Pud's concern over Titaani's spell makes her nervous, and she begins to stare into her crystal, trying to understand what happened...but without her concentration, the secrets of her own fey magic allude her. Sighing, Titaani can't help but envy Pud's magical know how. If only she could be like that! Eventually, she focuses back on the world around her, and notices Horatio.

"Oh! Hello!" She says, forcing herself to smile despite her internal anxiety. "Sabotage the elevator? I don't know -"

Just then, Stagefright interrupts her and Titaani listens to him. "Aw, but I don't want to be the failed magician!" she whines, following him into the western rooms. 

"It's in the Orrery of Tragedies," replies the goblin to Ben, picking up the mask that was her friend, with a gulp. "Near the prison. It's very dangerous! Be careful!"

Ben exits, and climbs the spiral staircase. At the top of the next landing is a short, T-shaped hallway. The circular stairway continues to climb up to another level, but Ben pauses to look around the corners. He sees, to the west, a featureless stone door flanked by two rusty suits of armor sized for goblins and equipped with halberds. The door is bereft of handles, hinges, or decoration. To the east, he can see a large chamber with a massive whirring contraption at its center.

"Psst" he hears an unseen voice call from near the door. "Ben!" He recognizes Gleam's invisible voice.

--

Meanwhile in the Performers’ Quarters, Matilda continues her conversation with the actors. "She is too powerful! Those who try to confront her are taken by the Darklings and turned into masks! They say she can't die!"

--

Titaani exits the Prop Storage Room with Stagefright. Everyone except Pud and Horatio follows. Entering the Dressing Room, they see Hurly the bugbear silently sulking and clipping his toenails with a pair of shears; he looks up but then sighs and goes back to his grooming.

"Fine, fine," answers Stagefright to Titaani. "How about the high-and-mighty princess, then? We're running out of time!"

Ben:

Heading over to Gleam, Ben says, “We need Stagefright’s scepter to get into the prison.  I have the key that was hidden under the throne cushion.  We should also see if we can disable the lightning rods providing power for the automatons,” says Ben.

”I, uh, walked in on an evil fey turning goblins into masks and I kind of stopped it—that is why I am no longer invisible. What have you found?” he asks.

Matilda rolls her eyes and heads back to Titaani, " Should we just go break those lightning things the old man in the mine talked about? Or was it the goats....."

"Well, Matilda did call me a fairy princess earlier," Titaani smiles, and changes herself once again with disguise self, this time giving herself long dark hair, a glittering purple gown, a diamond crown, and two folded fairy wings on her back. "How's this? Good? By the way, will Creeping Lyn reward us if our acting impresses her?"

(Ben:)

"There's no way to open the door," replies Gleam. "There's no keyhole or knob! But watch this..."

Gleam brushes the handleless door with her invisible fingertips. A large skeletal face appears upon the door. It opens its mouth, and an old woman's voice declares, “You shall not pass! Back, I command you!” Its open mouth forms a three-foot-wide hole through the door as the visage speaks, but then it is quickly gone. 

"You can see a glimpse of the prison through the mouth when it does that," adds Gleam. "But it's way too fast to jump through. And how would we get out again?" 

From the other end of the hall, you hear the crackling of powerful electricity and an electrical hum, together with the whirring of machinery.

----
(Matilda and Titaani:)

Matilda rejoins Titaani and her companions in the Dressing Room. 
"Perfect!" snaps Stagefright. "And of course! Good acting is always rewarded! Make it a tragedy, and don't forget your lines! If she is pleased with your performance, Endelyn will be likely to strike bargains with you, and make you her guests. If you displease her, well... don't do that. Endelyn has foreseen your arrival and is expecting you on stage in... five minutes! Okay... I'll be right back... Get ready!"  Stagefright departs in a rush.

Hurly looks up. “The hag’s greatest contraption is th' 'Orrery of Tragedies'," he explains. "It allows her t' glimpse many possible futures, I guess. She has foreseen her own demise a bunch of times, they say, but she takes measures t' delay it for as long as possible...”

---
(Horatio and Pud):

Horatio and Pud remain in the empty prop room. Peeking through the curtain to the north, they can see the librarians hustling about, tidying the library and serving the cloaked, seated  patrons. Stagefright hustles through. He claps his hands sternly, like a schoolmaster. "Let's go! Let's go! Five minutes to showtime!"

Ben:

”Well, we could try to prop it open, or perhaps use magic to get through the hole more quickly than jumping—but unless your sister has the same magic, getting out would be very difficult…” says Ben (referring to Misty Step or other such magic).

“See what you can find out about that Orrery over there—the goblin I rescued says that is where the lightning is collected that powers many of the hag’s devices,” says Ben to Gleam, “I’ll be right back.”  

Popping back downstairs, Ben gets the scimitar from the ashes of the evil fey and comes back upstairs.  “Try it again,” he asks Gleam as he holds the scimitar just in front of the door, planning to try and prop it open as it speaks.

Matilda looks concerned as the bugbear says that the Hag knows they are here, " Should we just go back.....to the mountain...and break the lightning things.  I don't want to perform for her she will be able to kill us easily on stage."

"You don't have to perform if you don't want to," Titaani says, placing her hand on Matilda's shoulder sympathetically. "But I'm going to. I think, if I can win us a chance to bargain with the hag, maybe we can turn our fortunes around."

So, the little gnome moves towards the entrance to the stage, smoothing down her hair nervously. "Five minutes...ok..."

