City of Mist

"Lapis ... how long have you been in the Bazaar?"
"Not that long," she replied. "Ladtrader arranged a spot behind her stall where I can nap, which helps. And the food here is excellent."
"So, longer than an hour or two looking around?"

She paused and looked confused.

"Around a week, I think? Maybe a bit more. There are just so many interesting things to see, and new merchants are arriving all the time! I found a lovely spell for Brotherlie and I'm sure this necklace will look great on Xhef!"

A week! This shopping obsession had gone too far! At that moment, she began running to the other side of the marketplace.

"A gnome-skin tunic..." she called back at me as she ran. "I know someone who will look absolutely gorgeous in that! I need to rush over before someone else gets it!"

I chased after her and pulled her away from the merchant.

"Lapis, stop this! You need a break, you need to get out of the bazaar!"
"Just let me get this tunic, first. Oh, look, someone is shouting about Coterie armour. Have you seen it? It would look divine on you now that you've lost some weight. Come on, lets go take a look!"

As flattered as I was that she'd noticed my weight-loss, it was clear that she needed a breath of fresh air. I changed my tactic.

"I will look at the armour but I need your help first. I need to go to the City of Mist to fish and it's a long way and a dangerous path. I was hoping you would come with me and sing to make the journey less arduous. I need to move quickly through those lands without being seen, only you can help me.

It worked. Bards always seem happiest when they are helping someone and asking them to sing seems a sure way to make their day. She fretted briefly about the great deals she would be missing but when I claimed I couldn't do it without her, she consented.

We travelled to the Field of Bone, a wastelands around the ruined resevoir which once served the greater city of Cabilis. It is now inhabited by bandits and the ghosts of those who fought in long ago battles; not a place I would willingly choose to spend time in. With the aid of Lapis's magical songs, we moved swiftly through this area towards the Emerald Jungle.

Well, I thought it was towards the jungle; as the ground beneath our feet became damper and damper I began to worry. My fears were justified, it soon became clear that we had ended up at the Swamp of No Hope.

"We're lost."
"I'm hungry," said Lapislazuli.
"Erm, didn't you buy food while you were shopping?"
"I meant to, but I was hoping the price of Halas Meat Pies would go down."

She scouted the land for anything to eat whilst we backtracked trying to find the Jungle.

"There's old coins here, but nothing edible," she complained.
"I was planning on making a meal of the fish," I explained, "but I had a lovely picnic before meeting you so I'm not particularly hungry."
"Well, where are these fish then?"

She certainly seemed a bit more her old self, at least. I continued to search for the valley that would lead us towards the Jungle. Suddenly I remembered a bundle I had in my backpack. A friend had passed it on to me, the notes of a young but very daring half-elven bard by the name of Muse which included excellent maps of Norrath and the moon! I sent Lapislazuli to search for food while I pulled the thick sheets out of my bag, EQAtlas scribled in big brown letters on the top sheet.

Sure enough, there was a lovely map of the fields and I could see immediately that we needed to pass the Kaesora ruins to reach the jungle. I mentally blessed Muse and called to Lapis that we should continue on our way, hiding a further map to the Jungles in my pocket so I could check it when we got closer to the City of Mist.

Finally, we arrived in the damp overgrown Emerald Jungles. With Muse's map and Lapis's magical aura surrounding us, it was trivial to avoid the wildlife and reach the ruins of the City of Mist.

The City of Mist is another remnant of the Iksar empire, now inhabited by apparitions and golems. I wanted to travel to this place to see if the rumoured "Ikfish" could be found there. The Iksar, I'm told, have a love for red wine and I'd heard tell of a recipe based on stewing the fish with red wine and cleaned vegetables. This had ended up completely inedible with every fish I'd tried but perhaps it was a specific fish. In the Sewers of Cabilis I'd found only fetid bass, but perhaps here in this ruined outpost I could still find the fish referred to in the ancient lore.

We entered the ruins to find a young couple there, struggling with a foul skeleton. They introduced themselves to us and explained that they had heard of treasures deeper within the ruins and were attempting to clear the way to explore. We wished them luck with their adventure and were pleased that we would not need to fend off the evil undead spirits. Lapis by now was faint with hunger and so I quickly got my rod out and began to fish.

It is in a spot like this that you realise the problems of civilisation. The water of Cabilis was a murky brown and the fish completely inedible. Here it was crystal clear, a lovely dark blue in colour, and fresh fish literally seemed to fight for the chance to nibble on my bait. I quickly got some dried batwings out of my bag and made Lapis some fish rolls and then continued with my fishing.

She looked much better than she had when I'd found her and once she'd had a bit of the fish roll she also pulled out her fishing rod and joined me. I was pleased to see that her skill had improved quite noticeably and had begun to comment on this when I reeled in a trout! The Fogwater Trout is a lovely specimen of fish and was easily prepared with a jug of sauce in my spit. Lapis quite happily devoured this as well on top of the fish rolls; I couldn't help wondering just how long she'd been waiting for the price of pies to drop.

We sat there companionably in the fog casting our rods and nibbling the food when it began to rain. I thought that Lapis would tire of being at the mercy of the elements after her cocoon of the Bazaar, but to my surprise she simply laughed and pulled off her backpack. She pulled out a bottle of very nice Paludal Fish Wine and took a large swig.

"This will keep us warm inside," she said and passed it to me.

She was back to normal, what a relief.

We were both a bit tipsy when I finally reeled in an Ikfish. To my disappointment, it's a terrible bony thing, not much meat on it at all and completely inedible. No amount of wine could hide the slightly bitter taste of the fish and I doubt that the Iksars ever found a way of preparing this.
I will try to see if I can make a dish with the trout in red wine though, as it was very tasty with the sauce.

Unfortunately, we ran out of wine and decided to head back to civilisation. With the help of Muse's maps, we made our way fairly quickly back to the Plane of Knowledge, where Lapis said she was going to just quickly nip to the bazaar to see if they had any new song sheets for her to learn from.

I do hope she's okay...