The trip back on the ferry down the Missouri River is uneventful, though somber with the loss of a teammate. The ferrywoman permits you to bring the captives aboard, but requires that you keep them confined inside the Creeper during the trip. The civilian refugees, on the other hand, are welcomed aboard; one even decides, before the rest disembark, that he wishes to join the crew.
Just outside the ruins of Kansas City, the ferry docks. Here, the Creeper and Sasha need to disembark, heading further south along the Kansas/Missouri border, until you get to the Arkansas border, in order to make the overland trek east to Castle Refuge (roughly the exact reverse of how you got here in the first place). Roy, a new transfer, meets you at the dock, along with several transports. The Ley Line Walker is to join the Jokers, according to his papers (double-signed with both Ossana Wilde's nigh-illegible scrawl and Montcrief's equally distinct precision cursive). Meanwhile, Henry will accompany the trucks as they continue down-river on the ferry.
Once the ferry heads off further down the river, the Jokers continue on their assigned route, with a reasonable detour to check out the cave on the map provided by the Black Hand, a bit over two days travel away from Castle Refuge. Even with the map, it takes a little while to locate the cave--there are subtle magics concealing it, and no path leads directly there.
Still, Growler's nose is difficult to trump, especially off of a Ley Line, and you eventually make it to the cave entrance (also cloaked with an illusory cliff-face). Preparing yourselves for anything, you pass through the false wall, and find yourselves in a natural limestone cavern large enough for both Sasha and the Creeper to be inside. Set into the opposite wall is a huge stone door with an arcane combination lock. A small diagram on the corner of the map makes solving the puzzle fairly easy, and soon the vault is opened. Again, both Sasha and the Creeper can fit through the vault door.
Inside, you find a small chamber, decorated in subcontinental Indian style (likely very foreign to most of the characters here)--lots of throw-pillows, ornate rugs and wall-paintings in gold leaf--and filled mostly with curios, trinkets and small magical oddities, like a Techno-wizard can opener and an assortment of TW party favors and prankster tools. However, four items definitely make you take notice.
The first, on a writing table with an inkwell and feather quill, is a private journal--Savati's, detailing much of his life and activities up to this point. It is a hodgepodge of personal diary, research notes, travelogue and rambling self-aggrandizement, but there might be some useful tidbits to be extracted.
The second, hidden inside one of the sitting pillows (again, follow the Dogboy's nose), is an unsecured credstick with a balance of 9,000,000 Credits.
The third is a case marked with strange writing and glyphs; inside, you find a most curious gun--it is stylized so the barrel looks like the neck and head of a dragon, and the hilt looks like claws. It radiates an absurdly powerful magical aura as soon as the case is opened (the case, you quickly determine, is designed very specifically to hide this particular item's magical signature, but will not do the same for any other spell or enchanted object).
Finally, there is an arch on one wall, carved with strange sigils, about the same size as the Vault door. The journal reveals the arch's nature--for one who is bound to the arch by blood, it will open a Rift, despite the absence of a Ley Line!
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