ADVENTURES    THE LOST CITY OF ELUSHA  

6. Ziggurat Entrance

5. Three Gates    The Company Arrives
The interior of this once-cavernous space is now a claustrophobic maze of rubble, broken pillars, and collapsed walls. The only recognizable features are large-scale: a huge chimney vent (now slightly sloped), leads up to the top of the ziggurat. Below the chimney is an enormous stone structure, more than 15 feet tall and equally as wide, that looks like a furnace or kiln.

Exploration and excavation of the ziggurat interior reveals the following: 

Intruder Alert!

If non-Shinarian characters spend any time in the ziggurat while speaking, an enormous, 10-foot-tall golem with a giant stone scepter bursts from the rubble: a judge tophet. The golem's head has two faces—a monstrous, one-eyed face with a fanged, gaping mouth on one side, and a serene-looking bearded visage with a tall crown on the other. At your discretion, Shinarians might instinctively recognize the bearded visage as that of Amurah, the Clay King.

The judge's head swivels so the royal visage faces the characters. It speaks in pleasant-but-firm sounding Shinarian. (If no heroes understand Shinarian, don't reveal what the judge says.)

"Intruders. Unlawful entry by fleshcaste is punishable by body forfeiture. You have the right to leave promptly. Any other actions you take shall be punishable by Law.""6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1." 

If the heroes don't leave by the end of the countdown, the judge attacks, its head rotating constantly. 

If the heroes leave the ziggurat, the judge doesn't pursue. 

Defeat or victory. If any heroes lose all their life, the golem takes hold and grapples the unconscious hero, magically stabilizing them in the process. The golem then throws the body in the tophet, the large kiln-shaped section of the ziggurat interior. (Fortunately, the tophet is no longer working, and heroes can climb up the "chimney" to escape after they regain consciousness.)

If the heroes defeat the judge, they can claim the vision orb phylactery inset in the monstrous face's eye.  

The judge's soliton. Arbiters who Soulgaze the judge see that—unlike the Elushan dreamers—its body is not inhabited by a true soul. Instead, it houses a soliton, a remnant fragment of the Clay King's intentions, which is set to obey a simple protocol to protect the ziggurat from fleshly people.