The following day was Monday, and it passed by fairly ordinarily. Anya worked in the garden and spent some time with the block breaker to keep her Martial Arts skills fresh. Maximus worked out for awhile until it was time for him to go to work. That evening he came home with a promotion that put him at the top of the Sports career.
They had a break in during the night, but luckily they have an alarm system installed. The police were quick to respond and the officer easily apprehended the burglar before she could get away. Anya had been ready to take the woman down herself if need be though.
Tuesday was another ordinary day. Thankfully they weren't obsessing over the break in like sims do sometimes. Maximus and Anya were quite affectionate with one another while she was home, taking advantage of every opportunity they had to be...together.
Wednesday was Beli's birthday, and Anya and Maximus decided not to waste any time celebrating it. They got the cake ready and they had a small family gathering to watch Beli blow out the candles bright and early that morning. He transitioned to Child and gained the Artistic trait.
That afternoon, while Maximus played in a game, Anya and Beli did a mother-son workout along with one of the fitness shows on TV.
On Thursday Anya decided it was time to get back to her adventuring since she wasn't getting any younger. After taking care of a few errands she made the call to arrange to travel to Egypt for 18 days. She hoped she'd be able to finish everything she needed to do there in that amount of time and wouldn't have to go back there again.
The first thing Anya did upon arriving in Egypt was to call and purchase a vacation home there. She decided she wanted to have a more comfortable place than the base camp with its tents to rest up in between tomb explorations. She chose the Pomegranate House. It was small, but had everything she needed as well as room for the entire family should they want to come with her sometime.
After taking her things to the new house, she set off to find the secret hideout of Queen Hatshepsut. Apparently it was beside someone's house, so she went to visit them. While there, an odd little girl who was missing part of her body came to deliver the newspaper.
After speaking with the homeowner a bit, Anya headed down to the hideout to complete her mission there. She found it fairly simple to do, as the place wasn't very large. She got what she'd come from out of a chest in a not-so-hidden room, then headed back to her contact. He then asked her to go to the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut to explore the servants quarters there.
She worked her way through the relatively small chambers there, eventually finding the relic she was after in a hidden room deep beneath the temple. She went back to her contact, who then tasked her with speaking with 5 villagers about how awesome his friend that he was trying to help was.
After completing that task and speaking to the person she'd been talking up to everyone, she followed the woman's tip to explore hidden chambers beneath the marketplace itself. What she found there was a confusing maze of rooms that took her awhile to work through. She had to stop at one point and head back to her house to get some rest as she became too tired to continue and there wasn't enough room anywhere to pitch her tent in the tomb.
After finally finding the relic she was after, her contact asked her to go and get a picture of her friend for an online dating profile he was creating for her. Apparently this whole chain of tasks was centered around helping his friend get a date somehow. Anya headed over to the woman's house to get the picture. Upon arriving, it didn't seem as though the friend needed much help finding a date, for she already had a male visitor over that she was getting "friendly" with (he was actually her husband I think).
After getting a photo and giving it to the woman, Anya found out that they'd discovered the keystone for another tomb in the relic she'd just recovered. This one was for the Queen's personal chambers at the temple, so Anya set out to go explore it. By the time she found the Queen's bedroom and got the diary she was looking for, she decided to just sleep in the bed that was there since she was about ready to drop with exhaustion.
After turning in her find and stopping at the marketplace to get something to eat, Anya decided to do some exploring that wasn't directed by what other people wanted. She'd heard about Abu Simbel and some fabulous treasure to be found there and decided to go check it out.
Once there, she immediately faced a few riddles to solve, but they didn't give her much trouble. After a time, she came to a room with a maze of different colored walkways. She knew she'd have to read each plaque carefully to know which path was safe to walk on for each section.
She made it through the maze and came to a room with a small Sphinx statue and a round disc on the wall. On closer inspection she realized this was one half of the legendary Eye of Horus that would allow one to teleport between the two parts. She carefully removed it from the wall and then used it to transport herself to the other half. She then had to find a way around the fire trap blocking her path out of the corner so she could set up her tent and get some sleep.
Exploring a bit more, she found a secret chamber behind a hidden door. The door closed once she entered, and a mummy came out of the sarcophagus at the end of the room. They fought, and as usual, she won.
She made use of a bed she found in the tomb to sleep, and in the morning she gave Maximus a call as she was missing him. They chatted for awhile and she told him about what she'd done and seen so far, and about how she was planning to visit the famous Sphinx soon. If only we could get such good cell reception absolutely anywhere the way the sims can.
After she finished her call with Maximus, she made her way out of Abu Simbel as she had found everything she'd come to find. She took some time to excavate a few little sites she found along the path back toward the town and it paid off for her. She not only found the last Canopic Jar to finish that collection, but she also finished the Relic Collection Connoisseur challenge.
She got a call from the food seller in the marketplace who asked her to bring him some pomegranates if she could. Since she had some on hand, she dropped by there to give them to him and picked up a bit of extra cash in the process. She then went by her house to take a bath and have some dinner before heading over to the Sphinx.
