin and deliver the note yourself, and try to form some sort of an agreement. Mantrae's people almost certainly have orders to bring her straight back to Legerius, but maybe you can work something out.
[x] Go with Robin and deliver the note yourself, and try to form some sort of an agreement. Mantrae's people almost certainly have orders to bring her straight back to Legerius, but maybe you can work something out.
[X] Rest and plan. You're still a little tired; so taking a bit of time will mean that you'll be in top form for tonight.
[x] Go with Robin and deliver the note yourself, and try to form some sort of an agreement. Mantrae's people almost certainly have orders to bring her straight back to Legerius, but maybe you can work something out.
[X] Rest and plan. You're still a little tired; so taking a bit of time will mean that you'll be in top form for tonight.
[X] Have Robin deliver the note. He'll get some idea of their capabilities, and Belle's plan will proceed, but hopefully you'll be able to act to rescue Sypha in the end.
[X] Rest and plan. You're still a little tired; so taking a bit of time will mean that you'll be in top form for tonight.
"We do best when we've got time to think and talk things over."
-Emperor Wyrmblood to Archmage Lenora, The First Emperor
"Are you sure you'll be okay?" you ask worriedly as Robin peeks out past the tree to see if anyone's watching. "I could still-"
Robin shakes his head. "No, Ryza, we talked about this. At the moment, our goals and those of the Countess are opposed. Even if we were able to set aside our differences tonight, her men would be bound by oath to betray us, as we would be bound to betray them. No, best to simply let them take some of the Talon's attention, leaving us more free to act. As for the note; it must be me that delivers this message. They might try to hurt you, which is unacceptable. They don't know me."
You sigh as you slump back. "I… I just wish it didn't have to be like this," you say. "That we could just work together."
"You have a good heart, Ryza," Robin says gently. "And spirits willing, we will be able to realign Agrithe and Legerius. However, to do that, we need to ensure that His Highness has the opportunity to set things right politically." He reaches out and squeezes your shoulder. "Stay here, Ryza. Get some rest; you're going to need your strength for tonight. I will return soon." With that, he set off down the path, throwing up the hood of his inside-out cloak. As you watch him, you marvel at the differences a few minor adjustments of clothing and equipment makes in his appearance. Hopefully, if the Talons are looking for "Hood", they won't realize it's Robin.
Tucking yourself among the roots of the tree, you reach into the bag and pull out some of the bread. It's not as nice as it was before, becoming harder and crunchier as time goes on. Still, it's different from what you'd lived on your entire life, and you haven't gotten over the novelty yet.
As you eat, you look up at the sky. You'd arrived in Glenhaven just after the sun reached its height, and all the running around and sneaking you've done has taken up almost an hour, which means you probably have about five or six hours before it's dark enough for anything to happen. A part of you wants to curl up and go to sleep for a bit. However, you're not sure someone won't come looking for you, so you resist.
Instead, you start sketching in the dirt, trying to remember where everything you saw in the Talons' camp is. If you can't do anything right now, the best thing to do is to plan for what you're going to do when you can.
Once you're done sketching, you frown down at the map. It's not to scale or particularly artistic, but you hope it'll get the job done. Alongside the important places the boys showed you, such as the tent Sypha was being held in, you put some query runes next to a few other things you noticed.
A slightly bigger tent had a flattened area in front of it. Nothing seemed to be there when you'd passed, but there had clearly been something there at some point. There'd been another larger tent that you hadn't gotten a good look at further north, so you have no idea what it was. Surely it was something important, though.
You stare at the map, as if it would speak and answer all your questions on how you were going to get Sypha out of that camp with as few people you care about getting hurt as possible.
"Okay, what do I want to do?" you mutter to yourself, pulling out a piece of meat and nibbling on it to give your body something to do while you wrap yourself in thoughts.
Starting with the obvious; you want to get Sypha out safely. That goes without saying; it's the reason you're here. Of course, equally important is making sure that both you and Robin are okay afterwards. Artemis told you she thought that was the most important thing. Well, technically she'd only mentioned you, but Robin was her teacher, so surely she wanted him to be safe too.
What else do you want to do? Frowning, you think back to the three boys who'd inadvertently helped you. If you can, you do want to get Jack out okay. Surely John will be able to forgive you for lying to him if you do that. That's one thing you can do if you get the chance. It might not be easy, but surely it's the morally right thing to do.
