Ben:

Shrugging, Ben goes back to wiring the marionettes’ mouths shut.  He says, “Someone should indeed go get the staff—I’ll trade if someone wants to do this job…”

“Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders!"

Matilda searches the room for hidden compartments and nasty surprises, as the marionettes scream and the hourglasses affixed to the wall hiss steadily.

The glass-doored wardrobe is easy enough to open, and quite empty. Drawers underneath reveal a pendant (which shows the moon's phases), a large iron fingernail, and a dried-up, oversized rabbit's tail.

The wooden chest with tiny, clawed feet is closed, and has a sturdy, built-in lock with a keyhole.

The wicker basket is empty – three tiny, stuffed birds and three tiny, wind-up clockwork birds are strewn around the basket.

The hourglasses on the wall flip over when they run out of sand.

And the marionettes continue to scream – at least until Ben cuts them down and binds each of their jaws with the wires they hang from. But it will take some time to bind them all.

“Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders!"

"Hmm.... These things don't breath, right?" Horatio plucks one of the dolls down using his carving knife, then throws it into his bag of holding. "Let's just stash them and deal with them later. I'm not too excited about the sand timer and feel like we need to get past this room more quickly."

(( He holds out the bag to Ben, then offers Help to expedite stuffing them all. ))

Ben:

”Good idea, Horatio,” says Ben, working to more quickly deal with the noise.

When the keyhole is found on the chest, Ben hands Matilda the key he found under the throne cushion, saying, “Maybe this will help.”

(anyone going to get the staff?)

Matilda stuffs all the ' junk' in her pouches trying to remember if any of the haregon they met were missing a tail........

" Sis! Wanna have a go at this chest?"

" I'll help."

“Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders!"

Horatio begins to fill his bag with screaming marionettes as Ben continues to bind the jaws of others. Horatio's bag soon fills up, but it does speed the work along.

“Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders!"

Matilda (with Titaani's help?) uses Ben's key to try to unlock the wooden chest on the table. The key fits. The lock unlocks. The lid opens. Within, they find:
  • A black sack containing four golden bedpost knobs
  • Eight bottles of exquisite elven wine 
  • The shriveled hand of an elf wearing a gem-studded ring on its third finger and clutching several rolled-up sheets of blank parchment, along with a title page that reads, “The Agonies of Alagarthas: A Three-Act Tragedy by Endelyn Moongrave” in spidery Elvish script.

Pud walks up behind Matilda and Titaani and peeks to see what's inside the chest. He winces at the sight of the shriveled hand.

He looks back to Ben and says "I'm kinda interested in that staff. But...I don't wanna go alone. Once we're done here let's go snatch it."

"Sure!" Titaani replies to Matilda, already preparing herself to pick the lock, only to have a key handed to her (I assume by Ben). "Oh, thank you. This fits perfectly!"

The little gnome isn't impressed by the contents of the chest, however. "Ew, that hand is so gross! And I'm not old enough to drink. Everything here is just junk."

At Pud's expression of interest in the staff, Titaani jumps up excitedly. "I also want to see what the staff can do! Let's go down there together! I can use my magical hand to get it out of the lighting machine."

Horatio's bag is dangerously full of screaming puppets. Ben continues to cut more down and tie their jaws shut with the odd iron string they hang from. They have cleared about three-quarters of this odd room, but still they scream:

“Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders!" 

Matilda and Titaani finish examining the contents of the chest. (Who's taking what?)

Titaani and Pud prepare to go back downstairs to try to retrieve the staff.

One hundred or so hourglasses continue to hiss, and occasionally, revolve.

Matilda gathered up the golden knobs and the play script....and the hand....

She tried to see if the ring came off without having to break anything...

" Someone should take the wine....might make a good bribe..."

" Do you think there would be any clues in this play the old biddy wrote?"

Ben:

"I'd be happy for a bottle or two of the wine--and I can carry all of them at need--once I finish with these noisy dolls," offers Ben.  "Have we had any luck finding the hidden area of magic up here--the one that is supposed to transport us to the palace?" he asks, adding, "And should we check out the library for the invisible note before we go?"

"Yeah! Let's go check out the staff!" Pud looks back and whistles for Rizzo. She buzzes around him and perches on Pud's shoulder. Pud swaps his multitool wand for his club and readies his shield, just in case.

“Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intruders! Intru... <mmph>"

Ben finally binds the last of the marionettes' mouths as Horatio closes his very full sack. A grateful silence ensues.

Matilda removes the bejeweled ring from the mummified hand. Only a minor bit of the petrified finger comes off in the process.

(Are Titaani and Pud headed downstairs to find the fallen staff? What is everyone else doing?)

" I'm gonna put this ring on! Just so you know if my head explodes!"

Matilda very slowly and deliberately brought the ring up to her finger and began to slide it on as she began reading the play....

Pud looks at Titaani nods towards the hallway. He calls out to the rest of the group. "We're gonna go get that staff. You guys wanna come along?"

He starts walking down the hallway carefully looking out for anymore threats lurking. He'll pop his head around the corner and scope things out before leaving the cover of the corridor. 

Perception check: 4 :(

Titaani will wait to make sure her sister's head does not explode, and once she feels Matilda is safe, she will race after Pud, eager to unravel the mysterious nature of the staff.

Matilda puts on her new ring. (It'll take some time to sort out what it is. See inventory.) The play is blank, other than the title. Just sheets of blank parchment.

Meanwhile, Pud and Titaani exit the odd room, and scoping the orrery from the viewing gallery for a moment (all evidently quiet from what little Pud can see) they head down the circular stairwell. 

Below, they easily find Skylla's ashen remains and staff at the bottom of the orrery, and Titaani finds she is easily able to use her arcane hand to pull both safely out of the whirling, electrified mechanism. (Who takes the staff?)

She also dropped something else that Titaani now deftly recovers – a long, beautiful, spiraling piece of bone or ivory, which seemed to have survived the fall and lightning perfectly intact.

(( Horatio would have accompanied the group ))

"Is that the Unicorn's horn?!" Horatio exclaims with unexpected excitement. He looks at the others, somewhat mixed emotions on his face. "I didn't think we could do this, now it feels possible. This nightmare may finally end soon."

Pud eyes the staff. He  bites his lip and ponders the possibilities. He thinks to himself "That things gotta be magical. Its gotta. Oh man. I wonder what it does."

He's so focused on it that it doesn't register with him that they might have just found the unicorn's horn. He shakes his head and snaps himself out of it. 

"Hey, uh...Titaani. You can have it if you want. I got my own walking staff here. It's pretty heavy. Comes in handy when you gotta smack stuff."

Matilda wanders down after the others holding up the play, " Wasn't there something about invisible writing that someone said?"

" OMG!!!! Is that the horn? We can fix him!!!!"