Martial Arts Tournament

 

John has an opportunity at work which he must fulfil in China.  He needs to set up a Martial Arts Tournament with a spar contender, namely Maya Wang but unfortunately she isn't available at that moment in time.  So John decides to see what other adventures there are in store for him.

He secures an "adventure" from the board at base camp.  Now, I wouldn't call fishing for koi an adventure but John does what he is asked, earning more simoleons and gaining some fishing skill.

He returns to the base camp and finally secures a tournament with Maya Wang.  After a lot of fluffing about, she arrives at the base camp and John proceeds to spar with her.  Luckily for John, he wins the sparring match.  Normally, once an opportunity is executed, a message will show to say that he has to return to work to complete the opportunity.  Unfortunately, this didn't happen so I assumed that John would have to spar with another Sim.

He proceeds to call another spar contender and Shen Su arrives at the base camp.  John spars with Shen and again wins the match but unfortunately it seems that John is still not yet done.  How many times must he do this?  Hopefully no more than 3 but then I could be wrong.

John will continue with this quest next time but if it's going to take too long, he feels that cancelling this opportunity would be best.

It's a pity if this happens though as this could secure a promotion at work for him.

- Minicart (Jules)

Delivering the Ancient Writings

 

The Resolute Fist Retreat holds many treasures and also traps that John has overcome.  There is a long corridor at the side of the Retreat that John needs to go down to reach the door at the end.  However, it is full of fire traps.

Being an adept in the martial arts skill however, John is able to easily pass through these traps, disabling them on the way, to reach the door at the far end of the corridor.  A treasure chest lays within where John collects more loot and safely places it into his backpack.

John decides to spend the night at the Retreat and in the morning delivers the Ancient Writings, earning simoleons and ancient coins.

Completing this adventure, John embarks on a new one but first he must set up a Martial Arts Tournament with a spar tournament contender for an opportunity he received at work.  Unfortunately however, Maya Wang isn't available.

Hopefully next time, he will be able to set up this Tournament to get ahead with his job and maybe earn a promotion.

- Minicart (Jules)

Overcoming the Fire Traps

After finding and retrieving the Ancient Writings of Qin Shan Hu, John decides to venture further through the dungeons of the Resolute Fist Retreat.  

There are two more doors that he hasn't been through.  One is open which has a long corridor leading to another door but is full of fire traps.  The other door also contains corridors with fire traps but there are holes in the walls that John can inspect.  Maybe these will disarm the traps, enabling John to get through.

Our hero proceeds to inspect the holes and does in fact disable a few of the fire traps.  However, not all are disabled (again due to the players 'misunderstanding' of the message on the plaque by the door) and so John attempts to cross these traps.  As John is proficient in the martial arts skill, he does this with ease, rolling through the flames like a ninja.

At the end of the corridor another door awaits him which leads to a small room containing yet another treasure chest.  John collects the loot and safely packs it into his backpack.

Carefully looking around, John finds another secret door which he nearly missed.  Using his strength to open it, he finds himself in yet another room containing treasure and ancient coins.

But John isn't done yet.  There is still the long corridor containing deathly fire traps with a door at the end.  Will he manage to defeat the traps?  If he does, what will he find?

- Minicart (Jules)

The Ancient Writings of Qin Shan Hu

At the Resolute Fist Retreat in China, John is on a search for the Ancient Writings of Qin Shan Hu.  He has been given a keystone which unlocks a door in the depths of the retreat and is faced with a large room containing stone statues and yet another locked door.  There is however another door which is unlocked so John proceeds to venture through this one first which leads him into a corridor with many doors which, one by one, he enters into. 

After finding a secret door and taking what treasure he could find, he decides to advance further into the depths of the Retreat by entering the other, previously locked, doorway and descending the stairs.

John is now faced with a dive well and three more doors, each with a plaque which contains a helpful message.  John decides to take the middle door.

Now, as a player, you can place your cursor over things that, if there are secret doors or traps, will give you a little starry thing to let you know that something is there.  This room contained many traps but only on the dark tiles of the floor, not the lighter coloured ones.  However, John doesn't know where these traps are and I, as the player, didn't want him walking into them so I decided to let him inspect them one by one, just so that he knows not to walk into them, after all, they were fire traps and could kill him.

Well, there was an easier way.  I could have just guided John over the lighter coloured tiles to lead him to the statue which he could have pushed to the tile in the middle of the floor, breaking the traps on the way.

I should have done that.

Burning to death, John's quick thinking of using a shower in a can puts out the flames, only to be consumed again by more fire which rages up instantly about him.  Ignoring my instructions to walk away, I lost count of the amount of shower in a can's that he used.  Luckily, I was able to cancel out the use of these shower cans and get him to safety.

Looking back, this was quite an easy quest, made harder by the players inability to take note of the writings on the plaques by the doors.

John now enters a room behind which houses a treasure chest containing the Ancient Writings.  John takes them and puts them in his backpack.  However, this adventure isn't over.  There are more rooms to enter and possibly more treasure to find so John stays and searches further before returning the Ancient Writings.

- Minicart (Jules)

Resolute Fist Retreat

 

In this episode of The Sands of Time, John continues with his adventure to the Resolute Fist Retreat to search for the ancient writings of Qin Shan Hu.

This monk retreat is situated at the top of hills in China and John has to climb a fair way to get to it.  Once he arrives, he proceeds to climb the many stairs to a room which contains a kitchen and bathroom to the side.  More stairs take him up to bedrooms, more like dormitories, on the top floor.

John has been given a keystone and he searches high and low to see if there are any secret doors but alas, there are none.  He wonders if there are any trigger items, such as flushing the toilet that would open anything but after trying, nothing works.

After looking around outside and the surrounding grounds of the Retreat, John notices a floor plate at the bottom of the steps which he had run right past when he arrived.  However, as he was getting tired, he decided to sleep in one of the beds and start afresh in the morning.

After getting a good nights sleep, John proceeds to return to the foot of the Retreat and step on the floor plate.  A stairway opens up and he cautiously descends the steps down into the depths of the retreat.

Luckily no traps await him, just a couple of rubble piles and a locked door.  After clearing one pile, John notices a hole in the wall which after inspection, opens a secret door that leads to a treasure chest.  The other rubble pile reveals some more treasure.

Now, the only thing that remains is the locked door...

- Minicart (Jules)