Have to push through.
Up to the final level.
Pushing back against the malign energy that attempts to impede your progress you finally ascend to the top level of the ziggurat.
The large malachite statue stands in the center of the top tier and a closer viewing reveals that it is indeed the same type of stone as the gems you have found previously. The body in the claw appears to be a warrior adorned with the rat and coin tabard. At the foot of the statue is a strange black box (stone?) laced with lapis lazuli writing and symbols. The box is closed. There is an odd but distinct briny smell in this area.
Detect evil on and study the statue, the body, and the black box.
Any additional info based on knowledge checks.
For the body appears to be just a plain corpse and does not radiate any evil. The statue and box both radiate significant evil, the statue more than the box.
The box appears to be some type of stone, one that you have never seen before. It is also highly unusual in that it does not seem to be cut or machined. It looks almost secreted by something (like a pearl maybe?).
This final level and altar look to be where the most important ceremonies would be, celebrating the deity represented by the statue. The inscriptions on the box look almost like instructions but the language is so foreign and bizarre it is hard to be sure.
Hmmm, an evil statue, an evil box, what does this mean? I need to figure this out.
Open the box.
As you open the odd box a surge of negative energy rushes up your hand into your core. DC 20 FORT or gain 1 negative level. Underneath the heavy lid is a set of 73 green stones resembling the ones you have encountered before. 10 of the stones are missing.
I guess I should have expected that, will have to take these to a temple to destroy.
Does Ang see any gems (like 10) on the statue?
Smite evil on the statue.
-1 level (-1 attacks, -5hp)
-1 hp
Ang presciently smashes the statue which responds by coming to life, a spark of evil intelligence gleaming in its eyes! The one claw opens, dropping the corpse to the ground, while the stump of the other arm blasts the fallen corpse with a beam of deep emerald energy animating it. A strange mist of fishy smelling oil emanates from the statue filling the air with a cloying stench.
DC 20 FORT or be sickened.
The animated corpse, now looking like the strange undead from the surface, attacks!
+ DC 22 FORT for 1/2 on acid
Last round:
Enhancement bonus would be additional +2 hit/dam and also 2d6 more damage.
This round:
sickened
with celestial resistance, 0 dam from acid if round down, 1 if round up
-61/63hp including level drain
Torag give me strength!
-1 level
sickened
-22hp (including level loss)
The statue appears to be healing from the damage you dealt before, drawing strength from whatever entity presides over the ziggurat.
With two mighty hammer swings your crush the undead to the ground but you see that the body is quickly knitting itself back together.
The statue's claw clicks thrice and a massive earth elemental rips from the malachite smashing at you:
The oily stench intensifies! DC 20 FORT or become nauseated
-55 (assuming this is different creature for purposes of smite evil)
Why won't this thing stay dead?
-1 level
sickened
-17
You swing feebly at the earth elemental as the lobster-statue continues to strengthen and the undead 'thing' binds itself back together. You begin to wonder if you have met your match?
Elemental fists:
A black ray of negative energy fires from the lobster's stump at you.
-59
using mercy to remove sickness
-27
Not using power attack, need to hit this thing.
You connect twice doing some damage but the elemental still seems very hale. The statue continues to recover from the smashing you gave it as does the undead creature. You think maybe 2 more rounds before it regains its ability to fight.
Waves of negative energy flow from the statue causing you to become fatigued (no save).
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/w/waves-of-fatigue
-44
-11
Full retreat down the ziggurat.
Apparently today is not the day to defeat this evil.
Ang flees down the steps of the ziggurat to the floor of the room. The elemental and statue do not leave the top level, but a quick look back reveals the rejuvenating undead is slowly making its way down towards you.
If Ang thinks he can outrun/lose the undead then keep moving, if not then wait for it and try to kill it.
-1 level
fatigued
-11
*I totally screwed up twice this fight.
1. The sickened condition should have been removed the first time I did LOH.
2. I missed the whole section of your post where the statue animated the corpse, I thought you were referring to the statue as undead right up until the end. My smite evil was on the statue not the undead. I also just went back through old posts to figure out I probably need to burn this guy once he goes down.
Noting that the two more significant foes do not pursue, Ang waits at the bottom of the ziggurat, catching his breath and awaiting for the more familiar undead foe to arrive. As it descends, the thing continues to knit back together and you notice that the lapis lazuli lettering glows green instead to blue, tracking its path.
When it reaches the first level of the pyramid (one level from the ground floor you are on) it begins to make a noise that sounds like rocks being crushed by a hammer. After a few moments the guttural resonance coming from its throat takes on the patterns of coherent speech. Somehow (magically?) you can make out what it is saying-You come back, but you do not return my children or offer any recompense. You were lucky to survive last time, I do not imagine that your fate will be so blessed now; and I sense that you have weakened the barriers with which you kept me here. Foolish..... Now I will leave this place and rebuild my empire with your kind...
You smash it once with your hammer as it rushes in to tare you to shreds, its wounds already beginning to heal.
DC 22 FORT
You may be hand waving next round.
-52
“What the hell is this thing talking about?”
The creature was nowhere near as healed as it needed to be and your hammer crushes it back to the ground where it struggles to reconstitute itself.
See if it has anything on it of value or that might give any more information about it before it revives, then BURN IT!
The creature's armor and most other valuables were destroyed in whatever battle killed it the first time. It does have an amulet of natural armor +1. It burns readily and an oily black smoke rises to the ceiling of the large room as the statue (now sans elemental) looks down upon you balefully.
Ang will go hole up wherever he stayed the previous night.
Can Ang make sense of what the undead said about weakening barriers? Something he did on the ziggurat?
