Well, I say go ahead and let them investigate it. Zeech is building the ziggurat because he wants to, not because he has any connection to Kyuss. Lashonna is the one with the connection to Kyuss, and she's using very subtle magic and/or suggestions to make him think it was his idea (if I recall correctly)- which may be impossible to detect, depending on how the PCs go about it. It definitely seems suspicious, and will eventually turn out to be more than just a red herring, but I don't see any way the PCs would be able to learn anything concrete about it.
Well, I guess it's a little late, but it depends all on the way you described the work-in-progress ziggurat.
If you went for the "look, here is a ziggurat just like the one in Kuluth Mar" angle, it's no surprise they got suspicious. Let them investigate all they want, but they can't possibly destroy a huge stone building like that, just delay its construction somewhat, before being destroyed/chased/called elsewhere for more important or urgent business.
They should remember too that they were sent here to contact Lashonna, and not to piss off the local evil lord. Let them report on their findings, and get a refresher on their priorities of action ("okay, we now have a hint of where it will happen. Let's do the right thing to prevent it, okay?").
My players, if and when they will get there in some years, will be probably fed something like "a huge blocky compound surrounded by scaffolds, something like a big flat plaza. Rumors says that a huge statue of Zeech, so tall that it will be visible for miles, will be erected on top to celebrate his reign". Legerdemain...
This issue comes repeatedly. You can do a search on Prince of Red HAnd and find some threads that have dealt with the issue extencivly.
My personal favourite may well already be to late for you. Pretty much I feel the Ziggurat should come as no surprise to the PCs. I mean the whole city is a den of evil - we need the PCs not to come in swords swinging. The reality is they are here for some important information so get that all out in the open with them via Tenser. Basically have them in on planning sessions where it becomes clear that their role in this move to counter the coming Age of Worms is as a strike force and their job on this mission is to make contact and gather information. There are several spies for good working in Allistar and its up to them to get in contact with them and get the information needed to move forward.
It needs to be clear to them that if they choose to fight this battle they may win the battle (actually they have little chance considering some of the monsters and NPCs in Allistar as detailed in the final adventure) but they will then almost surely loose the war.
In effect they are pretty much spies - but like the James Bond kind where everyone right down to the waitresses knows they are spies.
Yep, I agree with Dennis. Now that the can of worms is open, you can only roll with it, and hope that they manage to sabotage the construction project with enough stealth that they can take part in the celebration the next week.
If they don't (that is, if they get caught or act openly), you will have to find other ways for Lashonna to contact them. This thread here is about a similar problem and give some suggestions.
As said earlier (for the sake of other DMs), the situation could have been defused either 1) by insisting during the briefing that it was a intelligence-only mission, and NOT a strike one; 2) rule that the construction is not so advanced that it is immediately recognizable as a ziggurate duplicate.
But alas you can't always manage to deflect the suspicions of nosy and deductive players...
But alas you can't always manage to deflect the suspicions of nosy and deductive players...
This is one of the big reasons why I think its important to have Tenser actually know its a Ziggerat and inform the players while emphasizing that this is an intel mission and not an assault. By this level players have way to many ways of ferreting out information and they will nearly certianly be suspicious - far to likely they will figure out that the place really is a den of evil and then they automatically go into slaughter fest mode - because that is what the game is usually about - so we as DMs need to be proactive and head that off at the pass.
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Here's an idea.
Let your players do whatever they want, including being caught and tried for trying to/succeeding in destroying the ziggurat. (If they cause that big of a scene, the guards WILL catch them.) They get all their magic gear taken away, mages are bound and gagged, etc. While in prison, they're contacted by Lashonna, who shows up with X number of cloaked figures (X being the number of PCs). The PCs see her hand the guards a bag of gold or something. She lets the PCs out of their cell, and the cloaked figures take off their cloaks, revealing a carbon copy of each PC (down to the last detail), who then hands the cloaks to the matching PCs. She then escorts them out, and the duplicates sit in the cell. For extra points, have a public hanging the next day where the dupes are hanged.
Lashonna then tells the PCs everything she can tell them, and they will (hopefully) be a little creeped out/remorseful for the fact that innocent people were just killed for their crime. (And if possible, have everything Lashonna does seem non-magical. If you can convince the PCs that she's just an ordinary person with lots and lots of money and knowledge, all the better.)
And then, just for shoots & goggles, have those dupes show up during the final fight with Kyuss (complete with class features & unique magic items copied straight from the PCs), except they're now spawns of Kyuss.
(In my game, I had the fight with Kyuss involve a Kyuss-Construct copy of each PC, complete with the exact same stats & modifiers, just because I knew the fight wouldn't be a challenge otherwise. But I didn't have any handy-dandy justification for it, it was just DM fiat.)