You are traveling with a tour group in Egypt. Your visit to the Valley of the Kings is the highlight of your vacation. You find the tomb of Tutankhamun especially spellbinding. Inside, you notice that you have lost the rest of the group. As you wander through the passageways, your fascination gradually turns to panic.

Suddenly, you find yourselves in a mysterious burial chamber and you hear a frightening sound. The stone door closes behind you, blocking your escape.

As you look around, you discover a dust-covered notebook and an ancient disk. The entire tomb seems to be covered with riddles. You will only be able to escape if you manage to solve all the riddles in time.

If not, you will be buried under stone forever ...

Components

• 22 Riddle Cards
• 30 Answer Cards
• 31 Help Cards
• 2 Strange items (red, green)
• 1 Book
• 1 Decoder disk

important: Do not look closely at any of the game materials before starting the game! Do not leaf through the book yet, and do not look at the fronts of the cards yet. Wait until "the game" tells you to.

In addition, you will need something to write with (ideally pencils and an eraser), one or more sheets of paper and a watch (ideally, a stopwatch), to keep track of the time. If you like, you can use a pair of scissors. The scissors will make the game easier, but won't be absolutely necessary.

Setup

Get the book and the decoder disk ready on the table. Leave the "strange items" in the box for now. Sort the cards into three piles in accordance with what is written on their back sides:

• Riddle Cards
• Answer Cards
• Help Cards

Be sure not to look at the front sides of any of the cards yet. Check to be sure that the Riddle Cards and Answer Cards are arranged in ascending order according to their letters or numbers.

Sort the Help Cards according to their symbols, and then place them at the edge of the table. Place cards with the same symbol one on top of another such that the "1st CLUE" card is on top of the "2nd CLUE" card and the latter is on top of the "SOLUTION" card.

Exception: For the symbol, there is only 1 Help Card.

This game has no game board! You will have to figure out for yourselves what you have to find in the game and what the rooms look like. At the beginning of the game, you will have only the book and the decoder disk available to you.

As the game continues, you will add the Riddle Cards - either to be found in illustrations, or referred to in the text. Whenever this happens, you can pick the corresponding cards from the Riddle Card pile and look at them.

Likewise, you can only use the "strange items" in the box when explicitly told that you have found them. Until then, leave them untouched in the box!

Example: If you find an illustration like this, you may immediately pull the corresponding Riddle Card out of the pile and look at it.

Game Play

Your goal is to escape together from the burial chamber as quickly as you can. That would definitely be easier if not for the fact that every lock in the room is secured with a riddle. During the course of the game, you will keep finding objects that are locked with a code consisting of three hieroglyphs.

To access them, you will have to figure out the matching code and enter it into the decoder disk. At the edge of the disk, you will find 10 different symbols. Each symbol stands for a code to be cracked.

But you will have to figure out for yourselves which symbol belongs to which code. Be sure to pay attention to every detail . If you think you can crack a code, enter it under the corresponding symbol on the disk. Then, look through the viewing window on the smallest wheel to see a number.

This number indicates the number of the Answer Card that you are then allowed to look at. If the code is incorrect, you will have to keep searching for a solution or switch to another riddle for the time being. If the code is correct, the Answer Card will tell you how to continue.

Is The Code Incorrect?

If so, the Answer Card will tell you. In that case, simply return the card to the pile and take another look at the riddle that you failed to solve. Maybe there's something that you overlooked.

Or it may be that you simply don't yet have the hints that you need to solve it . Then you will just have to continue someplace else.

Is the code possibly correct

If so, the Answer Card will look like this:

Where Will You See The Code Symbols?

Good question! To answer it, you will have to take a close look at the pictures in the book or on the Riddle Cards. All possible locked objects can be found in those places.

All of these objects are marked with a symbol. Our example involves the sarcophagus with the symbol on it.

To continue with this example scenario: Next, you will take a look at the Answer Card pictured next to the sarcophagus on the card . You will see that you should now retrieve Answer Card 12 from the pile.

Is The Code Really Correct?

If so, the Answer Card will tell you how to continue. You will find one or more new Riddle Cards which you will be allowed to pull from the pile and look at immediately.

Is the code actually incorrect

Well, in that case you must have made a mistake. You will just have to think about it some more and come up with a different answer.

Note: Whether wrong or right - return all Answer Cards to the Answer Card pile. All codes can be solved logically. You shouldn't just try all possible combinations on the disk.

Assistance

Of course, the game can provide you assistance if you get stuck. For each code, there are three Help Cards that can be recognized by the symbol on their back side.

In addition to giving you an initial useful clue, each "1st CLUE" Help Card also tells you which Riddle Cards you must have found in order to be able to solve the corresponding riddle.

The "2nd CLUE" Help Cards will give you somewhat more concrete assistance in finding a solution to the corresponding riddle.

The "SOLUTION" Help Cards provide the solution to the riddle.

Always take the Help Cards for a specific Riddle Card or riddle in the book. These riddles are usually identified with a symbol (matching a symbol on the decoder disk). It won't help you to use Help Cards if you have not found a riddle with the corresponding symbol.

Have a little patience - some of the riddles can only be solved with the help of several Riddle Cards. You won't always have all of them available to you right away. Sometimes, you will first have to grapple with other riddles to get more cards. But don't be shy about using Help Cards if you get stuck.

Once you have used them, place them on a discard pile.

Additional Playing Materials

In addition to the materials contained in the box, you will need a pencil and paper for taking notes. You will also need a watch/stopwatch.

You can write on, fold, or tear the materials ...

All of this is allowed and sometimes even required. You can only play the game once - after which you will know all the riddles, and won't need the game materials any longer!

If you like, you can also use scissors to cut the materials rather than tearing them.

End of the Game

The game ends when you have solved the last riddle and escaped from the burial chamber. A card will tell you that. Start a stopwatch ( or check the time) at the beginning of the game so you know how long you needed.

You can look at the table on the next page to see how well you did. When calculating the number of Help Cards used, only the ones that gave you new hints or solutions should be counted. If a Help Card only had something that you knew anyway, do not include it in the calculation.

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