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EGYPT - Adventuring in the land of the Pharoahs
Updates

I hope to be able to finish my series of reports about my experiences of World Adventures before Ambitions is released in 3 weeks time. Circumstances at many levels have delayed me considerably and many of those have been unavoidable. Part of this is down to losing a lot of data from a computer crash including my notes and plans for this part. However, I do believe that I have managed to recover some of it and have created new content to replace the rest.

Before the computer went down, I remained in China for a bit longer and I was able to continue Terry Norman's aim to complete his lifetime wish of becoming a Martial Arts Grand Master. He made it. He also became a Master of Meditation that gave him enhanced abilities to teleport around the map.

Anyway, we are now leaving China behind and travelling to Egypt.

Egypt - An Introduction

For what is commercially available for The Sims, there can be no greater contrast in geography than there is than coming from the misty valley of Shang Simla to the bright sands of Al Simhara. Once again, you feel as though you are really in a stereotypical simstyle rendering of Egypt.

I suppose that when I first think of a country to associate with tomb raiding and relic hunting, my first choice would actually be Egypt, visualising a fedora-wearing, whip-wielding adventurer whose movements are punctuated with the rousing music of John Williams. As it is, there are no whips in TS3, no John Williams soundtrack but our adventurers can wear fedoras.

Again, in order to understand how it feels to go adventuring in Egypt, we will look at it from the perspective of some of my adventurers.

"Al Simhara Adventures" by Timothy Beckett - Part 1

The simnational elections were over and Dick Cleggeron and his ConDem Alliance was now calling the shots at City Hall. As a freelance writer, author and visionary, it was now time for me to find a new story and see about snapping what I see. A picture says a thousand words and Egypt was supposed to be the place to come for the best cameras. Why they don't sell cameras at the supermarket is beyond me. Anyway, I made it to Egypt and it looked like working undercover within the shadowy MorcuCorp might find me adventure and a story.

I met Fikry Ameen, who had a job with MorcuCorp. In order to find out whether I was suited for adventuring, he set me the task of recovering some papers he had left in the Tomb of Discovery. He gave me some dried food and recommended I go to the market to stock up on other provisions. The General Store naturally sold the usual fare of tents, showers-in-cans and dried food. It also had three different types of cameras. General Stores in the other countries only sold the basic cheap model. I was not able to afford the most expensive so I got ChannonTec Outlaw SE, which is a mid-range camera, and got snapping immediately. However, as time was pressing with only being on a three-day visa, I chose to get on with it and got on my way to the Tomb of Discovery, which was located back near the base camp.

To me, rather than a tomb, it looked more like a lean-to with some crumbling old stone wall around it. Not dissimilar to the base camp's toilet facilities. Anyway, upon entering, there was a flight of stairs down that lead into a chamber with two locked doors. In that chamber was a treasure chest and a pile of ancient coins in front of me. I took snapshots of both of those. I got a crescent-shaped keystone from the chest and that unsurprisingly fit the lock of the door in front of me.

That room had only a pressure-activated switch and once I stood on that foot switch, a flight of stairs downwards appeared in front of me. I followed them down into a chamber with another foot switch, which in turn unlocked a door ahead of me. In the next room, the switch for the next door required me to move a statue. I had heard about these statue switches. It did not require much work. The next room had another statue switch and activating it revealed a foot switch and that in turn opened up another door. So far, I felt I was "Adventuring By Numbers" and my brain had not been tasked much.

In the next room was another treasure chest, bathed in an eerie glow. Let me guess. Fikry Ameen's might be in there. Anyway, before I opened it, I noticed a wall that looked out of place, so I went over to inspect it. Lo and behold, it was a secret door. It required a lot of effort pushing it open, though and I could do with some gym work when I get home to get fitter for tasks like this. There was a treasure chest in there with quite an impressive statue, which gave me the impression that every tomb had a statue like this. Back into the main chamber, I opened the glowing treasure chest, got Ameen's paperwork and some other minor relics in there.

I took a flight of stairs upwards that led me to another foot switch that in turn unlocked the door ahead of me. Going through there led led me back into the chamber with two doors that I was in earlier.

It was about 7.30pm when I left the tomb. I jumped onto a kenspa scooter that I had borrowed for this trip and went back to see Fikry Ameen. He was glad to get his papers back, rewarded me with some visa points and recommended that if I wanted more work, I visit Hassan Badawi, who was another MorcuCorp employee but someone who Fikry Ameen admitted that he did not trust.

I met up with Hassan. He did not seem as loyal an employee as Ameen and mentioned that the local workers had not been paid. I was tasked with finding four pieces of turquoise that could be cashed in for their wages. I could only find two from the map. My last discovery of the day was up by the Pyramid of the Sky and after doing some excavating at a small dig and finding some relics, I chose to inspect that tomb and rest there for the night.

After inspecting the door, I found a concealed switch. With a shudder, the door opened and I walked through into a large chamber with pools to the right and to the left. I was not here to explore, though. I was here to rest. There was enough room to put my tent down and I curled up and had a good sleep.

Written at 05:35 on Thursday 21 January 2010 by Andy.

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