[Part of my Adventures in Black Desert Online]

While reporting to Neruda Shen about the imminent barbarian betrayal I notice that Prince Bareeds III advisor is acting super shifty, and pretty much goes on the run when Neruda decides to question him. I chase him and his slow donkey up the coast and when I finally run him down he admits to everything: organizing the assassination of the Sausan leader, manipulating the barbarians, and being the high priest of Illezra whom he calls "the goddess of darkness".

That's certainly the largest form it's taken to date.

[Part of my Adventures in Black Desert Online]

Following my only lead I continue East and find Prince Bareeds III and his retinue, who were also headed to Valencia, holed up at the way station of Rock Fort. Apparently the road ahead is blocked by scary centaurans (yep, centaurs) so I do some scouting and confirm the centaurs are indeed scary (since I'm undergeared for this zone)!  There aren't too many of them on the road though, so I manage to rush past into a canyon mouth which the Katar soldiers of Valencia keep secure.

A little bit beyond them is the Sand Grain Bazaar - a large trading post and settlement which sits right on the border of the great desert. It is here that I learn how to dig up muddy water, filter it, and turn it into tea - essential skills since in the desert you can get heat stroke during the day (need filtered water to cool down) and hypothermia during the night (need star anise tea to warm up). Fortunately, these two effects seem to be turned off for the time being due to the Oasis event.

The desert isn't as black as I thought it would be.

"Get over here!"

Because the gods are bored and need entertainment, a tournament was designed to send the best fighters of each realm to face each other in martial arts combat. If that seems like flaky ground to base a story off, don't worry - everyone ignores the rules for said tournament anyway - just enjoy people beating each other up!

Martial arts with super powers of course!

Diversity just because!

This high budget, one season show is set in the Sherlock Holmes era of London where crimes have taken a dark and supernatural twist. Sounds promising right? Let me dispel that for you now: Sherlock Holmes isn't the main character. It's a gang of lowly street kids who get to solve these horrible crimes because the police can't be bothered?

You know why the cops don't hire them? Because they suck.

As usual I'm posting late about this again, but at least it wasn't Covid-cancelled this year! In fact, it has returned strong with some "interesting"dance moves, sparklypeople, religiousconnotations, and a wholelotofeyecandy. I'm pretty sure the Italian winners would also fit into that category for some people.

Stefania from Greece wins the eye candy prize.

[Part of my Adventures in Black Desert Online]

For a big "empty" desert, the Black Desert actually has a lot of stuff in it. Tiny ruins with pilgrims (NPCs playing ATITD no doubt!), little oasis camps and of course the massive city of Valencia which is easily spotted from very far away.

In the tale of "Curiosity killed the Cat", don't be the cat.

[Part of my Adventures in Black Desert Online]

With my previous success Prince Barhan sends me North around the desert to Shakatu's Territory. The wealthy goblin who rules that region is already a fan of mine, having witnessed by arena battle at Altinova and now wants my help to impress his esteemed visitor, Princess Saya Nesser who was after black dragon essence from the captive dragons at the nearby Gahaz bandit canyon.

There are A LOT of bandits and outside the rare female bandit who clearly uses black dragon juice with her kung fu, the short riflemen are the most dangerous. After killing a thousand of them I finally meet the bandit leader, Gahaz Tuval, who despite being a psychopath manages to convince me not to continue on my mission as his bandits didn't actually "capture" the dragons - the dragons came to them and asked for protection while hibernating.

Hmm, these dragons sleep like whales.

[Part of my Adventures in Black Desert Online]

The first thing I do once I reach the city is something I should have done a long time ago: upgrade my gear! Thanks to the Crow merchant guild I now am rocking some Narchillan equipment with items bought from Oasis Vendor Ellie's shop to supplement giving a significant boost to AP and DP (attack/defense power). Nice!

While doing so I learn there is an excavation taking place underneath Valencia Castle, and that King Sahazad Nesser seeks the key to unlocking a particular chamber in there. The black spirit hints that it can help, and after finding some docile golems in the desert works out that it is the very key the King is looking for.

These things are massive.

