Their attacks were thwarted by the mummy’s wrappings? Fine Cirice will unwrap it then! As the creature tassels with Gerhart Cirice will grab a tattered end of the bandages tightly and run away with it, trying to unravel the damn thing where it stands! She'll run directly opposite from where the creature is, towards the statues.

Their attacks weren't working. There had to be something else they could do, something they were missing. Cyran didn't want to leave Gerhart alone, but someone had to figure out what the source of his immortality was. Cyran disengaged and waved his hand near the still-burning fires, attempting to cloak them in darkness.^[1] He would take a closer look at the statues near the sultan's throne as well, trying to figure out if they might be related to this puzzle.

They had to figure it out soon.

It was do or die.

---

1. Remove Light

While their attacks didn’t do any damage, they were connecting meaning this thing had a physical enough form and wasn’t projecting some force field. At least he was able to keep its attention on him and let the other test their ideas. He had to do more than just be the shield though. Come on Gerhart think!

The mummy was unable to move him which was nice because being overtaken would’ve been bad. He knocked the mummy’s hands down and ended the lock up, keeping up the defensive for the moment. It was in the trading of blows he had an idea, something only he could reach. The jangling golden chain of the sultans pendant caught his attention. Lots of magic medallions out there.

Gerhart charged with a flurry of blows, parrying the hands until he caught both and swung hard to open up the mummy’s defenses. He aimed for the pendant, waiting until the exact moment the lights went out with his shadowed long sword to try and cut the chain.

---

1. Immovable Bastion
2. Guard Break
3. Blurred enchantment on sword

The realization that this undead thing was not sustaining any damage had fully sunk in, the trio now aware that something more mystical was at play, and each of them had their own ideas of how to help the overall party out. Gerhart was going to continue to tank the thing, using his martial prowess to keep it tied up. Cirice was going to attempt to unravel the thing, removing its wrappings that may have been helping the sultan deflect their attacks. Cyran was disengaging, focusing on the chamber itself. He first inspected the statues, then cast his spell, shrouding the entire chamber in pure magical darkness. The lights from the bowls were gone, all four individuals now in the dark.

Cirice and Cyran would be able to see the room normally however, through their damaged eyes. It would continue to be a room lit by fires, full of color and detail. Their good eye would see nothing but darkness, afflicted by the spell, but their damaged eye now worked! Gerhart, lost in the void, would stay entangled with the sultan, now cutting the medallion from its neck, thinking that maybe that had something to do with all of the weirdness.

It was a very good, well coordinated attack from the entire team, the Sultan was now engulfed in darkness, fully unwrapped and devoid of his necklace. But there were more secrets hidden within the undead body. Gerhart, being the closest would be able to feel small, tiny pricks across the surface of his skin. It was light and slow at first, but the more time he spent near the sultan, the worse the pain was. The armored warrior would have no idea what was going on, but both of the elves, Cyran and Cirice, would be watching the entire thing.

Through their damaged eyes they both would see tiny black insects crawling and flying out from underneath the wrappings. A gross, aged mummy was now trying to hold onto Gerhart, as a cloud of tiny, unrecognizable insects fluttered around his body. They were not near Cyran or Cirice yet, but the cloud was slowly spreading and getting bigger as Gerhart was consumed by the swarm.

---

-Gerhart is blind and being slowly bitten by insects
-If you remain inside of the insect cloud for two more post, you will receive a wound

-Cirice- 0 Wounds, one blind eye (Major healing can not be used on them)
-Cyran- 0 Wounds, one blind eye (Major healing can not be used on them)
-Gerhart- 0 Wound, Chest and leg hit preventions used up (Minor and Major healing can not be used on them)

Being blind anyways, Gerhart shuts his eyes tight to prevent bugs from getting in there. Itchy eyes is not something he wanted to come away with at the end of all this. The buzzing makes it hard to exactly pick out where the mummy is but thankfully it wants to stay close.

Gerhart would continue the onslaught with his swords hoping to Ginma's fuzzy horse ass he would hit something. The blurred enchantment on his Shadowed longsword had the best chance of hitting, so that would be the first. He would then follow with the Duelist Longsword, the double strike enchantment packing more of a punch. The aim was to open up an opportunity with the first and land a hit with the second.

"You guys all right out there? I think I got him right where I wa-ppffpthb" His little quip is cut off by bugs flying into his mouth.

