skin, bone, and arrogance
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To create the headquarters of an up-and-coming resistance cell on Galidraan.
- Image Credit: Header/Logo - Created by me | Other Photos: Dishonored Wikipedia, Spector Club entry | Conference Room: Noobienie [x]
- Canon: N/A
- Links: Southport, Galidraan [x] | Galidraan [x]
SETTING INFORMATION
- Structure Name: The Spector Club
- Classification: Publicly known as a highly exclusive social club, but recently it has become hiding a secret hideout for a burgeoning resistance group on Galidraan
- Location: The city of Southport [x], on Galidraan [x]
- Affiliation: Petra Vitalis [x] through a shell corporation, SpectorGroup.
- Accessibility: Smack dab on the border of the Terrace District and Canal District in the center of Southport, Galidraan, the club is on a street corner, across a small plaza from a posh apartment building. It is not hidden by any means; the front entrance is accessible from the street, although it is rarely used and always locked. The club is open only to members, and membership is by invitation only. Only members are granted keys to the front doors, and the exterior isn't typically guarded, as the doors and windows are barred and unauthorized access hasn't been a problem thus far.
- Security: From the outside, the building is unassuming, but it features significant security, including a heavily locked front door requiring a key to open. The front door opens into a narrow hallway, which is guarded by a pair of bouncers who know members, so anyone who isn't a member, but somehow gains entry with or without a key is immediately ejected. The doors to the inner sanctum, as well as interior doors to private areas (like the conference room, strong room, and basement) and doors to the river entrance, are secured with biolocks, requiring retina scans. These measures were in place prior to its use as a burgeoning resistance hideout, as the club had been used as a smuggling den some thirty years ago, trading in such illicit goods as stolen jewels, endangered animals, and plundered antiquities. In addition to the locks, the entrances are all covered by security cameras.
- Description: A beautiful, three-story building set on the border between the bourgeois Terrace District and the posh, elegant Canal District, the Spector Club is unassuming and on inspection not terribly different from the surrounding apartment and commercial buildings. A sturdy stone edifice gives way to a luxuriously appointed interior. The ground floor features an entryway and a bar area. The first floor features a collection of private rooms, including a large conference room and half a dozen small dorm-type rooms sleeping two to three each, as well as a large communal restroom. The second floor features a solarium parlor, a library (with card tables), a strong room (for storing valuables) which doubles as a security room (where the security camera footage can be viewed and played back), and the doors to a skybridge to access the apartment building across a small plaza, which opens into a small public foyer in that building. There is also a basement for storage, which also features a small, secret exit to the canal where, in old times, secret society members might have escaped when confronted with a police raid on the building.
POINTS OF INTEREST
THE FAÇADE, PLAZA & SKYBRIDGE
The Spector Club, as seen from across the street. Central is the entry door, with a physical key lock, keys to which are given only to members. At left an old, iron skybridge connects the third story of the Club with the next door apartment building. In a previous life, the two structures were owned by the same family, who did not necessarily always want to mingle with the riff-raff on the streets. Since then, the other building has been subdivided into apartments, and the skybridge doors open into a small foyer area on the third floor. The doors typically remain locked from the Club side of the doors.
THE CARMINE CANTEEN
Named for the family that once owned the building, the Carmine Canteen occupies nearly the entire ground floor of the Spector Club, exclusive of restrooms, a small kitchen, the entry hallway, and the main staircase. Featuring ancient marble floors in a checkered pattern, walls of polished wood paneling, and a decorating scheme in various shades of green and gold, the canteen serves food and drink when there are members present. The bar, kitchen, and janitorial staff are all humanoid droids with varying stages of realism, but they are nothing special in terms of their abilities. There are small alcoves along the perimeter of the left and right of the room, giving quasi-private areas for conversation.The staircase to the upper floors is behind the bar. Like the rest of the building, the Carmine Canteen features art that was left when the building was sold by the Carmine Family. Above the bar, a beautiful, green stained glass false window, lit from behind, projects an air of sophistication and relaxation, like being in a conservatory on a bright spring day.
THE BRIEFING ROOM
This large conference room dominates the first floor and, while it looks as antiquated as the building in which it resides, the room actually features modern communications technology, including holoprojectors and communications relays. This new equipment has been brought in piece by piece over the last several weeks in preparation for an operation against the new Galidraan Regime's crackdown on academic freedom at the nearby university. The conference table itself seats 14, but three times that number can fit along the outer edges of the room. Books and other records are stored here as well, in built-in bookshelves lining the walls.
THE SOLARIUM PARLOR
Opening from the stairs to the second story, this area is part lobby, part parlor, and part entrance. The metal and glass doors open to the skybridge, but are typically locked. There is a small smoking area to the left of the doors, straight ahead when one has come up the stairs, slightly raised, where members can congregate for cigarettes, cigars, and liqueurs apart from the more enclosed area of the library and game room. Not pictured is a hallway leading to the library and the strong room.
THE LIBRARY & GAME ROOM
Once used as a library when the building was owned by the Carmine family, the name stuck and, while books are still stored here behind intricate locking metal shades, the room is primarily used for leisure now -- a place for members to unwind with a game of dejarik, sabacc, or some other table game. The room features a stereo system which can pipe in either records (i.e. data files) or audio from the holonet. The lion figures, sigils of the Carmine family, were deemed to be too attractive to remove for storage space, and as such, they remain in pride of place in this room.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The Spector Club was once an extension of the mansion across the small plaza. The smaller building, purchased by Gregorie Carmine when his growing family became too large to fit comfortably in the mansion, served as a private space for Gregorie's son and his wife, some ninety years ago. However, about sixty years ago, the after Gregorie had died and his son inherited the business, the son was arrested for embezzling from the corporation and his assets were liquidated to pay the fines. What became the Spector Club changed hands half a dozen times over the next five decades, serving as a high-class brothel, a finishing school, and a sophisticated smuggler's den (when most of its security equipment was installed) before it was purchased by a professor at the nearby Southport University, who turned it into an academics society. Upon his retirement, the professor sold it to a favored student, who started a fictitious "secret society," known as The Spectors, to cover for what was ultimately just juvenile pranks and hazings that had to take place off campus in order to avoid expulsion. The building remained in use until a crackdown by the new Galidraani regime under the Sith Imperials. Finally, Petra Vitalis quietly purchased it with a shell corporation to protect her identity. She has since opened its doors to a few select members of her social circle that she knows are not sympathetic to the new Galidraan regime headed up by her brother Thaddeus Vitalis. Although she hasn't been ready to put a name to her activities, she has been preparing the Spector Club to become a safe house and hideout for those who will find life difficult on Galidraan, and those who might be willing to take up arms to resist.