[Part of my Adventures in Black Desert Online]

A small group from the excavation team are unhappy that the King won't be paying their full fee due to the locked door remaining so (thanks to my lie), and so recruit me for a money making enterprise (I'll call us the robber team) which involves stealing from city folk, visiting ALL the pilgrimage sites in the desert while digging random sand dunes for treasure, and learning how to read texts of the ancient.

To break up the monotony I also chase down a criminal hiding with Gahaz's bandits (who turns out to be dead, but Gahaz the psycho only tells me this after I kill a hundred more of his gang), kill a lot more nagas at their temple and also an army's worth of their sworn enemies the Egyptian desert fogans, scout a dried up river which is now a monster nesting ground, do some swimming/diving jobs for Shakatu and Princess Saya (rafts are slow, fish suits are awesome), and encounter a few of the Aakman desert wanderers who are doing a poor job of protecting the ancient weapons (golems) of the desert as some are very much active, and hostile.

AOE attacks are great.

[Part of my Adventures in Black Desert Online]

Back in Altinova Neruda Shen is purely focused on getting the arena up and running again which puts him at odds with the Shroud Knights who are struggling against the influx of Sausan reinforcements who bought into a lie sold to them by the Crow merchant guild on how to resurrect their leader. It's up to me to push them back and this time it's a breeze (as long as I stay away from the elite camp) easily killing hundreds of them and their allies - the barbarians, orc helms and Elric cultists.

While I'm at it I also clear out a second laboratory of mutated experiments and help out the sorceresses at a failed expedition in a mountain ruin filled with ancient weapons (golems) and taking the survivors back to Tarif. In town I chance upon a book that speaks of "The Five Rings" of Illezra, who were actually the henchmen of the witch. I manage to track down the remains of the first one a fire bender and hand his magic ring to the Tarif authorities before being summoned back to Calpheon for a mission from the council.

For some reason they have chosen me to be their delegate to the Southern elf lands of Kamasylvia meaning my search for Illezra will need to be put on hold again. At least I get to ride a balloon over the mountains and straight to their capital of Grana where I quickly learn that all elves are female? :O  

Thanks to the fish costume I suppose that makes me a flying fish?

[Part of my Adventures in Black Desert Online]

The elven Queen Brolina has requested military aid from Calpheon to help in their civil war against her sister Viorencia's "Ahibs" and my job is to assess the situation so the council can better make a decision to accept or not. In addition to the civil war, the black spirit seems to be riling up other fauna and flora to be more hostile - the most immediate threat being one of the elves primary food sources.

Now, if you had a city full of sheerly dressed supermodel type women and required an appropriate threat for them what would you design? If your answer was gigantic mobile mushrooms brimming with long tentacles then maybe you should work for Pearl Abyss, because that's exactly what is in the neighboring forests and I end up helping slay hundreds of these, mainly because the elves love getting tentacle shrooms inside them. As food. I think.

Obviously they aren't the only threat as more scary centaurs and blue cat people who lurk in the woods. I slaughter a lot of those blue cats as they manage to destroy my awesome fish suit.  Also, while solving riddles from a centaur shaman requires I actually say the answer in the chat box which finally means I need a family name! Being super creative, I use the exact name I gave my character. :P

Damn selfish blue cat people that don't want to share their unobtanium!

[Part of my Adventures in Black Desert Online]

Surprisingly some of the Calpheon council is waiting for me at Trent, and promptly send me back via another land route on the premise of delivering an official letter to the elf queen. In reality, they reveal that they are thinking about invading both in trade and by force, basically making me their spy. This new road is plagued by annoying gargoyles, but eventually I make it back to the elven border where I manage to bluff my way in.

From there, I befriend a sneaky human poacher by helping him kill other competing poachers (lol) plus a bunch of fauna, including a tribe of angry koalas from whom I nab an ancient tablet, and get directions to an elven military base known as the Old Wisdom Tree. The elves barracks inside the hollow of the fallen wood, and are amiable enough as I help them do random chores around camp.

Then when they are not looking, I snoop through their correspondence and go to the nearby praire to murder the feather wolves they use as pets, the colorful giant birds they use as mounts and smash griffon eggs while dancing around the dangerous griffons themselves. Upon my return to Old Wisdom Tree to sell loot and restock, I am promptly arrested! Looks like those scouts on top of the tree weren't just for show after all.

