BDO: Unfinished Gem

[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.

Finally I meet Queen Viorencia at her city of O'draxxia (which has the best city music) who asks for my help in assembling a magic gem which may or may not cure this disease affecting her people: they are slowly and painfully turning into trees. I agree to assist and collect a golem's heart and steal a sacred cup deep in the Thornwood. However the rest of the assembly has to take a back seat as their enslaved turos start a rebellion and since these are very strong (and quite frankly the Ahibs deserve it) I leave to let them sort it out themselves.
 
I report all this back to Queen Brolina who is happy at the turn of events, and then report to the Calpheon Council that it would be a good time to attack Queen Brolina now that half her forces are committed to the civil war on the opposite border of her land. The elves might have nature, but man has fricking cannons.

Insight: I've finally hit the gear wall on the main quests with both Star's End and O'dyllita II requiring kills outside my current power level. Now we'll see what else there is to do in this game!

BDO: Ahib Tamers

[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.

While recovering in town I am approached by the dark knight Ataraxia who gives me an invitation from the Queen of the Ahibs, Viorencia (sister of Brolina) who requests an audience. I accept and we travel there as a pair, though as expected Queen Brolina is unhappy that I am now visiting her enemy. She only lets us pass after I convince her it would be a good opportunity to spy on her sisters defenses, and what good defenses they are.

Turns out the shadowy Ahibs are tamers with armored war bears, turos (minotaurs), khalks and the like as their pets. Oh did I say tamers? I meant to say slavers. They enslave all types of people and creatures here. Even with the invitation the Ahib border guards are reluctant to let me pass, and get me to first defeat a nightmare minotaur. It hits hard, but is a faster fight than the Sherekhan so I win pretty convincingly and the border guards let us pass.

Insight: The O'dyllita I (first Ahib main quest line) is pretty forgiving, as it provides weaker versions of really strong mobs to kill - except for one place where you need to kill and butcher shadow wolves. Super irritating. Only kill the ones at the edge of the spawn so you can harvest them in peace otherwise the respawn will interrupt you.

BDO: The Sly Queen

[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.

Queen Brolina is impressed and declares I am forever to be a friend of her lands then in the same breath also withdraws her request for aid from the Calpheon military, ends trade agreements with the humans and sends me East to help her other neighbors who have a dragon problem. That is a pretty sly queen.

Insight: Actually, running in circles is a very valid combat strategy in any fight. Very few boss enemies I've met have good aim tracking and generally depend on swarming, cheap shotting or simply being overlevelled to win. The random ranged mob is usually the most dangerous in any group - especially if they don't stand out.

BDO: Named Delegate

[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 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!

The elves clearly find that stupid, and promptly show me the pass over the mountains back to the lumber village of Trent. My delegate touring days are over.

Insight: As stupid as it looked, I really like the fish suit as the swim bonus it gives is incredible. Apparently it also helps fishing!