The entry room there was a bit intimidating, but she figured "nothing ventured, nothing gained" so she plunged on ahead. Several of the fire traps were dealt with by standing on a floor switch in the middle of them, and enough of the others were easily dealt with as well.
Deeper inside, she encountered yet another room filled with fire and lightning, this one with a maze to figure out as well.
After exploring everything she could inside, she headed back out. Looking around outside, she found a floor plate back by the stairs up to an observation platform. She stood on it, and a staircase leading down opened. Obviously she wasn't done here yet. Down below, Anya found a small complex of several rooms, most of them hidden behind concealed doors. It took her a little while, but she was able to work her way through all the puzzles and collected quite a few items she was sure would bring in a good amount of cash.
After finishing there, Anya headed back to the house to decide what she wanted to do next. She still had several days left on her vacation, but she had finished all of the tombs here now. Should she stay and spend time collecting things or just head on home early? In the end she decided to just head on home. She could always come back another time to hunt for relics if she still needed any to finish collections. When she arrived, Maximus was quiet happy to see her home several days earlier than expected.
That evening she decide to try something she'd heard about in Egypt. She'd heard that if you put a full collection of canopic jars into a Sarcophagus of the Kings, that you might be able to summon a mummy to come live with you. Since she'd finished her canopic jar collection while in Egypt, she decided to give it a shot. She put them all in...
And then waited. It only took a few minutes, and suddenly the Sarcophagus opened and a mummy stepped out. Her name is Saramesses Holmbeguese and she has the traits Party Animal, Never Nude, Schmoozer, Charismatic, and Ambitious. Her LTW is Golden Tongue, Golden Fingers and her favorites are Chinese music, Falafel, and Aqua. I'm going to call her Sara for the sake of simplicity here.
Anya stayed home for a few days, but nothing of any real note happened. Sara started working on her guitar skill, took a class in Charisma, and got a job in the music career. The rest went about their daily routines, going to school or to work or working in the garden. After a few days, Anya decided it was time to head to France to hopefully finish things there so she could be done with her adventuring before she became an elder. She knew that time was approaching quickly.
As in Egypt, the first thing Anya did was purchase a vacation home in France. She found there were many more properties to choose from here than there had been in Egypt. She chose the Crocus House because it would have plenty of room for the entire family should they ever all come to visit.
After dropping off her things at the new house, she headed out to find her contact to let him know she'd found the Ruby of Sakhara and to find out what she needed to do next. He instructed her to head back down into the Nectary cellars and see if it would open the locked sections that had stopped her explorations there before. She went there, and as they suspected, the Ruby fit perfectly into one of the holes and a keystone appeared on a nearby pedestal.
Something told her this was the keystone to the Tomb of Isael, and when she tried it in one of the lock panels by an adjoining door, she found she was correct. She fitted the key in place and headed in.
A short way into the tomb, she found a room with narrow walkways that left gaps in the floor such that she could see the room below it. There were a series of switches and statues, but only one of the statues was pushable. She methodically worked it around the room, hitting each of the switches until she saw a pair of doors open in the room below. She wasn't yet sure how to get down there, but figured it was likely a good thing she'd found how to open them now.
She pitched her tent in the large room outside the statue room and got some sleep, the next day she explored the area across from the statue room. There she found a few small rooms behind hidden doors, one of which had a chest on a bit of flooring that she had to zeneport to (and back from) because of statues that blocked the path over to it. A floor switch in this room likewise opened a door in a room below.
As the first two rooms indicated, this was proving to be a complicated tomb, and Anya's progress was slow. After spending a second night in her tent, she eventually came to another small room with several statues arranged rather like a sliding puzzle. Through the cracks between them, she could just barely glimpse a keystone on a pedestal and a chest buried in behind the statues. It took her a little while, but eventually she worked out how to move the statues around to clear a path to them.
 |
| The room after she figured out how to arrange things to clear a path |
After making use of the bed to get some sleep, she continued exploring. Eventually she came to another large room with sarcophagi. Plaques on the wall indicated that she'd have to complete tasks on the level below before continuing past here, but she hadn't yet found a way to get down there. She did find the sapphire she was looking for in a chest at the top of the stairs after disabling the electrical traps though.
Behind a hidden door up there, she encountered a room that was in complete darkness. Two flame traps ignited as soon as she stepped through the door though.
She decided to see if she'd missed a switch somewhere and found that two mummies had appeared in the room below from somewhere. She went down to take care of them, feeling just a little bit bad about it this time after having become friends with Sara.
Going back upstairs, she took another look in the dark room. After disabling the fire traps, she was able to see a lit door off to the side. Hoping there weren't any more traps hidden in the darkness, she went over to check it out and found a small room with treasures beyond it.
She made her way back out of the tomb and found that she still couldn't access the other locked door up top. She went back to her contact with the sapphire she'd found, and he told her to take it back to the Nectary cellar to try it in one of the other holes to see if it would reveal the keystone she needed. Sighing a bit to herself at not having thought to do that herself, she headed back to the Nectary once more.
The sapphire seemed to fit, but nothing happened. She decided she needed to confer with her contact some more. He mentioned that he remembered a necklace someone had worn that had a green gem in it. The necklace had been sold an auction after the woman's death and he suggested she talk with the townsfolk to see if anyone knew anything about the auction.
