Reaping 26, 594 CY
A desert temple

It turned out to be not one mummy, but two, and fire worked again, however, I couldn’t cast any spells, so I had to tumble through the doorway to light each in turn. The first managed to reach Keth, and both mummies exploded into a swarm of locusts. I continued down the hallway with Fash to a room at the end; we got the double doors open and immediately closed one. Holli soon followed and closed the other! Keth came bursting through a moment later, bowling us aside. We shoved the door closed again and let the bugs burn in the hallway beyond.

The chamber we found ourselves in was filled with treasure chests, urns and a sarcophagus. We carefully checked through each (saving the sarcophagus for last), finding coins, gems, and a silver statue with the dog-head motif. Now, we just needed to find a way out!

We went over every inch of the room, when we detected air flow in one corner of the room. Keth climbed up to the ceiling and found a trap door. Shoving that aside, he disappeared into a tunnel that took him back up near the entrance. Holli decided to close her eyes and rest a few minutes, so I suggested to Fash that we play dead when Keth came back. In spite of the dire situation, the thought made me giggle.

Sadly, that was the last conversation I had with Fash. As Keth slide down the rope he’d secured to the escape hatch, we made plans to open the sarcophagus, figuring we’d have an escape a mummy couldn’t follow us through. While Holli and I waited in the tunnel above, Fash and Keth opened the sarcophagus. It was not filled with a proper mummy, but with scarab beetles, alive and biting! Keth scrambled for the exit, thinking Fash would follow, but instead he chose to splash oil on the bugs (which were biting him) and light the oil (including the oil on the bugs biting him). I didn’t see what happened next, but Keth paled and quickly shut the trapdoor, insisting that Fash didn’t survive his encounter. I tried to get back to the room, but Holli and Keth forced me back. I know I swore a blue streak at them about leaving our brother to die. What cruel fate allowed us to finally find each other after so many years only to be separated by death so soon?

I probably should have told them about that— I’ve pondered this since I was in the pyramid in Exag, and have been sure we were separated as children since arriving in this sandy wasteland. Now we, or at least Fash, will never learn the truth of our circumstances.

We found ourselves in the hallway with the sphinx statues, and I was feeling reckless. We pushed the doors open at the end of the hall and saw a long room with a sarcophagus at one end, and four more of those awful tomb guardians. I tumbled between the lot of them and jumped up on the sarcophagus, planning to make a last stand, goading Holli to shut the doors. Alas, Keth stormed the room with me, so Holli followed. Not caring much about my fate, I climbed up a carved column so I could rain bolts down on the undead guards, all of which were incapable, or too stupid, to climb up after me. I shot each in turn till there were none left, and ironically, didn’t get a scratch on me. After the last fell still, I leaped down. We opened the sarcophagus and ransacked it. The mummy was dead and stayed dead. We found a jade scarab, a strange hooked sword and six sealed jars. Further searching revealed a stone box containing gems, a gold ankh, two small jars and two vials. I popped the top on one of the vials and drank it, figuring it would kill me and spare my siblings from watching me die from whatever disease the mummy gave me, or it would cure me. I felt much better immediately, but I don’t believe I found a cure, just a stay of execution. I tried the stuff in one of the jars and again, felt a bit better. Keth seemed to understand what I was doing, but I could tell Holli was a bit upset with me. We also found a silver tongue in the mummy’s mouth. I grabbed that too, but, reckless though I feel, I’ve not had the nerve to put it in my own mouth….