User blog comment:Kilo bravo/help/@comment-24.49.114.22-20120623180110

Same thing happened to me, i'm assuming the stairs you are talking about is at the Falkreath Watchtower. The person with the staff will respond after awhile. You just need to wait till they respawn back with the Staff of Tandil. Don't worry, happened to me too and I was worried I broke it, it just took time for the guy to respawn.