Ben heads back down the circular staircase. Finding the room empty, and the freed goblin prisoner gone, he dusts the ashes off the fallen scimitar, and then heads back upstairs with it.

--

Titaani prepares to go onstage, exiting toward the elevator shaft hallway they had arrived through.

Hurly shrugs at Matilda. "We're on Motherhorn, th' realm’s tallest pinnacle. And them copper lightning rods are on at least seven different mountaintops out there. But it all gets transmitted to that 80-foot lightning rod in th' Orrery of Tragedies upstairs." The bugbear points upward and to the north. "Not that I've any idea how it works or what it even does..."

"But the hag won't kill you, I don't think," he continues. "If she don't like you, usually she just swoops down on her dead bird thing to steal th' show, and then she'll kick you out of Motherhorn. Only if you really get her mad will she turn you into a mask..."

Matilda frowned....she was really good at making Hags mad...

Pud stammers when Horatio asked about Ben. He responds in a frantic, nervous whisper.

 "I...I dunno where Ben went. He....uh...he moved the moon prop into this room. That I know for sure, but I dunno where he went after that. I don't think he went that way." Pud points in the direction where Matilda, Titaani and Stagefright went.

"I think he went somewhere out there towards the library. Another thing, there's something magical up there, above the ceiling in another room." Pud motions up towards the ceiling above them. "Looks kinda big. Definitely magical. It's staying in one spot but...sorta moving. It's hard to tell." 

Ben returns to find invisible Gleam, the featureless door, and its two rusty suits-of-armor guards as he left them. "So what's the plan?" asks Gleam, in a whisper. "I'll trigger it, and you'll try to jam it open?" She points to the crackling, humming room at the end of the hall. "There's three goblins in there, sweeping. Huge machine, big tower, looks very dangerous..."

---

Meanwhile, Titaani makes her way back to the amphitheater, where Stagefright is waiting. He shoos her along the darkened eastern wall toward the stage, where three actors are wrapping up a rehearsal. "Just you? Where are the others?" he hisses. "One minute to showtime!" Two dozen or so cloaked figures watch from the audience, as a pair of masked goblins prepare to hoist the next set onto the stage with a wooden crane, as others prepare lights dangling from odd iron ropes.

Ben:

”Sounds good!  Let’s do it!” says Ben, poised and ready with the scimitar.

“If it works, one of us will need to stay with the scimitar and make sure the passage stays open, and one will have to go in and try to rescue your sister.  Whoever goes into the prison should take the keys we have found,” he adds, holding out the key ring with three keys and the one he found under the throne cushion.

Quote from cbaer8 >>

 

---

Meanwhile, Titaani makes her way back to the amphitheater, where Stagefright is waiting. He shoos her along the darkened eastern wall toward the stage, where three actors are wrapping up a rehearsal. "Just you? Where are the others?" he hisses. "One minute to showtime!" Two dozen or so cloaked figures watch from the audience, as a pair of masked goblins prepare to hoist the next set onto the stage with a wooden crane, as others prepare lights dangling from odd iron ropes.

 

Matilda clomped in dressed as a dragon with an extremely bad feeling about the whole thing but not willing to let Titaani go on alone.

Pud tenses up as he watches Stagefright and Titaani walk towards the stage followed by some dragon in a costume. He looks nervously at Horatio and says…

”I can’t let them go out there by themselves. I dunno where Ben or Gleam went. I dunno what’s happened with them. But the girls are here and I gotta stick with them.”

He straightens his costume and brushes past Horatio, all the while rehearsing his lines. He finds Titaani and whoever’s dressed up as a dragon and stands by their side. 

“Are we ready for showtime?”

"Ready!" Titaani grabs Pud and Matilda's hands and squeezes them for good luck. "Let's show the adults what we can do!" 

Quote from queen_of_ashes19 >>

"Ready!" Titaani grabs Pud and Matilda's hands and squeezes them for good luck. "Let's show the adults what we can do!" 

*Unconvincing dragon noises*

Stagefright leads Titaani, Pud, and Matilda onto the stone stage, as the goblins above swivel a mounted spotlight upon them. Dozens of small, cloaked faces look up from the stone benches. 

But Stagefright doesn't look at them. He looks up. High upon a 40-foot-high balcony, watching you through a pair of opera glasses, you see a veiled form in a voluminous black dress.

"Madame," he calls up, “Your guests have arrived.” He bows deeply. "May we present to you... uh..."

He turns and hisses to the trio, "What's the name of your play?"

-----

Upstairs, invisible Gleam takes the keys from Ben. "I'll go. She's my sister, my responsibility. Ready? One, two, three..."

Gleam again brushes her invisible fingers against the handleless door. The mouth appears again. “You shall not pass! Back, I commmmah yehhhh..." It mumbles the end of its line as Ben jams a rusty scimitar in its mouth. Gleam dives through head first. Ben watches through the mouth as she begins to peer inside each of four cell doors. Stone levers jut from the walls next to each of the four doorways.

Ben:

Staying focused on the scimitar, Ben remains ready to adjust it and wrestle against the mouth if it tries to free itself of the weapon prying it open.  He nods encouragingly to the space where he thinks Gleam is.  Remember, “When the moon obstructs the sun, Creeping Lyn will come undone. Play to her passions. Stay on script. A cat, a horn, or a shadow ripped.  The fool’s scepter is the key.”