Cyran had no idea to tell whether the darkness worked, or if Gerhart and Cirice had managed to figure out the source of whatever was keeping it from being damaged, because the second Cirice unwrapped him, a plague of insects swarmed from his body, attacking Gerhart, who was closest to it. What could he do? Cyran wasn’t exactly equipped to get rid of a pest problem. The idea was far fetched, but maybe he could combat the swarm with one of his own. Cyran raised his arm, calling down a conspiracy of ravens, commanding them to peck at the mummy and eat at the insect swarm.^[1]

He couldn’t stop the insect cloud, but at the very least, he could prevent the sultan from casting any more spells. Cyran pulled out Spell Slicer and crept up behind the mummy, invisible in the darkness, and plunged it into his back.^[2,3] He ripped the dagger out, retreating once more before the insect swarm could touch him. “Keep your distance!” He warned Cirice. “We need to figure out how to get rid of this swarm.” He glanced at the bowls of ghostly fire… maybe that was the key?

---

1. Raven Storm
2. Back Stab
3. Magic Blocker Enchantment 

“Gerhart get out of there! Come to my voice!” She reaches out for him, her hands covering in shadows as she tries to kill the swarm of bugs surrounding Gerhart¹. “Hold your breath!” She takes a deep breath and starts backing away from the mummy further.

---

1 Corrupting Touch

With the cloud of insects now swarming around Gerhart's body, he did the thing he was best at, and started to attack, swinging wildly hoping to hit anything close. They nipped and buzzed around his body as his two comrades sprang into action, trying to help slow down the swarm. As if called by magic, a flock of ravens descended on the insects, eating everything they could find as Cirice launched her own magic into the fray, taking out huge chunks of the main body. While their attacks were helpful, they were unable to get rid of all of the bugs, with at least half of the original swarm still lingering.

As the swarm was slowed, a secondary counter attacked was launched. Both Gerhart and Cyran plunged their weapons into the unwrapped being, blades easily piercing the rotten flesh as their attacks were successful. A strange sound would escape the creature, its body arcing before completely exploding into a cloud of bugs, only adding to the swarm now filling the room up again. The sultan had somehow dispersed its entire body into a cloud of insects, moving backwards 20 feet and separating himself from the attackers.

The gross, sickly mummy snapped the rags left on its body off, revealing its full form as the swarm started to cloud around the Sultan, slowly forming an outer layer, as if to protect the zombie. Now all three of the tomb delvers were covered in bugs, biting and pinching beginning to get worse over time. Things were getting rough, with time slowly turning against them.

---

-All three of you are now consumed by the insects, however the attacks have reset the counter. Turn 0/2 for insect swarm.

-Cirice- 0 Wounds, one blind eye (Major healing can not be used on them)
-Cyran- 0 Wounds, one blind eye (Major healing can not be used on them)
-Gerhart- 0 Wound, Chest and leg hit preventions used up (Minor and Major healing can not be used on them)

Despite their best efforts, the swarm of insects was still growing, ever-multiplying even as the conspiracy of ravens picked at them. But the second his and Gerhart’s attacks connected, the mummy let out a screech, contorting its body at an odd angle before disappearing in a swarm of insects, escaping their grasp. Cyran turned and followed its movement until it reformed a good distance away from them.

“Over there!” He called, the shadows encircling them immediately melting away so that Gerhart could see where the mummy was. Cyran darted forward until he was within ten feet of the mummy and the swarm, shrugging his shoulder so his cloak shifted, revealing the assassin’s symbol emblazoned on the back clear enough for the mummy to get a good look at it.^[1] Even though the Sultan would not recognize what the symbol meant, the promise of murder in his eye and the banner clearly marked Cyran as someone important, someone to fear. The Sultan, if Cyran had properly managed to strike that instinctual fear in him, would no sooner be able to move closer to strike Cyran than he would be able to command the swarm of insects after them.

And with Cyran standing between the Sultan and the others for now, it would offer some level of protection for them, too.

It was only a temporary solution. Perhaps Cyran had bought them a bit more time to move, but they needed a more permanent fix -

The fire.

Even in the darkness, the ghostly wisps of flame had stuck out to Cyran and Cirice. Cyran turned to the others, gesturing towards the braziers around them. “Try the flames!” He moved to grab one of the dishes, throwing the magical fire contained within the metal onto the mummy, trusting that the others would understand what he meant and follow suit. It felt like a ridiculous idea, but he’d had far worse throughout this labyrinth, and they were running out of options.

The light at the end of the tunnel was in sight.

Cyran would do whatever it took to grab it.

---

1. Banner Lord (Warlord I)

Gerhart had done his best to follow the sound of the mummy, but the sudden increase in buzzing made it harder. Add on to that now hearing Cirice and Cyran affected, he knew he couldn’t swing blindly. Now was not the time to risk it. Gerhart disengaged from the mummy and headed backwards out of the cloud of bugs.

