One useful trick to prevent blue-masks repairing the totem while you're trying to tear it down (and stop them filling up the mausoleum again) is to
Click to reveal..
drop a villager on them. If they don't have a light over their head they will listen to a conversion speech. If the light is on, they will run away as they don't like being approached too often.

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To err is human; to arr is pirate.