"Burn it, or try a different door?" Varn consults the others. "Maybe there's a key in one of the other rooms, but otherwise, my fire can open 'em all." 

Tiamat offers, "If you wish, I can attempt to break the door down."

Skarro's eyes bulge a little and he examines the door. "Do you thinks that's wise, Glorious...Glory? Is is the path?"

She responds, "I am as new to this place as you are. I am afraid your guess as to what may lie beyond this door is as good as mine. If the strange... creature behind the counter is to be believed, then this isn't the manager's door."

Skarro nods, "Then lets look for the stairs," says remembering her words: The door next to the left of the first stairs. He does his best to follow the instructions.

((The project that was taking up all my time is done so I should be posting more now.))

Skarro, as far as the instructions go, the party would have to ignore the 3 pairs of doors and head further down the hall. Now where that goes, it's hard to say because of the strange behavior of the ominous darkness.

Skarro grunts in realization, and turns to the others, "Go to Manager or look behind doors? Might be more coins..."

(( I am happy with either choice, and Skarro would be too ))

Bump. Which way do you go? Deeper to find the manager or try to burn/break the door that Komos wasn't able to open.

"We shouldn't tire ourselves before finding the emperor. Let's continue." Varn starts walking forward, but then turns to check that everyone are indeed following after. "We could search these rooms for more coins, if that's even needed, after we end the emperor."

Skarro takes a deep breath and move off up the corridor.

Komos follows, looking frustratedly at his lock picks for being so ineffective.

Going further down the hall, the party finds the hall turning left sharply. In front of them is a flight of stairs going up. Unlike the ones in the lobby that were massive, being 15ft across and the incline was gentle, these stairs are much narrower, being 5ft across and going up steeply. The party sees the stairs end in a "mid-floor section" that many stairs have. There is a small window in the mid-floor section but it is hard to tell what's on the other side except for a dim blue. It is assumed that more stairs go up from the mid-floor section. On the left of the stairs is a wooden door with a gold plaque on it. The plaque has text in that same lost language. The hallway continues to stretch left into darkness.

With a glance at his companions Skarro walks up to the door. He reaches out to open it, then pauses and looks at Varn. "Your idea. What we say?"

He stands back a little to let Varn take the lead.

"Uhh... is there a way to determine whether he's the emperor or not?" Varn asks Tiamat. "If he is, we don't really need to talk. Otherwise, maybe ask him where the emperor is?"

Tiamat answers, "I am fairly certain this manager is not the Emperor. If it was, we have no hope of saving our reality. That is not a scenario I am ready to face or accept just yet. Perhaps we can ask the manager if he knows something about the Emperor. I am somewhat worried this manager would be a twisted monstrosity like the Hunter was."

"The only way to fix things is to expel the Emperor no? Should we not just go straight for them?" Komos asks. "Perhaps the...uh... concierge... knows where to find them."

"As far as I can deduce from the state of the corruption, the Emperor has not been able to enter the Material completely. Our goal is not to expel it but rather to prevent him from entering in the first place. If the Emperor is already here, then we are doomed."

Skarro takes a few moments to absorb this, "So kill Emperor's servants. Like Hunter? Or are there things we need to break? Breaking things is easier..."

"A little bit of both. We need to find the exact point from where the corruption is spreading, the source. That would be where the Emperor plans to enter. We go there, kill all the Emperor's servants and break whatever it is that's connecting the Emperor's domain with our world. We destroy the source of the corruption and the Emperor will not be able to enter our world."

"But how do we find that? Do we know what it looks like, even?" Varn hoped the "golden emperor" would be some big guy made of gold, easy to find and kill. Gold was so easy to melt, after all. "If he's not even here, then I suppose we can't even ask where he stays. And passing room by room will take forever here. Won't it?"