As the darkness drops, he sees where Cyran is headed and moves for the opposite one. Gods let this work. He got to a brazier and pushed to hopefully douse the mummy in fire.

Seeing Gerhart and Cyran grab the braziers and throw it towards the mummy she summons Ur¹ once more and directs him to do the same as she grabs the final dish of mystical fire and with a grunt tries to foist it onto the terrible undead’s crusty dried-up form.

“BURN YOU EVIL CORPSE!”

---

1 summon minor minion Ur
2 YEET FIRE

It was a feat of nature never thought of, for as Cyran activated their banner, instilling fear in the undead creature, the entire swarm of insects retreated, moving behind the Sultan and crating a ball. As extensions of the mummy, they to were afraid of the man, unable to move towards or attack the knife elf. This provided the entire group an opportunity to retaliate, each of them grabbing one of the four metal dishes housing magical fire. As their enemy cowered in fear, the dishes were launched at them, fire from four sources engulfing the Sultan.

Like dry hay set afire, the entirety of the Sultan and his swarm were engulfed in a ravaging blaze, fire consuming every inch of the dried, rotten body. The swarm of insects burned away, like a cloud of gas that instantly ignited. What was left was an undead mummy still burning, its entire figure outlined by the ravaging inferno. A rather unpleasant smell began to fill the chamber as its body burned, but despite the flames, it remained animated. And it was mad.

The dishes were now empty, but the room remained alight due to the massive fire still burning the Sultan. The magic fueling its body was not done yet, and instead of falling over, the mummy dashed forward once again, looking to slam its blazing body right into all four of them, hoping to completely consume the group that had just attacked him.

---

Bugs are dead
Burning Mummy is now trying to tackle the group

-Cirice- 0 Wounds, one blind eye (Major healing can not be used on them)
-Cyran- 0 Wounds, one blind eye (Major healing can not be used on them)
-Gerhart- 0 Wound, Chest and leg hit preventions used up (Minor and Major healing can not be used on them)

“Oh no you don’t!” Gerhart rushed forward once more to meet the mummy and protect his friends. Ginma willing if there was a chance to recklessly endanger himself the young man was going to attempt it.

He tried to stab both his swords through the mummy, driving hard enough to hopefully take it off it’s feet and pin it to the ground. He just needed his gauntlets to hold on long enough before burning his hands that he could twist the last bits of life out of the mummy. He held the undead bastard down pushing the swords as deep as they could go. “I’ll hold him, finish him off!”

Cyran was already moving to throw up a defensive wall between themselves and the blazing mummy, but before he could, Gerhart darted forward, intent on stopping the sultan with his bare hands. “What are you doing?” Cyran called after him, dashing after the younger adventurer, but Gerhart had already gotten a head start on him, enough that he was able to reach the mummy first, attempting to knock the flaming creature down and pin him to the ground long enough so that they could finish the mummy off.

Gods, why did he do that? Even to the very last minute Gerhart was determined to be self-sacrificial. Cyran couldn’t stop him now - all he could do was try and finish off this damn mummy before either of them got burned.

“Stay back!” He warned Cirice, drawing the blood-scimitar once more. While Gerhart had attempted to pin the mummy down, Cyran was going to make it stick. He drove the scimitar downwards, attempting to drive the blade all the way through the mummy’s rotting, burning chest and pin him to the floor. He suppressed a violent cough from the smoke entering his lungs, Cyran was suddenly aware of how reckless and foolish this plan was. But now that they’d started, there was no stopping - Gerhart was holding the mummy down, so all Cyran could do was attempt to do as much damage as he could.

In a flourish of whirling blades, Cyran pulled out his pair of fighting knives, driving Spell Slicer and Cold Steel into the pinned mummy - and if it was still struggling, he’d pull out his last two daggers and stab them into the mummy as well. All he had left in him by now were his blades, and he’d turn this thing into a damn pincushion before Gerhart got hurt.

---

1. Stabbed mummy with scimitar
2. Stabbed mummy with magic blocker and ice rune knives
3. ATTEMPTING TO stab mummy with plain knife of dagger of torment

Cirice watched helplessly as Gerhart charged the burning mummy and Cyran raised a protective wall between her and the creature. Her friends are fighting for their lives and all she can do is send in Ur to help them. The wolpertinger dives in fearlessly, ready to sacrifice itself to make sure its allies survive. Flying into the mummy’s face and biting and scratching at its throat like a rabid animal was all he could do but he does so with all the fury of his helpless mistress.