Cora spends several extremely frustrating minutes searching the crypt for an appropriate keyhole, and comes up empty. Even the concealed door in the main chamber has a simple latch, and is in fact unlocked.
"Maybe it's a key to, you know, a treasure box. Has anyone actually seen a treasure box before? Or you call them treasure chests, I think?"
Machi-e scratches an ear. "So what are these back chambers for? Attic whisperer changing rooms?"
Cora nods at the concealed door. "Well, let's check in here. It's not locked." Which makes her suspicious, so she checks around the door for danger.
Cora finds no traps and opens the door, revealing a good-sized chamber. It is empty but for the upper end of a spiral staircase.
"Down we go. Big strong people first," says Machi-e with an after-you bow to Nezos.
"It's a living," Nezos says, running his sword against the stairs as he starts to descend. "I feel out of my depth, but we aren't dead yet."
"There's still a dragon to deal with after this, so don't get ahead of yourself. We might get there by dinnertime." Cora follows Nezos down the stairs, bow at the ready.
Machi-e resumes detecting magic as he follows Cora. "I hear the gnome you had with you before was a good cook," he says. "It could have spiced up our rations, a bit, to have a cook," he concludes a bit wistfully.
The staircase descends fifteen feet through a shaft before continuing down another ten feet to the floor of an open chamber. From above Nezos can see that the chamber floor is decorated with a mosaic of a red dragon that covers very nearly all of it. There are three openings in the north wall, one opening in the south wall, and four sarcophagi sized for adult humans in an arc along the south wall. The sharp-eyed half-elf can see that there is an inscription in the center of the dragon's body, and if the light were better he could probably read it.
"We should have asked for some cook-adjacent magic when the town was clamoring to help us out," Nezos chuckles. He squints into the room, causing Lezara Dodgion's blade to burst into flame. If that doesn't brighten things up sufficiently, he asks for help. "There's some writing over there. Could I get a light? Most of the scrawls in here are likely significant, so..."
Machi-e casts Light on a hand and comes closer, then begins detecting magic again. "Lovely, the parents of the attic whisperers are here."
In the flickering light shed by his sword, Nezos can see that the inscription reads in archaic Common, "Red Azramo: Give the Dragon Her Due." Machi-e detects a magical aura around the entire mosaic.
Cora reads the inscription out loud while trying to remember anything she could about a dragon named Azramo.
Machi-e focuses and tries to determine the type of aura. After getting off the stairs.
"Don't touch the mosaic..." he says, absently, focusing on the spell and what he can divine from it.
Cora, Azramo was a red dragon slain by Tula and her band of mercenaries. The bottom of the staircase is not on the mosaic, but you have to cross the mosaic to reach anything else in the chamber.
Machi-e, you're able to tell that it's an evocation aura.
"Azramo was a red dragon Tula and her mercenaries killed." She shook her head. "I don't know much more than that about giving her her due. Dragons love gold, though. Maybe we need to give her a coin?"
"We can always take it back if nothing happens," Nezos agrees. "But why would Tula give this such prominence in her place? I suppose it could be a significant moment in one's life, taking down a dragon. Not something I'd build around in my tomb, though."
Cora, you think you might have heard something when you spoke the dragon's name--a quiet click. (No one else heard anything.)
Machi-e steps back. "An evocation aura on a red dragon mosaic--well, my guess is that if we do something incorrectly near it, it will burn us with fire."
He looks at the mosaic, trying to see if there's a pattern.
"Maybe we step on a certain tile...red tile? golden tile?"
In the light you bring, the mosaic is a magnificent piece of art, with red tiles of many shades laid in such a way as to give the dragon's body depth and muscle definition.
Cora holds up a hand. "Wait, hold on. Something clicked when I said the dragon's name." She squats down and looks more closely at the floor, looking for pressure plates and other telltales of a trap.
Cora finds the trap, which will loose fire on anyone who steps on or crosses the mosaic. She can tell as well that there's a way to prevent it from affecting someone.
"Ah, these literal traps. When I build my magical fortress, my red dragon mosaic will shoot ice," says Machi-e, chuckling.
"Alright. I heard a click when I said Azramo before." Cora stops to listen to try to hear the click again.
She doesn't hear anything else when she says the name.
Rowane pipes up from the back. "I can cast a resistance spell if one of you wants to try your luck at springing the trap."
"Ahem. Tula."
Machi-e tries the name of the tomb's rightful ruler.
Machi-e notices nothing out of the ordinary happen when he says the name.
"Give her her due," Cora murmurs. The winged aasimar stands and raises her voice. "Great Azramo! We mere mortals tremble before your might! We humbly beg your leave to come and gaze upon your magnificence!"
Nothing happens when Cora speaks. Feeling faintly silly, she tries to disarm the trap. Perhaps it's the lingering embarrassment, but she slips at a really awkward moment and falls onto the mosaic. For a moment nothing happens, and she breathes a sigh of relief.
Then the mosaic glows, and spirals of flame lance through the air over it...everywhere except where Cora is. From her perspective, she can tell that the streams of fire bent around her.
"Oh, interesting. The flames are curving around me. Apparently it worked. Say something nice about Azramo." Cora steps out onto the dragon mural to demonstrate how the fire avoids her.
Machi-e takes one careful step onto the mosaic, ready to jump back. "Um. Mighty is Arazno."
Nezos follows suit, not wanting to stand by in the next stage while someone else is cooked. He takes several steps onto the indicated floor. "Truly, Azramo's hoard overflows with treasures rightfully hers!"
Rowane clears his throat, "Praise to the all mighty Azramo." He then moves forward behind his traveling companions.
Both Rowane and Nezos hear quiet clicks in their heads when they speak the dragon's name, but Machi-e hears nothing. Eventually he realizes that he got the name wrong, and after saying it correctly hears a click in his head.
Every minute or so that anyone is on the mosaic, it erupts with fire, but it's nothing more than an annoyance. As previously noted, there are four sarcophagi sized for human adults, a set of three circular alcoves to the north, and a large alcove to the south. Each of the northern alcoves holds a single pillar of black marble in its center; the southern alcove has a spiral staircase leading down.
Machi-e grimaces. "These odd Taldan names," he says. "Or Draconic. Rowane, do you see anything in these alcoves that might attack us?"
Taking a closer look at the pillars reveals that each one has several dozen small niches carved into it; each niche holds a small urn, and there appears to be a short inscription above each niche.
"Traps, undead, or something else," mutters Machi-e, scanning the urns for magic.
There is no magic on the urns.
There are, however, magical auras in one of the sarcophagi.
"I think it would be more evident if there was another whisperer," Nezos says as he steps closer. He doesn't move any more than Cora dictates, though. "But as always, let's assume it bodes ill. We'll try and puzzle it out before letting something foul loose." He turns towards the aasimar to watch her skills at work.