Anything else? Well, if you have a chance, you'd like to get Artemis's bow back. Her father gave her that bow. If someone took away something your Father had given you, you'd want it back so badly. Besides, you might have a chance to damage or destroy the other tools the Talons use to hurt people.
Come to think of it, there are other ways you can make things easier for yourself afterwards. You're going to be stressed and grumpy if you're forced to half-shift over and over again in rapid succession like you did on the way here. Especially since you're going to be carrying two people, one of whom might not really want to be there. If you can make it harder for the Talons to follow you, that will make your life a lot simpler for the next few days. How exactly you'll do that, you're not too sure, but it seems like it might be useful to think on it more.
There's also the question that's been hanging over you ever since you found the slaughter in the forest: what do the Talons want to hide? Why did they kill their own allies? You're not sure how you would go about figuring that out, but if you could… Well, if they were willing to kill so many people to keep whatever it is secret, then if you could expose that secret that would surely hurt them. After everything they've done, they deserve to be hurt.
Frowning, you stop the growing avalanche of thoughts. 'Don't overload yourself,' you think. You have a primary goal that you need to achieve, and a few ideas of other things that it will be nice to do if you can. Maybe there are others, but right now, you need to focus on what you can do to make everything turn out for the best. What advantages do you have over the Talons?
'Well, they don't know I'm here,' you think, nibbling on another piece of bread. 'That's an advantage. And even if they do figure out I'm here, they don't know what I'm capable of.' You can fly, you can see in the dark, and you can use magic that everyone says is as good or better than a human's. You'll need to find a way to leverage those advantages.
What advantages do the Talons have? Looking down at your map, you make note of all the little rectangles you put on it, and you're sure you missed some. There are a lot of them. More than you can fight head on. What else, what else? They have a Green mage. You don't know if you're better than he is or if he's better than you, but you know that Green magic is inherently effective against Yellow magic, just as a powerful enough wind can tear apart a storm cloud before it can build up a lightning bolt. So fighting him head-on will probably be a bad idea.
There's also the wyvern to think about. You've never met a wyvern before, but from what you've read they are vicious when angered. Combine that with a human it must love and want to protect, if only because it lets the human ride on its back, and you have a dangerous enemy on your hands. One that will be able to follow you in the air, negating your best escape path.
You don't know how long you sit there, pondering different thoughts and ideas, before you hear faint footsteps coming up the hill. Peeking around the tree, you let out your breath as you see Robin making his way to you.
"Robin, you're back!" you say. "Did everything go alright?"
Robin nods, sitting down next to you. "It wasn't easy, but I found them," he says. "They were well hidden, but the passphrase drew them out."
"Are they Mantrae's people?" you ask.
"I can't know for sure, but I can't see who else it would be," Robin says. "I didn't see all of them, but I'd guess there's between six and ten. Enough horses for everyone, based on the smell." He frowns thoughtfully. "At least one cavalier, I heard some metallic armor sounds, though they didn't show themselves. They were doing their best at disguising their origins and numbers."
You cock your head. "What do you mean?" you ask.
Robin shrugs. "If I had to guess, aside from letting them know the messenger was friendly, the passphrase gave them the chance to intercept me before I found their camp. I only actually talked to two of them: a pair of spear soldiers. One was certainly a professional, the other was likely some sort of mercenary. Not nearly as circumspect." He smirks. "I got the feeling he wanted to offer me the chance to help them out, but Claire shut that down pretty fast."
"Claire?" you ask.
"The only name I got, from the other soldier. She looked very annoyed that he'd given me that." Robin shrugs. "Still, they did give me an incentive not to talk." He pulls out a bag and jingles it. "They not only paid handsomely me for delivering the message, but they also promised that there would be more for me tomorrow, so long as I kept my mouth shut." Pulling out a few gold coins, he studies them. "Interesting, made sure to use Imperial coinage. If I did go to the Talons, all they'd be able to figure out is that they're up to something, not exactly what."
"Do you think they'd be able to rescue Sypha, if we weren't here?" you ask.
"I don't know," Robin says. "They clearly think they can, or they wouldn't be here. If nothing else, they have a plan and an agent on the inside, so I would give them halfway decent odds at rescuing Lady Sypha in the first place." He sighs. "As for keeping her… well, hopefully they have a plan for the wyvern. That beast will make any escape a lot harder if it's not dealt with."