She headed to the town square to see who was around. The first few people she spoke with didn't know what had become of the necklace, but the relics merchant remembered who had bought it. He gave her the man's name, and suggested she take some excellent quality nectar with her to help soften him up. Luckily she had some that she'd found in the tomb so she went to meet the man.
The man was willing to trade her the emerald from the necklace for the bottle of nectar she brought. She headed back to confer with her contact once more, even though she suspected what she'd need to do. She was right, and once more headed into the tomb. When she placed the emerald in the remaining hole, the keystone appeared on the pedestal. She took it and headed in to the final tomb.
Inside it seemed to be mostly a network of corridors at first, some with hidden doors. Eventually she came to a room with two stairs going up and several electrical traps partially blocking the way. She decided to get some sleep before going further, so set up her tent near the base of one staircase.
Once she was fully rested again, she explored the stairs. The first one was easily accessible, but she couldn't find a way to disable the traps. Eventually she found that there was just enough room for her to edge around them to get to the other staircase. After following a path up and down a few more times, she came to another room with a suspended mazelike walkway.
The puzzles there were easily solved, and after exploring behind another hidden door that yielded mainly treasure, she unlocked the door up there that required a keystone. Following the paths behind it eventually led her to a room with a complicated looking array of floor switches. After studying it a bit she decided to try the one that all of the statues seemed to be looking at.
It worked, and she was able to unlock the door in there. Beyond it, she found a room that she just knew was full of hidden traps. She'd have to tread carefully in here.
It soon looked like it might not be that difficult, for after using the floor switch to disable the two visible traps, a blue light came on from above. It seemed to be guiding the way.
She followed the lights, but then momentary greed got the better of her and she sought to venture off the path slightly to grab a money bag she saw sitting on a shelf. An electric trap zapped her good for her trouble and taught her to stick to the blue lit path.
Eventually the blue lights led her to another floor switch. Standing on it disabled all the hidden traps in the room, clearing the way to go back and collect the treasures she'd had to pass by, including the money bag that had gotten her singed.
After getting some sleep, she made her way through more twisting corridors and finally came to a room that she felt sure held the item she was looking for, the Recipe of Jean Necteaux. She proceeded carefully, wary of hidden traps.
Anya made her way around the room, collecting treasures and finding the recipe in one of the sarcophagi as she'd expected. She encountered a few mummies as well. The first one she dealt with easily, but the second one actually beat her and she found herself cursed. This was surprising enough that I didn't get a picture of the actual cursing. Now I'll have to decide what to do about it.
As it turns out, she was practically at the end of her explorations as well. After slipping away from the mummy that cursed her, she went through a door that led to yet another staircase. This one however led up to a small room with a treasure chest that held the final tomb relic she needed for her collection, as well as a door that opened with a floor switch that led to the way out. She made her way out to report her findings.
She went back to her house after turning in the recipe to have her first real meal in days and to sleep in her own bed. She thought about what she wanted to do now, and how best to remove the curse. She decide to head home in the morning since she didn't really have time to waste lingering in France. Once home, she first headed out to the garden to care for the plants.
One of the methods Anya had heard of to remove a mummy's curse was to kiss a King Cobra. Since she had a snake charming basket already, she decided to give this a try. She'd been wanting to try to master that skill anyway, so she figured this gave her a good excuse to do so. She also figured that she would still have time to pursue other options, including another trip to Egypt, if the snake charming didn't work quickly enough.
She got her skill to a point where she was able to purchase a King Cobra for the basket, but by then she was played out for a bit. She decided to get some rest and try again the next day. Maximus helped her work some of the kinks out of her shoulders before they went to bed.
Meanwhile, Beli had been trying his hand at painting and found that he really enjoyed it. He decided that his lifetime wish was to become a Visionary and master both painting and photography. He seemed to be off to a good start.
Sara meanwhile had gone downtown to the park to practice her guitar and hopefully to meet some of the people in the town so she could start building friendships for her Charisma skill. It was pretty early in the morning, and the park and town square were completely deserted. She set up to play anyway, hoping that eventually the townsfolk would start venturing out.
Eventually some women did show up with their children, and though they were initially a bit frightened by her, a few of them did speak with her.
Meanwhile, after tending to the garden and taking a quick swim, Anya went back upstairs to try her snake charming again. It didn't take her long to coax the cobra out of the basket, and after lulling it for awhile with her pipe, she was able to lean in and give it a quick kiss on its head. She felt her curse lift away as she did so.
 |
| I didn't manage to capture her kissing the cobra. She just leaned in and gave it a quick peck. |
And here is where I'm going to end this part I think. Anya has now finished most everything there is to do in the World Adventures countries. I haven't really checked to see if she's finished all the relic collections, but I think she mostly has. Going forward I'll likely be shifting the focus here to Saramesses and Beli as I work toward their LTWs. Before I close though, here's a look at where my score is at after the things Anya accomplished in this part:
Next up we'll be visiting with the Baker clan and seeing what we can accomplish there. Until then, happy simming to you all.