The more reindeer like they look, the higher the rank?

[Part of my Adventures in Black Desert Online]

Among the elves there are those classified as "saints" and it is one such saint who uses her rank to overrule my arrest when I manage to read the song on the ancient tablet I found from the koalas (I guess the Robber Team did do something useful after all). Said saint basically blackmails me into saving the massive Kamasylve Tree that Grana is based around, which has long been withering away and why the power of the elves (the saints in particular) is weakening.

Since that's better than being locked up I agree and look into the death of Queen Brolina's other sister, Catherine, who was working on this very problem when she became a casualty to the civil war. First I have to prove myself to a race of brass golems whom Catherine befriended by fighting two boss versions of them - a slow but deadly hammer one and a quick and invincible twin sword one who you just need to run circles around until it gets tired and becomes vulnerable.

They give me part of a song she was composing which goes well with the ancient tablet I found and locate the last part of the song at the site of her death (with the help of forest spirits who I've been helping throughout). With these powers combined, I am Captain Planet I basically sing to the tree and revive it fully.

The song isn't specified, so I assume its "Bloody Stream" from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure season two.

It's a magical place.

[Part of my Adventures in Black Desert Online]

At the elf outpost bordering into Dreighan (the people with the dragon problem) I again assist the elven beauties who have just pushed back their Ahib cousins but are now faced with left over man-bats who the Ahibs were using as cannon fodder. Luckily slaying the lead man-bat (in an interesting way) makes the rest disperse and leaves the way open for me to ride into the picturesque and mostly peaceful canyons of this small region.

In no time at all I am at the capital of Duvencrune and learn from the mercenary office there that there is conflict on the Eastern border against blood wolves: wolfweres who claim to be in service of the "revived" dragon, Garmoth. While clashing against them I even see the dragon fly overhead but can only disengage once I defeat their leader Geralt the white wolf.

Afterwards the chief of Duvencrune (a little girl) sends me to the Sherekhan necropolis to try learn how Garmoth was defeated long ago by a band of five warriors and I am very much surprised to find all five risen from their graves - but of course they won't talk unless I manage to beat all of them first. What follows is the most hectic boss fight so far. While they are nice enough to fight one at a time, beating them in a chain is a long fight that eats up many potions. It is epic.

The ancient power rangers!

[Part of my Adventures in Black Desert Online]

Having proved my strength to the Sherekhan they pledge to assist my fight against the dragon, and suggest I visit a swampy ruin next where they last beat it. Garmoth's ears must have been burning because the flying beast attacks me twice on the way there with fly by fire breath, but is unable to stop me.  

At the swamp, a dragon researcher sent there previously by the chief of Duvencrune is already hard at work trying to find why the dragon is back and stronger than before. The answer soon becomes clear: someone is feeding it energy from the black stones. Using holy water at Garmoth's nest brings the massive beast into battle. I learn quickly not to stand under the dragon when it flies and also to NOT STAND IN THE RED CIRCLE. :P

That's a big dragon.

[Part of my Adventures in Black Desert Online]

Somehow Calpheon is still having an issue with infected refugees who claim that this infection began far to the North West, but there are no more reports of infected people there. Suspecting the cure is being kept from them they plead that I go check it out so I do - and find the ruins of a coastal town decimated by a meteor. The people there have turned into alien things that luckily don't wander far from the crater, but they easily kick my ass in combat as apparently they are far stronger than Garmoth!?

Dark knights have strange attire.

Just a short one today: Thanks to a resurgence of COVID-19, a new lockdown has been imposed where I live. This probably means I'm going to eat too much again! Anyway, my adventures in Black Desert Online continue (and happen to be the most viewed post last month) while my Friday night co-op has completed Remnants: From the Ashes. We were/are trying to get into Ghost Recon Wildlands next, which is a fun game - except it simply refuses to work 50% of the time. As that's time better spent gaming, we're currently branching out to see what games don't have this connectivity issue.

