“What catches your eye, m’boy?” Grandad asked as he caught Charles eyeing the lovely jade carvings of the Chinese zodiac that were mounted on shelves in the living room. “I can’t imaging you’re captivated by my past glories.”

“They’re very pretty,” Charles said. “But mostly I was wondering if I could borrow one.”

“Borrow?” Grandad demanded, looking alarmed. “Where? What for?”

“Just for school,” Charles said. “I have an assignment. If I can bring in a relic from somewhere, I can get extra credit. Maybe they’ll finally put me on the honor roll. It doesn’t have to be anything as nice as this. Do you have any old cheap ones lying around?”

Grandad laughed. “They’re all old, m’boy. It’s sort of the point. And, no, I got rid of the relics that weren’t worth much. It’s not worth the space to keep them.”

“Oh,” Charles said, trying to mask his disappointment.

“But let’s not let a little thing like that keep you from the honor roll,” Grandad said. There was a crazy flash in his eye. “I know just the place to go to get cheap relics…”

And before Charles knew it, Grandad had whisked him off to Egypt, chuckling to himself as he went.

The flight was stressful. Charles had never been so fast or so high, and it made his connection to the Netherworld seem all-too-appealing. (On the way out and the return, Charles arrived with a mood in the red and a huge negative stress moodlet. I haven’t seen that from any other Sim.)

“Well I’ll be damned,” Grandad said. “Let’s get you calmed down. Who would expect a ghost child to be afraid of flying?”

At least he was getting better at catch.

Soon, he was back to his usual ghostly tricks.

“What do we do now, Grandad?” Charles asked over lunch.

“We do anything you like, of course!” Grandad said.

Charles looked up from the base camp to the stone face peeking up over the horizon. “I want to go there.”

Grandad’s eyes widened. “You want to go to the Sphinx?”

Charles grinned. “Yeah.”

“All right, then, let’s do it.”

Charles was so excited, he wished himself there.

And suddenly he was.

Wow. Charles had never guessed he could teleport so far! He was at a loss for what to do. At last, he just got out a book to pass the time until Grandad could find him.

After a long time, Grandad came running up to the feet of the Sphinx, panting. “What did you do, child? You disappeared!”

“Yeah,” Charles said, grinning. “It was awesome.”

Grandad puffed up his chest. “All right then, I’ll show you awesome.”

And he did.

“This is a pretty tricky tomb,” Grandad said solemnly. “It can be dangerous. Stick beside me, and I’ll keep you safe.” As they approached, Charles could see what Grandad meant.

They were met by a wall of fire. That really was awesome.

Charles wished himself past it.

“Hey! Wow, Grandad! There are a bunch of gems over here! They look really valuable!”

“What?” Grandad cried. “Give me a minute! I have to do this the hard way!”

“What should I do?” Charles asked.

“Just don’t get in my way. I’ll be through in no time.”

“OK,” Charles said, and he settled down to wait.

Charles could teleport anywhere he could see, but he couldn’t move any of the big pillars or open the heavy stone doors. Grandad had to handle that.

When they were tired, they slept side-by-side in Grandad’s adventurer’s tent.

But they couldn’t get to the end. The way was blocked by great big boulders that even Grandad couldn’t move.

“Damn,” Grandad swore to himself. “The axe I found in China would clear these away, but I didn’t bring it. I’m sorry, Charles. I can’t take you to the end.”

“That’s OK,” Charles said. “This has been the best day of my whole life.”

And thus Lancelot Sample passed the adventurer’s bug to another generation.

(Man, children can’t do ANYTHING in World Adventures. Well, except pick up loot. But Charles’ teleportation ability was way stronger than I realized. He can teleport anywhere on a world map that you can click. When he gets old enough to open doors himself, he’s going to a lean mean tomb raiding machine.)