Ang's best guess is that whomever/whatever came before him to this place and the tower, taking the missing gems, did their best to seal the way into and out of the tower to prevent "it" from escaping and anyone else from getting in to free/disturb it.
Level up.
Does Ang believe taking the remaining gems is going to release it? Does he believe taking the gems and hopefully destroying them will stop the plague?
Ang thinks the plague was caused by the power of the statue (or whatever controls it) but most likely from one of the survivors of the expedition that stole the gems and returned to the surface.
Destroying the statue/gems might end the plague, but the power appears to come from the ziggurat which would be difficult to overcome. Maybe you could talk/negotiate with the entity that controls the statue?
I need to read more carefully, missed the level up part until now.
Rest for the night (cast Keep Watch) and return to the ziggurat the next morning.
Does negative level and fatigued go away?
After a night of rest and reflection (and leveling up!) the negative energy and fatigue wash away. On the way towards the tower Ang notices that where before the green light would flash out randomly, it now appears to flash in a semi-staccato rhythm, almost acting as a semaphore. The direction of the light changes occasionally, lancing out into the darkness of the cavern, almost as if it was searching for a receiver.
You arrive at the tower without incident and find that the fog surrounding the tower is thicker and greener than the day before.
Detect evil in the fog and then move through.
Thicker, greener fog, what new devilry is this?
Not detecting any evil within your range you advance into the thick fog, using your magical slippers as you walk down the ramp to prevent you from falling.
The fog rips at your lungs and burns your eyes and skin. DC 25 FORT or be sickened and take .
Use slippers to go up outside of temple to entry for ziggurat.
What level of the ziggurat do you enter?
Returning here:
*You work your way through the hatch and enter what you believe must be the last level of the tower. You remember the outside of the top of the tower being an off-whitish color but from inside the walls are completely translucent, and your vision looking out to the city and cavern is as clear as if you were outside on a well lit day.
In the center of the roughly circular room is a low 3-step ziggurat about 35' high. Atop the ziggurat is a 10' tall malachite statue. It appears to be a nude humanish female body, with an articulated shell covering the shoulders, and a lobster head and claw in place of the expected human head and arms. The right claw is closed and raised with a body in it while the left arm is held out about 4' above the floor of the 3d tier. The associated claw appears to be missing?
Lapis lazui artwork decorates the floor of the room and there appear to be two paths leading to the central stairs that ascend to the 3 levels of the ziggurat.*
Will approach ziggurat from bottom level and follow same route as before toward top. Detect evil and looking for anything that might have changed. Does the statue look the same? Is it still holding a body?
You climb back up to the window that allows entry to the alchemy room:
"Squeezing through a window you find yourself in the center of a large, somewhat oddly circular room the contents of which have been badly damaged.
What remains is the ruins of an alchemical and arcane workshop. Various apparatuses and devices lie scattered about in mostly broken fashion and you can see blast marks from what appear to be from fireball and lightning impacts. There is an intense reek of chemical in the air and you struggle to breathe."
As you enter you note that the chemical reek still remains but does not appear any more powerful. DC 20 FORT save or be nauseated.
There are however, several new occupants in the room. Three different mechanical creatures have been put together out of the wreckage of the room and guard the stairs. At the foot of the stairs is a hunchbacked, green-skinned humanoid with wide, frog-like head but a mouth more akin to that of a toothy fish. You have seen this before on the shores of the cavern lake after defeating the massive bronze statues. It looks less savage than the ones you defeated but less noble than what was depicted by the statues. (page 19 posts 901-950).
Nauseated is basically a death sentence.
Detect evil on all the occupants.
To the fish/frog guy:
"Hello there, my name is Ang, who might you be and what is your purpose here?
The creature's bulbous frog eyes rotate towards you as the the mechanical creatures shamble in your direction. Fish/frog appears to contemplate for a few moments, rubbing a ring on one of its webbed claws, before responding in clear common-I'm sorry, would you mind saying that again? Hate to have these machines slaughter you if for some reason you are actually supposed to be here.
"I said my name is Ang, and asked who might you be and what is your purpose here?"
Did any detect as evil?
My name is Jopa'arg and I am tasked with preventing unwanted intrusions. Like yourself, most likely, but before I have you killed maybe you can explain yourself. The cobbled-machines continue to advance towards you and will be in melee next round.
Did any detect as evil?
"Well I would hate to die Jopa'arg, I'm here to converse with the statue on the ziggurat."
Sorry, missed it, fish/frog is quite evil.
The bulbous eyes blink a few times , and the head twists to have one of the orbs take a full look at you-Quite impossible I'm afraid and exactly why I'm here, to prevent unneeded interruptions. Perhaps if you tell me what the message is, assuming I don't have these things kill you of course, I might decide to pass it along.
The machines are now right in your face, but hang back for shredding in to you, clearly waiting for a command.
Swift action divine bond add +1 to weapon. Rolls below include construct bane. Attack closest construct.
Nauseated?
Used second chance and saved.
Speaking of needing to read more closely... I was completely thinking about the DC 25 from the fog. :-\
Fish/frog tuts-Well I suppose not... as he casts a spell.
You connect with one of the cobbles, doing good damage. All three swarm on you:
Cobble 1 (damaged):
Cobble 2:
Cobble 2:
-73
If possible step to an area where they can't all get at me at once.
-32
Stepping back towards the window, you swing wildly, missing twice.
Only 2 of the cobbled things are able to get at you in the recess of the window.
Cobble 1 (damaged):
Cobble 2:
-55
That's better, three at a time is bit much.
-20
You smash the damaged Cobble back to shattered pieces as the Fish/Frog continues to cast spells.
Cobble 2
Cobble 3