Charmay inhales sharply and snaps her fingers twice:
Keep up, little man. You perform first because you must be seen by her. That buys you access to the castle, and keeps her attention away from you. The second performance, the one that matters, is mine. I will be on the stage when the curtain truly falls. You and your companions will be doing precisely what I have already told you: presenting the twins, preventing her escape, subduing her minions.

As for her precious prisoner... Endelyn does not dirty her own hands unless the world is ending. If she sensed the wards were failing, she would order her darklings to retrieve the girl long before she rushed to do it herself. She hoards her energy for theatrics, not chores.

Charmay folds her arms and eyes Greginald down the bridge of her nose.
But by all means, you, who have been here for all of five minutes, may share with me the full brilliance of this ‘simpler plan’ you’ve suddenly conceived. Enlighten me with your wisdom.

"release the prisoner, kill the darklings and wait for her to figure out the world is ending... If she comes running then the twins will already be assembled and we just take her down. It's a big if, but it is only one." Greg sneers

Rowan does his best to follow along with what Charmay is saying, but it is an awful lot and some of it is confusing and contradictory and a lot of seems to just be complaining about his picking up of glowing objects.

While Greg does the talking Rowan runs through what they need to do. "Get a goblin's sceptre, break an ornytopper, whatever that is, and then get Glister and his sister together."

He pauses then adds "does Endelyn have somewhere she keeps stolen things?"

All the while, as he talks, Rowan works on opening the lantern to free the brigganock.

"I'm not a thief. At least not usually. I really don't want the lantern. But I think we do want to let the person locked inside out."

If the latch doesn't open easily, Rowan will use some force to get the lantern open.

     I guess what I am trying to get at here is…. Do actors act here because they lost something or do they lose something because they act here?  My friends and I are trying to figure out what is happening here.  Maybe… help if we can.  Not help Endelyn, but help stop whatever she is up to.

     Mulligan is a bit reluctant to share this with Break-A-Leg, even telepathically, but he gambles that the skeleton is indeed not a fan of the witch.

     Do you know how the hopes and the shadows and such are stolen?

     As Charmay casts her spell to get the goblins to seemingly forget, Mulligan looks over and checks in with Break-A to ensure that they are unaffected.  Assuming so, he looks back to what is happening out there and once Charmay starts heading towards the storeroom he double-checks that he is hidden as can be and mentally reminds Break-A to stay quiet!

     When Charmay tells Rowan to keep the Brigganock lantern Mulligan tenses, uneasy.  When she continues on to say he could keep it, to consider it a gift Mulligan feels goosebumps break out on his arms.

     Careful.  We have been warned about accepting gifts and the obligations they can come with.

     Mulligan says this over the Group Chat for all to hear.  He would shout it if he could, stress how important he feels this may be, but alas his words come out flat and cold as always.

     Is there a danger in performing?  Does it make new comers susceptible to Charmay?  Or Endelyn?

     Mulligan asks this hurriedly of Break-A as soon as Charmay starts laying out her plan.

     And do you know why the elf is so important?  How is he a threat?

     Even as Mulligan is asking Break-A-Leg this question, however, Charmay answers it herself.  Assuming she is to be believed.  So reuniting the twins solves their problem?  Interesting…. But Mulligan wonders just how literal this eclipse thing is - Could be cut a picture of the moon and the sun from a book, or a background, and overlap them?  With this thought he looks around to see if he can perhaps see such things in the room…

     Stagefright.  Do you know this goblin?  Could you point them out if you saw them?

     Mulligan asks of Break-A…

     Thinking for a minute Mulligan starts to wonder if perhaps...

     What if I snuck off and found this Stagefright character?  Stole their scepter however I could and then tried to free the twin while you all performed?  I could also try to break this ornithopter or whatever if I had any idea where to find it or what it looked like?  My hiding and sneaking about unknown to any could be a big advantage.

     He shares this over the Group Chat, of course.  The others cannot openly respond if he is to stay unknown even to Charmay but he watches for little nods or subtle clues.  Of course is he has to come out to Charmay then so be it...  But he'd rather stay hidden to all, if possible.

Barria grins up at this tall drink of a woman, thank goodness they had the fortune to run into her!  Yes, she was curt and a bit rude, but well... from what they had heard of this hag, she probably had to be and what fortune that her end goal is the same as theirs!  