"What do you think they're going to do?" you say. "Did you get any idea of what the plan Belle was giving them was?"
"Sadly, no," Robin says. "But we can count out any sort of open assault: that would be suicidal." Leaning over your map, he frowns thoughtfully. "If I had to guess, and I stress that this is an educated guess based on what I know of ambush tactics and small war, they'll cause some sort of distraction by targeting a vital part of the camp while most of the Talons are sleeping, eating or drinking. This will draw off the guards and throw the camp into confusion, allowing either Belle to get Lady Sypha out herself or a small, quiet force to slip in and get her." His frown deepens. "From there… well, I do not see a version of this where many of the soldiers sent survive the night. There are just too many Talons. They'll hold as long as they can, try to kill the wyvern rider at least, but most of them will probably die. Even those who do escape will likely try to lay false trails so that whoever is taking Lady Sypha back to Legerius has a chance to make it." He sighs. "I doubt more than one or maybe two of them survives, and it'd take the Sentinel's own blessing to get Lady Sypha all the way back to Legerius. Still, they will try, there is no doubt about that."
The sheer starkness of Robin's words makes you flinch. "Why? Why would they…"
"Most of these are surely Mantrae's sworn men, and for all his lack of proper protocol the mercenary I saw was a dedicated, determined soul. I don't know what they're paying him, but if I could I'd offer double to get him into Agrithe's service. Their duty is to see Lady Sypha safely home; they will fight to the death to see that done. Just as I would fight to the death to see Lady Artemis returned home, had you not been able to rescue her yourself."
You lean around the tree to look at the distant woods, your thoughts racing. You know that love is strong enough to lead to this sort of self-sacrificing behavior. After all, your mother had walked into the jaws of many dragons transformed in rage to protect you and your father, and your father had followed her as soon as he made sure you'd be safe. These people love Sypha, love her mother, enough to lay down their own lives for them.
"We're going to stop that, right?" you ask. "We're going to make sure as many of them survive as possible, right?"
Robin studies you. "It won't be easy," he says. "If we want to preserve them, we'll have to strike hard and fast to draw off attention from the Talons. We'll also need to let them know that they need to disengage as soon as we've gotten Lady Sypha away ourselves or else they'll stand and fight to the end. They won't be happy about anyone else getting her, but if they know the Talons don't have her, then they'll turn to pursuing us." He leans back. "It'll make the journey back harder, since we'll be their new target."
"But we wouldn't kill them all," you say.
Robin raises an eyebrow. "Weren't you willing to kill the two guards keeping Lady Artemis prisoner at Castle Legerius?" he asks mildly.
You flinch. "That… that was different," you say.
"Because it was your dragon doing it?"
"Yes? No? It's complicated." You hug your legs and put your chin on your knees. "It's just… I don't like that we have to-"
Robin gently puts his hands on either side of your face and pulls it up to look at him. "I am sorry, Ryza," he says. "I am sorry that His Highness has put you in this position, and though he'll never say it I'm sure he is too. You're not a soldier, you're not a warrior. You're a scholar and a child. If we had someone else with your power, we would have put this burden on their shoulders, not yours. But we don't, and so we must turn to you. Lady Artemis and Agrithe are depending on you to do what needs to be done." He gives you a firm look. "The Talons. Do you have qualms about killing them?"
Slowly, you shake your head. "They… they started all this," you say. "They chose to take Sypha away, to try to take Artemis away, to cause all of this suffering. I don't… want, to do it, I guess, but if it must be it must be."
Robin nods. "A healthy attitude," he says. "I don't think there's a child alive who should want to kill others. And I will agree with you; I hope we don't have to kill Countess Mantrae's people either. We are here to ensure that there is peace between Legerius and Agrithe, a peace forged in a mutual understanding. It would be best if we could do this while keeping as many of her loyal soldiers alive as possible. Still, we must prepare for the possibility."
You let out a breath. "If you say so," you say before quickly changing the subject. "So now we just need to figure out how we're going to do all of this." You point back at the map. "While you were gone, I was coming up with some ideas, do you want to hear them?"
Robin smiles. "That sounds like an excellent idea, Ryza," he says. You describe your thought process to Robin, who nods along. "Not bad," he says finally. "I like that you thought beyond the immediate need to rescue Lady Sypha. However, we need to remain mostly focused. If we get distracted trying to achieve every single admittedly admirable goal, we will spread ourselves too thin. Best to choose a few and get those done while remaining focused on getting Sypha out."
