The door that wasn't a door but was actually and the hoard of gold

As they descended the quietness of the tomb descended. The art on the walls told of the good things the rulers had done and that the ziggurat was built on top of a well spring, named Tolmech which means sacred waters, the whole empire is named after this well. Anything the water touched became blessed in some fashion. Everyone was thriving, everyone had enough of what they needed. A socialist utopia. This was the story told on the walls.
They found themselves in a room faintly humming with machinery. They stood on a platform with two sets of steps down into the room. The machinery was humming and working as intended, un pitted, no rust. There were large drains in the room, large enough to walk into. Liliana was worried that the drains might flood the room, but the room looked completely dry.
 
The limestone staircases however showed sign of erosion by liquid.
 
Shadow waxed lyrical about the room, or at least as lyrical as he was capable of doing so, appreciating how everything moved in harmony. On the right hand side of the room there was door. Still uncomfortable at the erosion and drains and concerned that the room might fill with oil and drown them, Liliana asked Shadow to check for traps, we he did so and found nothing. He walked down the steps and find the drains were shut with bars.
 
Shadow surmised that the drains were art of a storm overflow, Liliana wondered if it was pumping water from the well. A series of numbers and letters were stamped onto the machinery but Liliana couldn’t work out why.
 
She moved around looking at it noticing that the pipes were all different temperatures some disappearing into the wall, some in the ceiling with no discernible rhyme nor reason that Liliana could find. However, she was certain that this machine showed several upgrades, with distinct periods of development. She drew a piece of paper out and drew what she could see. Shadow moved to the door. Liliana took the hint and moved to join him. Shadow tried to open the door but it was locked. He kicked it. They both tried to lock pick it and when they couldn’t, decided it wasn’t a door.
 
Liliana looked around and found one of the barred gates on the drain open, so it looked like they could get in. They decided to enter the drain, though Liliana was worried as she had no magic should liquid flow it, so Shadow promised to lift her up above any water. They entered the drain and found it dark, Liliana brought out her dancing light cantrip. They followed the pipe as it curved, seeing pipes leading in from above until they saw light up ahead coming through a barred door. The hinge was on the outside, as was the lock. They realised they were looking back into the same room they had left. They turned back into the room and Shadow suggested talking to the machinery and addressed the machine. Liliana only heard the hum of the machine, but Shadow heard words from the machine.
 
Shadow and the door exchanged lots of machine based jokes, he then asked the machine which way to go and discovered that it was not a fake door. They then spent 90minutes working on opening the door.
 
When it finally twists open, a corridor lay ahead of them. Liliana pulled out a wine skin and took a sip to steady her anger at being bested by a door for 90 minutes.
 
The corridor ahead was rough, the walls unfinished, unpolished. Down the corridor they heard footsteps that faded away. They turned a corner and saw the high roof getting lower as the corridor stretched away. Shadow decided to make his own louds footsteps. Liliana went to cast silence, then realised she did not have that power yet. They moved forward and realised that the lower corridor seemed to be another corridor passing over head, the corridor going back to normal height before. Continuing down they heard multiple voices singing in deep harmony in dwarvish, which was interesting as dwarves were very rare, they lived in their own caverns WITH their god Moradin. They headed towards the sound, up a short set of stairs, rising 6 feet to enter into a chapel. As they entered the chapel the sound swells. Lights in the chapel were lit, two brazier, a candelabra in a corner and two torches.
 
Using a pinch of salt and soot, Liliana cast comprehend languages on herself and heard voices asking Moradin for blessings upon ‘your servant, as they rest here with our king’. She translated this for Shadow and then moved to the altar where she saw two statues that looked like imps. Liliana mused that from the chant it was likely this king was dwarven which was very unusual given dwarves never normally left their homes.
 
The construction of the room was very dwarven with quality stone architecture and fluted columns, very different to anything else they’d encountered.
Liliana pulled Bob out for information. He said there was a dwarf out of the east who helped to save many people on one of the islands form a volcanic explosion, he was seen as a hero and after his sudden death he was buried here with great honour. His name was Dergarr. Bob waxed lyrical about him and his shiny axe.
 
Liliana then asked about the machinery and he said the well spring was a couple of levels down and the machinery takes the blessed water and distributes it though the homes of everyone on the island, so everywhere gets blessed. Aglathal came up with it. Her first husband Teotach the first started implementing it, his step son Teotach the second then implemented it fully. Incest, fun for all the family.
 
