The ongoing blockade of the city had taken its toll on the University. A handful of students used the facilities for independent studies, but few classes were in session.
In the archeology department, listless professors idled away the hours cataloging their hoarded collections. With the pirates using the catacombs to hide contraband, it had become too dangerous to search out new artifacts there.
The Professor's at the University has a quest for you that will ultimately see you having to make your way through the pyramids to reclaim a hidden artefact. This artefact can then be returned to the Professor, in exchange for a Certificate of merit, that can then be exchanged for a prize worthy of a top Sleuth.
The professor greeted me with the enthusiasm of somebody with plenty of time on his hands. After a bit of small talk, I broached the subject of the artifacts still buried in the catacombs and the stalled efforts to retrieve them.
He told me his colleagues had already identified the location of many artifacts, and there were maps for retrieving them, if somebody wished to brave the pirates' traps. He said the university could reward anybody who did manage to bring one safely back, but the maps held there were incomplete.
Ironically, it was the professor's own cautiousness that left them without useable maps. When the pirates first established their presence in the catacombs, there was concern that they would come to the University and take the maps. To guard against this possibility, the professor had torn a piece from the map of each known artifact and had those pieces smuggled out of Cairo for safekeeping.
The map pieces were sent to trustworthy individuals around the world with the idea that when the pirates were finally driven out of the catacombs, the trustees would return the map pieces to the University and the artifacts could be unearthed.
Unfortunately, the master list connecting each individual map to its matching piece was since lost, leaving the professor in a bit of a bind.
It would be possible to trace each missing map piece to the person to whom it was sent, but to do so would mean shifting through a mountain of shipping records and deciphering the handwritten notes of the students who had assisted the professor with the task of securing those maps.
You may offer to help the professor search for the person who received a piece of one of the maps. The first step in this process is to sift through the paperwork here at the University to try to match one of the maps here with the person to whom its missing piece was sent.
The many hours of studying required will cost you 4 skill points to undertake. The name given will be one of the townies, in one of the four main cities, who will have the second half of the map.