The next few hours are spent arguing over the various twists and turns the coming battle could take. Finally, as the sun begins to sink towards the horizon, Robin urges you to take a few minutes to rest your eyes so that you're ready for tonight. It's not going to be easy, but you have a plan, and that's better than some of the other times you've had to fight.
You can do this. You can make Mother and Father and Artemis proud by making sure Sypha and Robin gets out okay.
Pre-Battle Phase:
Your Force:
Ryza (Level 3 Yellow Manakete: Thunder's Cry and Dragonstone)
Robin (Level 10 Yeoman: Silver Bow, Steel Sword, Elixer)
Enemy Force:
1x Wyvern Rider (???)
1x Green Mage (???)
Ubel (Level 5 Mercenary: Silver Sword)
Robert (Level ??? Cavalier: Presence assumed but unconfirmed)
More than 60x assorted Mercenaries, Fighters, Soldiers, and Archers (Mixed levels)
2x Traitor Agrithian Yeomen
At least 2x Clerics (???)
Battlefield:
Despite their overwhelming numbers, the vast majority of the Talon mercenaries are at ease. Many are only lightly armed and are not paying special attention to their surroundings. The camp is set at the top a hill overlooking the town of Glenhaven. The town itself is far enough away to not immediately factor into the battlefield, though if the combat becomes too loud, it will not be impossible for people to arrive from that direction.
The only possibly useful terrain features nearby are a large field of tall grass along the east side of the path leading to Glenhaven, though it does not reach all the way to the camp, and the man-made mound of earth along the back of the Training Area.
While Talon mercenaries are scattered through the camp in groups of 2-3, the largest concentrations are in and around the large mess tent. The second largest concentration is near the Training Area. You do not have much information on the northern sections of the camp, but you saw another larger tent that might be another gathering area.
There is also a thin parameter of more alert guards around the edges of the camp, but they do not seem to cover every approach.
Mantrae's forces are not yet on the battlefield except for Belle, so their exact strategy is unclear. However, it will likely be a two-pronged affair, with one wing focused on delaying and targeting key Talon assets while another rescues Sypha.
Primary Objective: Rescue Sypha
[] Plan Vote:
Secondary Objectives:
-[] Write In
Strategy:
-[] Write In
AN: Remember to check the Combat Mechanics informational post for information on how combat is run. This will be slightly more free-form than the previous combat, due to its broader scale, but it will follow the same rules. I'm also going to make this voting period a bit longer, I encourage you to take the time to talk it over, ask any questions you need to, and come up with a good plan. We're out of the tutorial: things are starting to get more dangerous.
Plan well, and may the odds be ever in your favor.
Come to think of it, there are other ways you can make things easier for yourself afterwards. You're going to be stressed and grumpy if you're forced to half-shift over and over again in rapid succession like you did on the way here. Especially since you're going to be carrying two people, one of whom might not really want to be there. If you can make it harder for the Talons to follow you, that will make your life a lot simpler for the next few days. How exactly you'll do that, you're not too sure, but it seems like it might be useful to think on it more.
One was certainly a professional, the other was likely some sort of mercenary. Not nearly as circumspect." He smirks. "I got the feeling he wanted to offer me the chance to help them out, but Claire shut that down pretty fast."
"Claire?" you ask.
"The only name I got, from the other soldier. She looked very annoyed that he'd given me that."
Surprisingly, Sypha's tent is off towards one edge of the camp. Unfortunately, if we try to attack from that direction, we'll almost certainly run into Mantrae's people.
As I see it, our goal prioritization should be as follows:
Rescue Sypha
Duh
Rescue Jack
It's the right thing to do, if we can find him
Retrieve Artemis's bow & weapon sabotage
If we can do the former, the latter shouldn't take much extra effort or risk
Other sabotage
Horses seem like a good target, both because we know they're all in one place and for reasons I'll get to
Gather intelligence for future use
It's not immediately useful, we don't know where to look or what to look for, and we'll probably get something in the course of achieving other objectives
I want to rescue Jack, but unless they stuck him in the same tent as Sypha, I have no idea where they might have put him or how to find him. I don't want to leave it at "We'll save him if we see him," but what else can we do?
