The Maximals continue their journey to solve the mysteries of the gnomish vault. The next room they encounter fills knee-deep with water drained from the previous trap, though the Maximals wisely ignore the valves that may or may not drain it. Simply moving on, they find a room with a spinning blade trap. They slam the door, and tear the weapon apart with their above-human strength. The final trapped room is a room with black and white tiles. Rift's experiments yield interesting results: though both the black and white tiles lead to small pit traps, stepping between the tiles is safe. Meanwhile, a tripwire stretched across the room is a trap with no visible result.
At the end of the tomb, the Maximals find an impressive vault, filled with various gnomish contraptions in different states of completion. A power-lifter suit looks mostly complete, and intrigues Scythe right away. The room also contains a bookshelf filled with various books in gnomish. However, when Skystrike pulls an oddly-shelved book, she notices that it is written in Cybertronian. Noting her shock, Paladyne takes a look for himself. The pages are blank...until he asks the book for help on the room's mechanical devices. Suddenly the pages fill with diagrams, all in a very poorly translated Cybertronian script. Paladyne distrusts the magical book, and begins filling his arms with other books from the shelf in order to disguise it. Clockwork aids him in carrying the volumes, though Delric is more interested in a chest full of gnome-minted silver. Trenek, meanwhile, finds a strange puzzling device with a red activation button (which she does not push), and Skystrike struggles with unfinished weaponry designed for a juggernaut.
The Maximals divide their treasure. The gnomes allow them to keep the coins, but demand that they return the books. Paladyne does so, but hides the magical Marvelous Manual to examine later. The Maximals also take two other items they found in the cave, a ring and a wand, after Shadowraith explains that his internal scanners pick up energon readings from them. They divide out a share of coins for their human friend, who hopes that he will see them again some time. Trenek also gives up the confusing device she found, the Suporma, and the gnomes immediately melt it down. The Maximals set off back for their ship. The only problem is that of Clockwork: since they still haven't found a solution for his energon surges, they are forced to leave him behind.
When the Maximals return, they get back to work on repairing their engines. Scythe also examines his find from the gnomes' vault, and extracts the engine from the Kontraption to make a battery for some of the ship's auxiliary functions. The other Maximals experiment with the energon-charged items they have found, trying multiple scans on the computer to see why the energon patterns are occuring around them. When the computer is no help, raw experimentation takes over. Paladyne eventually discovers that the silver wand the Maximals found can duplicate the effects of the "Dispel Magic" energon dampener that was used on him in Carriton. Noticing a fish inscribed on the ring, Skystrike takes it to the river and puts it on. She discovers that, when wearing the ring, she can swim, even though as a robot without the ring she sinks to the river floor.
The next day, the Maximals have another unusual encounter: a group of travelers heading from the north. Paladyne speaks with a cleric of Aravorn, god of the air and adventure, and the cleric says that the fame of the Maximals is starting to spread among the adventuring community. This, of course, has its good points and its bad points...