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The Baron in Black
From Fire Emblem Wiki, your source on Fire Emblem information. By fans, for fans.
The Baron in Black (Japanese: 黒衣の男爵The Black-Clad Baron) is the twenty-fourth chapter of Fire Emblem: Thracia 776. In order to play the side quest after, the player must obtain the Kia Staff in this chapter and Sara must have been recruited, uncaptured, and alive.
Leif storms Castle Munster in a final confrontation with Raydrik. During the battle, he also fights Galzus, but if Mareeta is on the battlefield, she recognizes Galzus as someone who rescued her in the past and he joins Leif's army to help save Eyvel, Mareeta's other caretaker.
After the battle ends, if Sara is in Leif's army, Leif heads toward the petrified Eyvel's location in order to undo the spell affecting her with the Kia staff. If Sara is not present, Leif's forces instead move into the Loptian temple underneath the castle in order to eliminate Veld, the man responsible for Eyvel's petrification and for the child hunts around Munster.
Units are arranged based on their position in deployment order after Leif. If Saias or Ced were recruited, they appear in a fixed position above Leif.
The center-north door cannot be opened like a standard door. Instead, it can only be opened by one of the Civilians; which one can open it is determined randomly from the four boys on turn 5.
If they were recruited, Saias or Ced are not available in the preparations menu, and their inventory cannot be managed from preparations. They will join the battle on turn 1.
The secret shop is located in the isolated top-right chamber; requires Warp or Rewarp and unlocking the door.
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.
Authority: Raydrik Action: ★★★★★ • Not present during preparations. Not present if he was killed or captured in Chapters 5 or 6. • Does retaliate against Mareeta; Mareeta does not retaliate against him.
Moves randomly until turn 5, at which point all but one begin moving to escape northwest; on turn 5, one randomly moves to the center-north door, then moves to escape northwest once it is open.
This section details unofficial strategies that may help with completion of the chapter. This may not work for everybody.
The player's army is split into three groups for the chapter:
The middle group must defeat Raydrik and seize the throne
The left group can protect the 8 NPC units and obtain the Kia Staff
The right group can neutralize the group of Dark Mages in the bottom-right room
The middle group needs 1 Door Key. Galzus can only be recruited by the middle group, and only by Mareeta. If Mareeta was assigned to either the left or right groups, she will need to be warped or rescued to the middle squad to recruit Galzus. If Galzus is not recruited, he is dangerous to engage in combat – even with Ced he is best incapacitated with a Sleep staff. The Bragi Sword is incredibly useful for defeating Raydrik, as it deals bonus damage to him and negates the attack-halving effect of his Loptr Sword. Alternatively, a unit with the Steal command can use it to forcibly give Raydrik a 2-range weapon, as to force him to unequip his Loptr Sword and become vulnerable to attack by leaving a unit for him to attack at 2-range. With brave weapons, Mareeta and Galzus can also power through by proccing Astra then getting Luna-criticals to break through Raydrik's defense with raw damage. The unarmed Bishops can be easily captured for staves.
The left group needs at least 3 Door Keys, ideally carried by different units as to ensure they can engage the enemies there as soon as possible to protect the NPC units. The enemies prioritize capturing NPCs, but if they cannot reach a tile adjacent to an NPC to capture one, they will instead attack at 2-range and kill them, so it is important to ensure that NPC units are somewhat spaced out and to kill any enemy holding an NPC as soon as possible. Once the Kia Staff room is open, two units from this group can block the staircases to stop reinforcements from appearing.
The door in the upper center of the map that leads to the room with the Kia Staff chest cannot be opened through conventional means. In order to open it, one of the child NPCs must be able to reach the door, after which they will open it on their turn in a short cut-scene. The NPC who goes to open the door is randomly chosen from one of the four boys, and as such it is imperative to keep all four boys alive as it is impossible to tell which one of them can open the door. However, the girls are expendable and can be safely sacrificed to distract the enemies. The NPCs have very low movement, so it will take very long for them to reach the door by themselves, provided that the way ahead is clear of threats.
The right group can neutralize the Dark Mage congregation and should have some free inventory slots if able. However, a few of the Dark Mages are so dangerous that they are best put to sleep, silenced, or thieved on turn 1 – specifically, the Dark Mages with Sleep, Silence, Berserk, and Restore. The Mercenary on the outside of the door must be taken handled carefully, as he wields a Berserk Sword, though the one on the other side of the door can be killed safely. The reinforcements from the right 2-wide hallway can be prevented from appearing by occupying the tiles they appear from. No other threat exists apart from the enemies with Fenrir and Hel, meaning that the right squad can safely spend the rest of their time capturing the Dark Mages and taking their useful staves so long as the right hallway is blocked to stop reinforcements.
Trivia
This chapter holds the only secret shop in the entirety of Thracia 776.
