The Fiend's Lair (Japanese:魔王の城The Demon King's Castle) is the twenty-third chapter ofFire Emblem: Thracia 776.

Plot

Main article:The Fiend's Lair/Script

Leif's army approachesMunster as its citizens try to flee, but even thoughCed is in the city, he cannot protect those citizens himself. He leaves the task toSaias, who volunteers to help, and also asks Saias to give Leif theBragi Sword, as he will need it to break Raydrik's defenses of theLoptr Sword. Raydrik sendsFarden to hunt down the citizens escorted by Saias, and in the chaos,Altena andCoulter arrive, with Coulter carrying out an immediate attempt to seize Munster as per KingTravant'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 killsAlphand – 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 theTower 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

Chapter Data
Conditions	Unit Data
Victory: Seize the gate	Player	Partner	Other	Enemy	Third
Defeat:Leif orCed dies	8–16+2	{{{partner}}}	6+1−1	17+107	{{{third}}}

Units are arranged based on their position in deployment order after Leif.

Character data

Characters
New units
Saias High Priest HP 23 Inventory Lightning Warp Silence Heal Door Key Level 12 Automatically from turn 1 Ced Sage HP 32 Inventory Forseti Vulnerary Level 14 NPC, talk to withLeif
Forcibly deployed characters
Available characters

Saias does not receive bonuses fromauthority 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 theCivilians are killed or captured, Saias will leave at the end of the chapter.

Item data

Items

Name Obtainment Method Vulnerary Visit left house Pure Water Visit middle house Physic Visit right house Bragi Sword Talk toSaias withLeif, or at the end of the chapter if Leif did not talk to Saias and Saias is alive and uncaptured

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.

Enemy Units

Name Class Lv # HP Str Mag Skill Spd Lck Prf Wlv Def Res Cha Lck Con Mov Inventory and Skills Loptrian Dark Mage 18 2 24~34 0~10 5~15 4~14 3~13 0~10 4~14 5~15 6~7 Jormungand •Sleep Authority: Alphand Does not move; randomly acts or does not act each turn. Munster Poison Ballista 18 3 20~40 4~20 0~20 3~20 0~20 0~3 5~20 20 0 Poison Ballista Authority: Farden Munster General 20 1 26~48 7~20 1~20 5~20 2~20 0~20 12~20 10~20 6~7 Hammer •Poleax •Poison Axe •Killer Axe •Master Axe •Vulnerary Charm Authority: Farden Moves to attack units in range. Munster Great Knight 17 3 24~43 5~20 1~20 6~20 6~20 0~19 5~20 9~20 9~10 Battle Axe •Hammer •Vulnerary Authority: Farden Munster Duke Knight 18 4 24~44 5~20 1~20 6~20 6~20 0~20 5~20 8~20 9~10 Great Lance •Killer Lance •Vulnerary Authority: Farden Munster Bow Knight 17 2 24~43 5~20 1~20 6~20 6~20 0~19 5~20 7~20 9~10 Great Bow •Vulnerary Authority: Farden Alphand Dark Bishop 13 1 56 4 17 15 15 13 12 12 6 Jormungand •Silence •Hel Authority: ★★ Action: ★★ • Not present duringpreparations. • Does not move; stands on agate, the chapter's seize point. • Obtains aPoison on turn 5. • Dies and is replaced byCed in a scripted event if a unit nears the plateau surrounding his position (columns 14–24, rows 12–19). Farden Paladin 20 1 48 15 5 14 16 16 13 17 9 Flame Sword •Master Lance •Vulnerary Authority: ★★ Action: ★ Not present duringpreparations.

Reinforcements

Name Class Lv # HP Str Mag Skill Spd Lck Prf Wlv Def Res Cha Lck Con Mov Inventory and Skills Coulter Wyvern Knight 14 1 48 16 5 16 15 9 16 17 9 Silver Lance •Javelin •Ridersbane •Vulnerary Authority: ★ Does not move until Alphand is defeated, at which point he begins moving to attackCed, and moves to escape if he is inaccessible (e.g. Ced did not appear or wasrescued). Thracia Wyvern Knight 12 8 45 13 4 12 11 12 14 13 9 Silver Lance •Ridersbane Authority: Coulter Does not move until Alphand is defeated, at which point they begin moving to attackCed, and move to escape if he is inaccessible (e.g. Ced did not appear or wasrescued). Altena Wyvern Knight 14 1 20~25 7~12 1~6 6~11 6~11 0~5 9~14 5~10 9~10 Dragon Lance Adept •Vantage Authority: Coulter Ignores combat. Does not move until Alphand is defeated, at which point she moves to leave the map. Cannot be stolen from. Thief Thief 5 1 16~23 1~8 0~3 1~8 6~13 0~7 0~7 5~12 7~8 Iron Sword •Lockpick Steal Ignores combat; moves to raid houses, then moves to escape south. Munster Great Knight 15 8 24~41 5~20 1~18 6~20 6~20 0~17 5~20 9~20 9~10 Hammer Authority: Farden Munster Duke Knight 14 8 24~40 5~20 1~17 6~20 6~20 0~16 5~20 8~20 9~10 Great Lance Authority: Farden Loptrian Dark Mage 13 80 24~39 0~15 5~20 4~19 3~18 0~15 4~19 5~20 6~7 Jormungand Authority: Alphand

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)
  • Altena,Coulter, and eightWyvern Riders from the southeastern mountains
• Turn 3
  • OneThief from the northeast corner of the map
• Turns 3–10
  • OneGreat Knight from the left fortress
  • OneDuke Knight from the right fortress
  • Up to tenDark 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 thePoison 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

NPC Units

Name Class Lv # HP Str Mag Skill Spd Lck Prf Wlv Def Res Cha Lck Con Mov Inventory and Skills Civilian Civilian 1 5 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 -- Moves to escape north. Civilian Civilian 1 1 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 -- Moves to escape north.

Reinforcements

Name Class Lv # HP Str Mag Skill Spd Lck Prf Wlv Def Res Cha Lck Con Mov Inventory and Skills Ced Sage 7 1 32 3 17 16+20 16+20 10 9 8 8 Forseti •Door Key Adept Authority: ★ Action: ★★ Does not move; stands on agate, the chapter's seize point.

Reinforcements

• Turn after a unit enters the plateau surrounding the castle (columns 14–24, rows 12–19); halted upon Alphand being defeated
  • Ced appears at the gate and killsAlphand

Boss data

Main article:Alphand

Dark Bishop Level 13 Action ★★ Authority ★★

Stats Max HP 56 Speed 15 Strength 4 Luck 13 Magic 17 Defense 12 Skill 15 Constitution 12 Movement 6 FCM 0

Inventory Skills Jormungand Silence Hel -- Weapon Levels -- -- -- -- A E E E -- A

Strategy

At the start of this chapter, theHigh Priest namedSaias, 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 ofCed. Compared to when he was an enemy unit (where he had 10 leadership stars granting a whopping +30hit andavoid 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 toLeif, he will give him theBragi Sword, a sacred blade which negates the damage-halving effect ofRaydrik'sLoptr 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 useWarp to skip to the boss and kill and seize the chapter in one turn. Doing so means that the twoSleepDark 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 acritical hit from hisForseti. After that, he will remain on the gate for the remainder of the map. While he is in range of the ballista, thedefense 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 bossAlphand will get aPoison 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 viarescuing, 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 permanentlydismount in the next chapter onwards. Additionally, as a result of the forced dismounting, all of your mounted units who specialize in usingaxes orlances will be forced to use onlyswords for the remainder of the game.

Etymology and other languages

Gallery

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  Map of the chapter