She is happy to see Rowan working diligently at the lamp and offers him a hairpin if he appears to struggle with the lock.  And back to Charmay, "Goodness!  I'm so glad you do have a plan, though as my gnome friend has pointed out, there are a lot of big If's in it, but we will do our best to keep them at bay and make sure we can get this accomplished.  And yes, as my elf friend has stated, where does she keep things that have been stolen?  And you'll have to let us know where Gleam is and the ornithopter.. I sure hope this castle is easy to navigate!  I would hate for any of us to get lost!"

"And what are these darklings?  Are they similar to the goblins or something bigger and more sinister?  We need to know what we will be up against!"  she scratches her chin, "As for our initial performance... hmm.. well I am a chef, so I could easily perform that, maybe accidentally poison the wrong people?  I can't think of something more tragic than that!"

Charmay goes very still. Then slowly, deliberately, she tilts her head and studies Greginald as though he has just announced that the moon is made of cheese.

Release the prisoner. Kill the darklings. Wait for Endelyn to come running.

She repeats the words with the cadence of someone reciting a children’s rhyme.

Adorable. This is your first time, isn't it? I do hope you aren't the military strategist of this little outfit. And I see you don't hold the same defensive regard for darklings as you do for goblins.

She steps closer, leans forward, and studies Greginald's face as if she can discover the source of his malfunction.

Sweet gnome, if you somehow massacred every darkling in this tower, which, incidentally, would cause forty-odd luminous explosions in a confined space, Endelyn would not ‘come running.’ She would simply watch from her balcony, sip tea, send reinforcements until she ran out of minions, and then she would abscond as a last resort. Even if she did 'come running', would you have enough in you to defeat her after facing her entire army head-on? Assuming you aren't blinded...

A flick of her wrist dismisses the notion as she stands erect once more. Speaking rapidly, she counts off the issues with Greginald's proposal.

Endelyn does not rush toward chaos. She conducts it. She will let her minions die by the dozens before she wastes her own breath. No, she must not be allowed to face us on her own terms. We do it on the stage, during a performance, because we know exactly where she will be... on her viewing balcony. That is also where her ornithopter rests, so if she attempts a speedy retreat, she will be disappointed. What's more, the drama of it... revealing the twins unexpectedly right here on her stage... that will put the fear in her. Not a prison escape.

We ensure the darklings cannot respond, in whatever way we can. Barricade her balcony, perhaps, so they can't aid her. But fighting them should be our most remote option. They are dangerous, there are too many... and besides, I don't think we'll curry any favor with the Queen if we murder scores of her subjects.

Charmay folds her arms, smile sharpening like a razor, as she says with syrupy sweetness:

But please, do continue thinking. It’s adorable when you try.

Charmay looks at Rowan with surprise when he lists off the main objectives as she directed them.

My, my! Don't tell me the elf is the brains of your operation! Good effort, but let's not forget to isolate the hag's minions. Once Endelyn is gone, we can see about your missing personal effects. I expect she keeps the most valuable treasures in her bedroom.

She sneers at him once more as he fiddles with the lantern, and shakes her head. Rowan can open the lantern easily enough, but he then discovers that the brigganock's tiny shivering hands are clutching a tiny brass chain, with which he is manacled to the interior of the lantern. Rowan thinks he could easily snap the chain...

Charmay also looks more approvingly on Barria, who seems on board with her proposed plans. She also nods at Barria's intelligent question about the darklings.

Similar to goblins in size, but they thrive on chaos. They make excellent assassins. Or thieves. They'll remain loyal to Endelyn while she suits their purposes, but likely won't fight on if she's defeated. And they abhor bright lights. In fact they absorb it to some degree, hence the danger in killing them... all their absorbed light is released at once.

=============================================

Oh, right! replies Break-a-leg. Er... I think most of the actors got tricked to come here in some way. I told you Endelyn has a machine that predicts tragedies. She finds those people, tells them what their future holds, and offers them an alternative. Usually the alternative is worse than the predicted fate, but... I dunno, desperate folk will agree to anything. So most of the actors are stuck here. Some kind of contract to stay for however long they agree for, which always ends up longer than they expected. I guess that's how she steals hope. The shadows she doesn't steal exactly. She snips them off with special scissors. Sometimes that's part of the agreement, I think.

Danger in performing?
No, I don't think so. But performing tragedies all the time can make you miserable, I guess? And Charmay... she's just another actor. A really good one, mind! Especially since she hasn't been here that long. Things don't seem to get to her like they do to everyone else. Maybe she's not under contract. I dunno.

Stagefright?
Of course I know him! He runs the whole theater! All the cast and crew answer to him! You can't miss him... he wears a funny costume... what do you call those folk who caper and tell jokes? And he has a stick that looks just like him. He's a bit moody, but he runs a tight operation. I got lots of respect for Stagefright.