When you spot a sarcophagus in a tomb, just relax. Not all of them house the reanimated bandaged remains of ancient kings who had their brains pulled out through the nose and stored in a jar buried next to them. (The heart is usually in the next jar over.
This would make you pretty upset, too.) But some of them do release dangerous mummies into tombs that threaten your Sim with physical harm and even a curse that eventually causes death.
When a mummy spots a Sim, it attacks. The mummy jumps on a Sim and goes berserk. (Look, you woke it up—now you have to deal with the consequences.)
If your Sim has a high Martial Arts or Athletic skill rating, there is a good chance that you can beat the mummy. But if you lose, one of two things can happen.
If you are lucky, the mummy only knocks your Sim unconscious—you have the Knocked Out moodlet and must wait for it to pass before you can get up.
If you are not so lucky, the mummy pulls your Sim close and breathes an icky gas. This gives your Sim the Mummy’s Curse moodlet, which is a curse.
Ugh, mummy breath!
If your Sim is hit with the Mummy’s Curse moodlet, you have a limited amount of time to get rid of the curse before the Sim dies. (It’s an awful death, too. There’s screaming and burning. And your ghost is dark.)
There are a few ways to get rid of the curse. Get to the Sphinx and use the Plead with the Sphinx interaction. Now your Sim can enter and look for the Soulpeace statue.
This statue cleanses the curse from your Sim.
You can also ditch the curse via the Snake Kiss moodlet, which is achieved by kissing a cobra from the Snake Charmer Basket. (More on this basket—and the hidden Snake Charmer skill—in the Egypt chapter.)
There is a way to get an aggressive mummy off your back: Mummy Snacks. This Adventure Reward (purchased from the Special Merchant with Ancient Coins) can be thrown to the ground as your Sim flees. Mummies cannot resist this treat.
A mummy will stop pursuit and start noshing on a Mummy Snack. While the mummy is busy eating, Sims can either continue their escape or use this distraction to inspect the mummy’s sarcophagus.
Surely there is enough room in that thing for a relic as well as a mummy, right?