Horses seem like a good target for sabotage, because we can use them. Steal a handful for us, cut the rest loose and open the gates. The horses freaking out will do most of the work for us! (Even warhorses are skittish, sometimes even with a skilled rider controlling them. Especially if a dangerous or unfamiliar animal is around—it's not easy to get warhorses to charge camelry, for instance. Hopefully the wyvern qualifies?)
Plus, we know where the horses are, so it should be easier to mess with the horses than to (for instance) burn their supplies or whatever. This advantage applies to messing with/retrieving weapons. But there's one problem:
(Sorry for the terrible image edit—I'm on mobile right now, I don't have my preferred image editing software.)
Going for the horses and going for the weapons requires going in completely opposite directions from Sypha's tent! So to hit all three, we'd either need to start with the weapons and cut through the entire camp before reaching Sypha, then hope the horses are unguarded, or split up after rescuing Sypha (probably with Robin taking Sypha to the horses, while Ryza goes to get Artemis's bow and do something with the weapons). The latter sounds like a less bad plan, but it doesn't sound like a good plan.
Which I guess brings up the question...what can we even do to the weapons?
Another possible plan comes to mind, with a very different focus.
We don't know what's in the big unidentified tents (that's why they're unidentified), but it's probably something if they're so big. We might find Jack there, or learn some critical secret, or come across something worth sabotaging. But for all we know, they're the green mage's quarters or the wyvern stable.
And I haven't given much thought to the whole "rescue Lady Sypha" thing. Do we just plan to force our way in when Belle or whomever does a distraction, grab Sypha, and hope she doesn't recognize any of Mantrae's men as we drag her out?
@JAGwin's point could make things a bit easier. If Kelton really is among Mantrae's men, we might have one more soldier than we realized, and/or an easier time working with the rest of Mantrae's crew. But we might not, especially if that guy isn't Kelton at all (or if Kelton is part of the distraction—he's more expendable).
I realize this has just been a bunch of ideas, but it feels like we're in the brainstorming stage.
A slightly bigger tent had a flattened area in front of it. Nothing seemed to be there when you'd passed, but there had clearly been something there at some point.
That is almost definitely Kelton. Claire is the name of the soldier that was friendly to him during our brief time in his PoV. I also agree that my first thought was the flattened area is where the wyvern is kept. It's near Sypha's tent too which I think raises the odds of that.
That leaves the other ??? building at the north end. I'm inclined to believe that's the Commander's tent but that's just a hunch. I'm doubting the mage's tent is marked on Ryza's map because there was never any indication she caught onto anything about him while we were there AFAIK.
In terms of distractions, the classic of "let the horses loose" is what first came to mind. Though given that Mantrae's forces are in that direction I wonder if that's also their plan for a distraction. The large gathering place on Ryza's map is the mess hall and I guess it's a potential target but I don't know how we'd best go about that.
As for objectives, I don't think we should get too complicated. Get Sypha (and hope they threw Jack with her as a fellow prisoner) and get out. If we haven't already released the horses then do that. I think running into the wyvern or mage wouldn't be the worst thing here if we can deal with one of them. The wyvern has the ability to easily chase us of course, but Green magic has all the movement stuff so that mage is going to be a problem on the pursuit even if everything goes well. If he's buffing the wyvern, even more so. Unfortunately neither of those sounds like ideal matchups for us.
I guess I'll ask this then: Would it be possible for Ryza to fake a lightning strike on the camp? Aside from being shocking (no pun intended) it could maybe start a fire as an additional distraction. Not sure if the magic works like that or if Ryza's range allows for it to be viable even if it can be used that way. If it can maybe approach using that noted tall grass on the Glenhaven path and hope we can get close enough? Ideally the horses would be let loose at about the same time but we'd have to split up to ensure that or else hope that is part of Belle's plan. And of course, this is all contingent on the weather if we don't want it to be seen through immediately. I mean, it will be quickly, but every second could count. The update is titled "Stormclouds Gather" though so maybe
So my question is this: where is the hay for the horses (something that's gonna be by definition pretty flammable)?
Because the simple thought is shift the hay such that when the horses are released they'll run straight through the camp away from the on-fire-hay. Getting horses to run away from fire is about like getting water to roll downhill, just get rid of whatever's preventing that and it'll happen.
Ryza might be able to send a spark into it to light it fairly subtly which would create a heck of a diversion and allow Robin to pull something.
At that point, cue the Yakety Sax because we probably have an absurd chase scene.
