The secret door proved to be a secret exit, leading to the corridor you entered by. The secret door you took stands opposite. It was simply a case that you hadn't found this one the first time.
Karnelia and Little Sister find the remains of several journals. Most of it is filled in horrifying signs and diagrams. Apparently, research into the heart was carried on briefly living subjects, among other even more vile experiments. But the tomes contain interesting magical notes, for those who can understand them, aiding in the Death Sphere or Necromancy School of Magic with study.
The undead themselves each carried a masterwork dagger, the use of which was best left to the imagination, and a chest uncovered by Kiyomi contained the ancient robes and vestment for a Priest of Torag, usable as Mnemonic Vestments.
The undead dwarfs armour was useless now - it couldn't be removed from the flesh beneath - but six of the masterwork Waraxes the pack carried could be salvaged, with work.
"Huh, interesting." Ellara said, peering at the journals. "I'll take those if you don't want them. We might be able to get some real use out of them." By 'we', she clearly meant her extended family as a whole.
Julie stashes the daggers in her sash, after appraising each and giving them a couple wipes on a loose rag.
She turns to Lady Karnelia, "I believe you carry some scrolls as a matter of course." She holds out the garments with respect to their religious significance. "These might help you."
With the loot now distributed, there was a choice to be made - check out the third door in this building, or look somewhere else for the answers?
Ellara moved over to the eastern door. "Can someone open this for me?" she asked, flames flickering around her mouth. She was quite clearly planning to breathe fire into the chamber, on the assumption it was full of undead (unless she saw a reason not to, of course), and wanted to try and take any remaining foes down as quickly as possible.
"Certainly." Julie opens the door for Ellara, keeping aside. While she makes her maneuver with an exaggeration of pomp and form, a bit of a bow incorporated, she does keep an eye out for fire from Ellara.
Lady Karnelia, having donned the magical vestments motions for the others to wait before opening. She focuses her mind to the worlds beyond life and death, listening for the uneasy murmurs of undeath.
The area is, for lack of a better term, a living area. Three sarcophagus, there lids worn from heavy use, line one wall. A small basin of some ind, fresh water still in the bottom, sits below complex plumbing, and a stove for food is built into one wall...although it looks like it hasn't been used in quite some time.
Ellara wrinkled her nose a few times. "...So, any bets on why those sarcophagi's lids have been used so much?" she asked as she glanced back at the others, but shifted around to breathe fire over them if anything started to come out.
"The undead we just defeated must have rested somewhere, do you not think?" Lady Karnelia theorizes.
As the party walks, she seems to be struggling with the too-large vestment. "Hmph. I shall have to get this retailored into something nicer."
She will look around the other belongings for anything of value. "I believe we will need your strength to check the sarcophagi." she says to Julie and Ellara.
"I'll admit to feeling a bit faint at the moment."
The stone lids move surprisingly easily - a cunning mechanism allowed them to swing open with ease. Apparently there former occupants weren't overly powerful either, physically speaking. None of them contain anything of value, and the room itself seems to have been designed with comfort in mind. The only thing that you can find are the slagged remains of what was once some kind of golden items in the small over, covered in soot. There is still about 500gp worth of precious metal and stones in the pile, should you take some effort to clean it.
"Well, it's good to know that regardless of the trustworthiness of our fellow man, we've still come across at least some good fortune here.." Julie cannot quite repress the smile that comes to her face at the sight of filthy golden lucre. Though, usually filthy is not meant quite so literally.
After they are done looting, Julie heads to the door at the end of the corridor and opens it.
Ellara looked over the items, mildly but not excessively curious. She had no need for money-grubbing and picking up every mildly-valuable thing she saw, and left that to the others - although she could hold quite a lot of things in her storage space if carrying them out would be difficult.
The room is reasonably bare, with most of the furniture piled up near a door to the east in a barricade. Another door to the south hangs partially open.
Check door to the South.
Ellara stayed close to Julie, ready to defend the others if there was anything else that was hostile. That was what her talents were good for, after all, and she had no problems with using them in any way she saw fit.
A short corridor to the south extends from the door, two doors to the east and one to the west leading off it. A slumped corpse rests at the end of the passage, a gleam ball and chain laying beside it.
It's a Dwarf Dorn Dergar, a weapon that isn't especially common these days. A faint crackle of energy, suggesting some kind of enchantment on the weapon, seems to be keeping the weapon from gathering dust.
It's magic, so it's loot, Julie advances to snatch it with a smile, one hand still on her hilt, just for safety.
"Wait." Lady Karnelia advises, taking a careful look at the deceased.
No pinging on the dead-o-meter. The Dwarf is simply one who lost there life in the battle that happened here. Given the way his or her armour was torn aside, and the teeth marks on the bones, it was likely via zombies.
