Thank you very much for the great review and the kind words, especially "hot tub of ecstasy and terror", which absolutely killed me. I love that consideration!
Great feedback regarding the constellations. I just wanted include some random element but wasn't able to develop it further other than set dressing.
Valid point about the statue, I guess I figured the dungeon needed to be a bit deadly at the end, especially for a powerful artifact potentially game-changer like the Ledger of Fates. The corpse was there to foreshadow the potential danger in the vault. I presumed the reason for its state was that it would be crushed by the statues' fists and desiccated by the gas when they attempted to take the ledger; both effects because how relentless it would in its task. My original concept was for the corpse to be holding the ledger (that would perhaps explain its fate better), but then it didn't make sense why the statue would just leave it there after dispatching the thief. Also I know realize that I perhaps didn't make it clear that the statue wouldn't be stationary when activated.
That all said, I didn't specify how deadly the statue could be, I intentionally left that open for the referee to work out. I just wanted to impress the potential peril, and it sounds like I succeeded since you read it that way. :D
Thanks again!