The Shipwreck Showhouse

A Place Where Sin Begins...
The Shipwreck Showhouse is an established burlesque club located about a half mile north of Necropolis' boardwalk along the strip, going into its sixth year of operation. The club looks very much like the damaged front of a large hauler ship, crashed into a theater on the beach. The markings on the front of the ship suggest that this is most likely some kind of a replica of the Edmund Fitzgerald, despite the previous suggestions of controversy about the now-legendary ship. The club is brightly lit with an almost tasteless abundance of colored and neon lights, a scaled-down rotating light on top of the wheel house, making the place a miniature lighthouse, and a large clock in the front of the theater façade. At the top and bottom of each hour that the club is open, the foghorn on the top of the ship sounds, like some kind of attention-whoring nautical grandfather clock. Overall, the exterior of the place screams "pointless excess."



The entertainment found at the club is much like the decoration--it pushes at the boundaries of good taste without completely going too far over the top. It is raunchy without going so far as becoming lewd. It is boisterous without getting completely out of hand. It is risky without becoming dangerous. The whole place has a vibe of being JUST naughty enough for the normal people to come in and feel like they've walked on the wild side, or to be able to leave and still hold themselves up with their sense of overinflated self-righteousness, knowing that they got away with something. When interviewed on the matter, one of the owners indicated that, "every vice needs a gateway, and my doors are almost always open." The show house has its own collection of singers and dancers and a number of respected and even artistic, if often risqué, acts. During opening hours, prerecorded music, ranging from modern industrial rock to 19th century theater music is often played until mid or late afternoon, when live variety show acts begin. The majority of the shows come from locally produced musical, dance, and acrobatic numbers, but weekly, one or more special guest artists are brought in to perform. Musical talents that have been brought to the stage include Unwoman, Abney Park, Dextre Tripp, London Broil, and a number of widely-varied stand-up acts.

Free parking is located across the street and patrons are able to pass between the club and the parking lot without hindering traffic via a tunnel and foot path under the street level. The club collects a cover charge from and admits patrons only over the age of 18, and allows those over 21 wishing to drink alcohol to purchase a bracelet for a small, added fee. All of these checks are made at the club's front lobby. Light appetizers are served from the small kitchen on the ground floor, and the primary services provided are drinks and entertainment. Drinks range from water and soft drinks to most commercially available liquors and mixed drinks. There's a standing policy that if a customer asks for something they don't carry, they'll order it and stock it, and their first drink of whatever was missing is free. The Shipwreck Showhouse is open from 12 noon until 5 am every day, except Sunday. They're open 24 hours every Sunday, for as the sign over the tollbooth entrance says, "Saints Should Never Have To Wait To Sin."

...And Sinners Ply Their Trade
On the ship's VIP deck, well away from the mortal carrousing, but still within full view of the entertainment, the supernatural things of the world are given a place to be what they are, within certain limits. For everything that the Shipwreck Showhouse is to the mortals, it's all of that and more to the supernatural people and creatures that stalk the shadowy periphery. The Shipwreck Showhouse has been having its name dropped and circulated amongst various races, groups, and factions, welcoming all comers as a neutral ground where words carry more weight than wounds. It is a place where all are welcome to come in, lay down their loads, shake the road off, and relax as much as they can, leaving their jyhad, apocalypse, ascension war, and winter outside, at least for a few hours. It's also a place to make those forbidden deals that don't get spoken of outside of the Shipwreck's hull. Several of the Shipwreck's available rooms are reserved for VIP use only, and the VIP deck features a half dozen comfortably large curtained booths, allowing for degrees of privacy. Upon the first trip up to the VIP deck, the very few and very simple rules are explained:


 * No violence; this isn't a battleground, it's a place of merriment.


 * Check weapons and attitudes at the door; neither are needed here.

Once an exceptional individual has been checked out and verified as such and they've agreed to play nice, they're let up onto the VIP deck. Most visitors at some point or another are given a black and white checkered poker chip, which serves as a pass up onto the VIP Deck.
 * Respect the privacy of those wishing it, because they will be respecting yours in turn.

Description
The club's external façade is made to look much like 1950's art deco architecture, with the bow section of the Edmund Fitzgerald crashed into it. Beyond the rich embellishment and gaily lit exterior, under the ship's sign, toward the south side of the building is what looks like a crack in the building, leading to the ship's hull. Entering through the front door gives way to a lobby that might as well be a miniature nautical museum. Thirty or so people could comfortably occupy the room, with benches for another ten or so lining one wall. To the right as you enter is an actual tollbooth, and inside is a woman dressed in a sailor-style schoolgirl outfit, where she checks ID, accepts cover charges, and checks weapons for those who know to drop them off.

Once a person passes into the main room, they find it to be the inside of a Great Lakes ore hauler, hollowed out and built up to accommodate dining and a show stage. It's huge. To the right is the stage, set about four feet above the floor level, with several chairs and small cafe tables arranged nearby. Behind that are several sofas and easy chairs with coffee tables, and behind that, actual dinner tables and chairs. To the far left against the wall is the bar--but above that, hanging over a third of the way over the main floor is a large balcony deck. The interior motif is a strange, interesting combination of industrial punk and French bohemian influences. The balcony is reached by a stairway on the back wall. The back wall of the balcony, where the bar would be on the main floor, is a small waiters station and a hallway that leads into several of the available private meeting rooms, with one large room with floor-to-ceiling one-way mirrored windows looking out over the balcony, and close enough to the edge to see down to the stage. On the opposite side of the balcony from the stairs to the main floor is another set of stairs leading up, where a sizable man stands by, looking rather imposing, allowing only certain patrons up to the VIP deck. On the VIP deck are six curtained booths, each comfortably accommodating five people, and each one contains a phone that rings the waiter's station for drinks or snacks. On the back wall are another group of private rooms, available only to the visitors to the VIP deck.

The main floor is approximately 250 feet wide, 75 feet across, and from the floor to the ceiling is about 80 feet. On the outside, the wheelhouse and spar deck are intact, gaily lit, and a rotating light sits on top like a festive lighthouse beacon. There's a foghorn atop the ship that calls the hours and half hours. The spar deck serves as an outdoor balcony, overlooking the street level, the beach, and giving a great view to the sea. While waitstaff do not provide service on the deck, there are a number of chairs strewn about for patron use. During slow times or before a special event, some of the showhouse's dancing girls, actors, and acrobats will be on the balcony alternatively jeering, cheering, and showing off for the people below, or serving to work up a crowd when lines form from backlog in the lobby.

Pictures of the interior and exterior, as well as floorplans for the various decks of the ship will be released soon.

Notable Characters
(( OOC Note: Several PC's showed interest in working at/with/for the club during IC scenes. Alex is a tool and has lost most of those names. If you wish to have your character recognized as one of the staff working at the Shipwreck Showhouse, just contact him in-game and he'll have me add you. ))
 * Alexander Köster -- Owner
 * Tovi -- Owner
 * Monica Bentley -- Performer, Fire Dancer
 * Vaughn -- Security Manager