Julie hesitates, waiting for a few moments, when Karnelia gives no follow up word, Julie takes the weapon.
Ellara watched with interest as Julie simply picked the weapon up. Personally, she'd have divined for its properties first, but that took ten minutes of meditation and the others seemed... busy. Busy enough to pick up magical things without knowing what they did, although in fairness, weapons were usually safe for their wielders. As Julie did that, Ellara checked (with scent and listening), then opened the door to the west in the room before the dead dwarf.
Kiyomi follows, keeping a bit of distance from the body. She shivers at the thought of meeting the same fate.
The room beyond was once a guard room. During whatever happened here this place was assaulted. Gouges in the wall speak of awesome strength...as do the shattered and rent corpses of a dozen Dwarfs and other creatures. Across the room is a huge door, complex machinery framing heavy steel and a complicated lock with dozens of buttons and switches. Sadly, it's no longer in the frame - it's been torn from hinges as thick as a man's arm and tossed aside.
"Well, through that seems like a path towards a vault, I'd estimate." Julie heads through the huge door.
Ellara nodded - and then tried the door she was by again, since it hadn't seemed to open the first time.
Lady Karnelia is struck by the sheer carnage of this room, stammering for a moment. "What matter of unpleasantness has this place known in the past? This is horrifying..."
Julie enters a room covered in heavy machinery, lining one wall. A simple looking control panel sits against the machinery. The corpses of several Dwarfs, apparently in the midst of destroying the machinery, litter the floor. If they were trying to do so, however, it appears hey failed - the heavy machinery looks like it's still operational.
Ellara enters the room in the North with ease, revealing what appears to have been some kind of make shift barracks or camp. Bunk beds line the walls and form neat corridors, most now rotted and collapsing. A quick search of the room reveals a handful of personal items have survived, mostly those in stones and precious metals, probably totalling an additional 500gp. It also reveals that, despite the lack of bodies, something happened here - ancient blood has stained the stones even now, and weapon strikes and marks can be found.
A door to the south sits sealed.
Lady Karnelia follows Julie into the machine room. Unless signs of the undead manifest to her sight, she moves to investigate the corpses.
Ellara took a few moments to gather up the valuables before approaching the southern door of the barracks and trying to find out how, exactly, it was sealed - locks? Magic? Glue? There were lots of ways to block an entrance, after all... not that many of them would stop her if she really wanted to get through.
Julie approaches the control panel, and presses an important looking button.
Karnelia observed that something large, and physically powerful, had slashed at the corpses. Long gashes were still visible in the bones.
A faint glimmer of magic holds the door shut.
As Julie pressed interesting looking buttons, the gears whirled and machinery groaned. Four long metal bars were retracted by the machinery. At a rough guess, given your position, it's likely they unlocked the door to the south in the main corridor.
Ellara backed away from the warded door and looked to the others. "So, some kind of magic here. You want me to break it down, or just go around?" she inquired. Either technique was quite possible for her, but she wanted to know if anyone wanted the door to remain intact.
"If the other door is open, let's deal with that first." offers Kiyomi.
"Indeed, this door I opened seems important."
"Um... wait. I think there's something you all should see here."
Lady Karnelia points out the gashes. "Whatever dealt these wounds may still be around. This is proving to be frighteningly more dangerous an errand than I'd expected..."
"And that is what running away is for when we see it. But seriously, this whole place has been dusty and drab, I doubt something so big has been sweeping around, or we'd notice it by the giant clouds."
Julie makes for the main passageway.
As expected, the heavy metal bars that held the door in place have been retracted. Although impressive, the doors themselves don't look like they'll be too difficult to open.
Ellara frowned slightly, but moved to join the others, heading up to the door and thoroughly investigating it before pushing it open. One way or another, they did need to complete their mission here...
The door opens onto a large plaza, once again dominated by a fountain and statue. Or at least, what was a fountain and statue. It's now a pile of rubble. Equally, the building that once dominated the southern end has collapsed, the front wall spilling into the square. The only ways remaining open are to the East and West.
Julie checks down the passage to the west.
The passage to the east ends in three doors. The stern visage of the Dwarf Gods Bolka, Grundinar and Torag grace the three doors, each watching the passage.
After a moment of consideration, Ellara shrugged and pushed open the door marked by Bolka. As far as she'd heard, the dwarven goddess was fairly reasonable on the whole, and it seemed like a safer bet than the other doors. Besides, she was curious about what was down here.
Julie tries the door that leads back towards the areas they've already done.
Ellara heads through the southern door, while Julie heads into the northern one. Both rooms contain pedestals with nothing standing on top of them, although they would have been big enough for what you seek. Both chambers seem to have been plundered.