Other than that, our guild hall in Neverwinter Online is now level 18! Way to go guildies and allies. Due to my Black Desert-ing I'm definitely low on the contribution board for that achievement.

Most Viewed Posts in the last 30 days

Adventures in Black Desert Online
Castlevania (TV Series)
BDO: Sword on a Stick

Rundown 5 got extended in GTFO, meaning it got a few more missions. Alas it didn't fix the connection issues we were experiencing before but since we can play this one it definitely seems to be a level-centric problem. Anyway, our loadout today is DL with the regular DMR, Sniper and mines, Jim on Heavy Smg, Shotgun and C-foam and myself with more c-foam, machine pistol and machine gun. Spray and pray for the win. :P

Most of this mission is stealth bopping and even if something goes loud, joust bopping as we really need to save ammo for the final bit. Glowsticks are also handy in this mostly dark map. Past the first non-alarm security scan you'll find three terminals to download datafiles, but the problem is two of the terminals are password protected which you'll need to find on log files in other terminals to the West. Keep calm and carry on until you reach a Class III cluster alarm in a huge mine room.

Foam the South door and start it up, then I am on door foaming duty until I run out of foam - which buys Jim and DL enough time to  nearly finish all the scans. DL usually leaves one mine pointing at the door too so that when it breaks, most of the first wave is annihilated. Important here is I hold ground a little with the machine gun, since I want the enemy on me in case the others are still doing scans. There are always giants in this wave so don't hold for too long.

After this its back to stealth bopping Westward and you'll get a choice of left or right: we normally pick wherever the scout doesn't spawn, and if it didn't spawn in either path that means DL is on snipe duty when we run into it later as it will surely be in the way. The next hold is a class V diminished (wtf) in a tight chamber with three doors to defend. Good news: the top door opposite where you start the scan is never used by the enemy as long as you keep the other end of room H shut too (or just don't go in there). I use up whatever little ice I have to freeze one door and Jim does the other.

Jim then goes on door duty (double, because they can and will pound on both) while DL and I do the scan: 4 smalls, 1 big, 4 smalls and 4 smalls again. Usually they've broken through while the final scan is going so headshot well. Normally we hold up near where the scan started to end this wave. Beyond this should be the final two terminals with passwords / password pieces you need so look em up. If you missed the first one, you can get it on the way back (it's usually in a room on the way).

With all passwords hopefully written down, all the way back to the first three terminals and EXTRACT_DATACORE. This lets you use the Apex door just above you but it is another class V diminished alarm: this one is simply one big circle on the balcony with a catch: % only goes up (slowly) if all team members are alive and in the circle. If that is not the case, the % DROPS. DL mines the approaches and then its go time - hold position until 100%. DL on giant slaying duty while Jim and I watch the stairs. If you have more health step forward to tank if needed.

Once done, open the APEX door (slow to open, continue to hold - I was already out of ammo here, so hammer time :P) then get to the nearby (thankfully fast) extract circle to win and GTFO! :)

So that's where the bad smell was coming from.

It's safe to say that this final chapter of New Sharandar is the best, despite the new area being less visually appealing than the previous ones because its basically a swamp. That said, props to the very vertical Grung village which is always an extra pain to code NPC pathing. A few things make this one stand out: first it has an early and fast 25 currency repeatable, which is my  favorite of all three zones since it's literally step through portal, take ten steps over there and fight a boss.

Easy to access and no mobs make it perfect, much like Baphomet's weekly. Next up the repeating tasks are less painful this time around since some of them send you to the other areas. These allow for some breathing room from the repetitiveness. Lastly, the final story instance has some really pretty rooms, which kinda counteracts the ugly swamp it sits in. The finale also makes a good story end, much like Barovia's quest line where you feel you "won", prior to entering any dungeon.

The best area in the entire episode.

[Part of my Adventures in Black Desert Online]

On the way to the Ahib capital, Ataraxia and I travel through the Thornwood which is home to corrupted Ahib who prefer sacrificing their kidnap victims rather than enslaving them. Somehow Ataraxia is corrupted too and goes crazy when we emerge on the other side, forcing me to kill her. Parry/Counter attack when she "vanishes" works well.

Khalk man-bats serve as the city guards.