Under the alter was the tomb of Dergarr.
 
Liliana made to leave and Shadow suggested they pray for the souls in this place. Liliana would normally have said no but touched by Shadow’s offer to lift her up should they get flooded, she agreed. As they sat down respectfully, he started laughing and said he was just kidding. Liliana looked distinctly annoyed and her mage hand slapped his face. He continued to laugh.
 
“I deserved that but it was worth it. You should see your face.”
 
Liliana was distinctly unimpressed. They set off and followed the corridor to a room with a very small sarcophagus, perhaps a child, surrounded by four fluted columns. There were no doors, just open archways, one in and one out. Liliana felt a strong impression of evil, which came from down the corridor. Shadow felt nothing.
 
“I feel something malevolent down the corridor, the presence of a predator.”
 
She looked back to the room, and realised that this tomb was for a human royal child and on the tomb was a coatl. Liliana cocked her head at it, that was most unexpected. There were also books. One was ‘Warforged through the ages’ an instruction manual for celestials to warforged. It contained instructions on how to make healing potions for warforged. The other was a book by a historian who called himself Pliny the elder. He wrote about a time during Queen Aglathal back in the beginning of the empire. Liliana added these to her now bulging backpack.
 
They moved into the corridor where they senses evil, on high alert, Liliana redy to cast mage armour at a moment’s notice. They followed the corridor to a room with three plain sealed sarcophagi, runes of protection filled every surface of this room.
 
Liliana pulled out Bob.
 
“Hey Bob, was this a thing in your time? Or this a new development.”
 
“The necromancers kings,” He said in a low voice, “is there treasure handy?”
 
He spoke of a time when people stopped having children, so the necromancers came along and kept ‘the population moving’ but demanded a lot in the way of tribute, hence his thought that maybe there might be treasure around here. Bob seemed greedy to find the treasure.
 
Liliana looked at the symbols of protection and realised they were meant to keep things in as opposed to out. They were not here to protect the tomb but to keep those in the tomb. She also thought they may protect against them leaving also. Liliana wondered if they could turn off the symbols but that if doing so would unleash whatever was in the tomb. There were four doors leaving the room in total, including the ones they entered through. But there were no symbols on the doors.
 
Liliana looked around and found a sealed book on the necromancer king, with a closed eye worked into the leather bound front cover. Two locked clasped sealed it shut. She showed it to Shadow and he attempted to unlock the book. He unlocked the first but his lock pick broke in the second one as the lock twisted of it’s own volition.
 
He turned to Liliana and titled his head, intending to express what the fuck but his face was expressionless.
 
“Are, you upset?” She asked slowly,
 
“It is frustrating.”
 
“I am sorry your thing is broken. That is shit.”
 
“We could try smashing the lock.”
 
Liliana clutched the book to her chest and put it in her back.
 
Shadow decided to try a door and stepped into a room full of gold,
 
“Holy shit, Bob! Get in here! You could have eyes for day!” He called in in his robotic voice.
 
As well as gold there were wooden weapons, lacquered weapons, and something that looked like a spiky cricket bat hanging in a rack. A Macuahuitl. Everything in the room looked like offerings. Shadow glanced around saw no traps and pulled the Macuahuitl off the wall. To be abbreviated to Mac.
 
“Liliana you are to books what I am to this, look how fun this is.” He swung the bat on repeat. “Wow I feel cool.”
 
An unusual expression crept across Liliana’s face as she watched Shadow. She was not used to feeling pleasure at other’s pleasure but seeing Shadow like an excited child, a genuine smile spread over her face.
 
Looking at the rest of the hoard, they realised all the gold coins were stamped with a unified kings of a Craysilt king, which was very unusual. King Justinian. There were far more than they should carry, but they agreed they should take some to show Aglathal and some more for ‘research’.
Shadow stared to fill up the empty cavities of his leg with golden coins (while the dm tried to work out how much volume that equated to!) Shadow put 125 gold in each leg.
 
Liliana filled her backpack with gold, sticking it around all of her books. She took as much as she was physically ableto carry. Roughly 2000gp!
They decided the vault was defensible and was a good place to rest. Liliana read her books for several hours, then sat down to trance on a pile of gold, like a dragon on its hoard.