Arkham Lounge Turn 3 Pt 2: The Generator, The Vaudeville, and the Other Stuff (Patreon)

[X][RING] The Gotham Arsenal: War with Germany was inevitable, and when it happened, America would be prepared! The Ring of Solomon had many captains of industry would pool their wealth to sponsor the creation of great and terrible arms factories and weapons workshops in Gotham.

-[X] American multi tools

[X][HOT] Gluck would agree to do some work as an engineer, helping to create some piece of technology to help benefit the lounge in some way, one that wouldn't otherwise be widely available for decades, if not longer.

-[X] Gluck would electrify the Lodge, allowing it to install lightbulbs and phase out lanterns.

[X][BAR] Hire New Staff: Sure, you had a bartender, but you need more than just that to run a place. Janitors, delivery people, waiters, additional bartenders who can pick up more shifts. Just keep in mind that the more people work for the Lounge, the higher its costs go.

-[X] Handyman: Someone who can fix things and occasional move props for the Act.

[X][WITCH] Renovate the St. Majeste

-[X] A private library

[X][PERSONAL] Write-in: Go hunting for antique books; classic novels can be put aside for Abigail, while the others go into our private collection

[X][ACT] Taming of the Fouls: An act that involves a large number of doves and pigeons. Currently, most were kept in a special coup when not acting. They had been trained to be surprisingly well coordinated, and more important, unlikely to crap in a customers food.

[X][SHOW] Scout New Talent: Josiah probably wasn't going to find any good magic acts since Hermanns Theater existed, but Gotham had plenty of other forms of entertainment if you knew where to look. For instance, traveling carnivals, other lounges, etc.

-[X] Comedian

The Gotham Tribune, Jan 9, 1901

A Review of the St. Majeste by Benjamin St. Cloud

Dear reader, I find myself appreciating the Lounge more the longer its open. Their recent addition of a “House Comedy Duo” to their roster helps differentiate them from their competitor in entertainment, Hermann, and the owner clearly sees the value in steady investment into quality with their recent addition of an electrical lighting system. The selection of drinks is, admittedly, somewhat lacking, but what you get is rare enough for that to be a forgivable sin: Witches Brew is something that I genuinely have not been able to locate at any other bar in Gotham, and once you’ve become accustomed to it it is inarguably highly quality.

!!!!GOTHAM!!!!

It was a good start to the New Year. Profits were high, prestige was rising, and our dear friend Josiah had a lead in on some way to handle the soul problem to his satisfaction. Now, our guy, he might have had a talent for the stick, but when it came to solving his problems, he preferred to make friends, not enemies. Abigail Roth might have owned his soul, but all that meant is that he had a way to keep working on his bar even after he shuffled off the mortal coil if he played his cards right. He just had to get her invested in the Lounges success.

Now, he didn’t know much about Roth. What he did know was that as a child, she had liked Don Quijote, so that was what he capitalized on. Using the new handyman, he repaired more of the St. Majeste, turning what had been a deck for hauling cargo into a private library, scouting out as far as Metropolis for antique books to fill it with, setting aside any classic literature as a gift to his newest patron of sorts.

Alright, not a whole lot to figure out here, just who you want in your library. Keep in mind, if it’s for your personal use, you can use it to store way more sensitive material: less chance of someone stealing that rare copy if the place is off-limits to people other than the owner. Plus, Abigail might be more invested in a Library she doesn’t have to share. However, you could go other routes: if you want, you could use it to help cultivate a higher class of clientele by making it invitation only: a perk of being a VIP or in the good books of a VIP. Now, later on you can expand either of these with a more public facing option as a way to appeal to more intellectual drinkers looking to enjoy a nice glass of wine with a novel, but for now, those first two are your options. Also, keep in mind that Josiah doesn’t currently live on the St. Majeste. Code is [BOOKS]

[ ] Private Means Private: Josiah would allow Abigail, Amadeus, and no one else. His library would be his alone, with permission granted only to the most select few he had deemed acceptable to intrude on his space. It would be his sanctum, his place of power, the beating brains of his operations.

[ ] Lounge VIP Library: The library would be open by invitation only: those whom Josiah deemed worthy, whether by notability, familiarity, appreciation, or largesse. It would be a place where those he considered allies or potential peers could study, relax in peace, or congregate in private.

!!!GOTHAM!!!

While Josiah worked on the Library, he also worked on the rest of the lounge. First, he hired a handy-man, a cousin of Jacobs suggested by the cook to fix up the Lounge, help renovate it, and, when need be, help Josiah with minor props. This man, Davis Jacobs, found himself withering under the treatment of his eccentric, occasionally abusive boss, trading the money to afford nice things and the time to spend on them for a persistent eye-twitch and being unable to smell anything but burning toast. Much like Mark, he endured it however, if worse: the money only barely made up for being subject to the many shocks and zaps that came from working for Abigail Gluck, the other Abby in Josiah’s life. In the years after he eventually quit, Davis would loudly proclaim how much he had come to hate working for Josiah as a result: it wasn’t the worst job he had ever had, sure, but it was the only job he had done where he had gotten electrocuted more than once.

In the decades after, the man actually went on to become a successful carpenter, believe it or not. Much like his cousin, the money he made would get invested, though in Davis’ case it went to purchasing tools and assets for his business rather than philanthropy. Less altruistic, but I can’t blame the guy, really: we all gotta eat, and you gotta make sure you have your head above water before you try to start helping other people. Still, with both Jacobs rolling in the dough, especially since they lived under the same roof, the family started to become one of the more well-to-do of East End. Nicer food, nicer clothes, some well needed renovations and improvements to the home.  Real nice, but they didn’t live in a neighborhood where they could afford to live real nice.

Living real nice, you see, eventually resulted in them getting robbed. The only time Mark missed work: a burglar had broken in looking to steal what money they could, causing the young man to fall down a flight of stairs in an altercation with the thief, breaking several bones and earning him three days off (unpaid). The show, Josiah told him, must go on.

Davises first real job was helping Frau Gluck. You see, our old friend Josiah wasn’t just about fancy special effects and witches brew: he wanted the Lounge to not just be the best, he wanted it to be on the cutting edge. That meant modernization: electrical lighting, among other things. To accomplish this, he commissioned Abigail Gluck for the process, paying the brilliant inventor out of pocket to help power his boat. For weeks she worked, clearing out an empty cabin and using it as her workshop. Whenever she wasn’t solving mysteries with the rest of the Lodge or enjoying her free time, the german woman would spend days at a time testing technology, eventually producing something worth Josiah’s investment.

Alright, now we’re gonna determine how exactly you intend to power the place. There are a couple options here: you could go for a series of smaller generators, a larger singular generator, or an upgrade to the ships engine. Each one has its own pros and cons and takes its own type of fuel: choose wisely. Note that while Gluck built these, since they were commissioned by Josiah, he owns the [PATENT], which coincidentally is the action code.

[ ] Arkham Boxes: Abigail Gluck would produce a series of portable generators, 21 in total, as well as the schematics to make more. They ran off an ethanol engine: clean burning enough to not produce much smell. The power generated wasn’t high and they were unfortunately expensive to create, but they were far more discrete than other options, and, obviously, more portable.

[ ] The Beast: A singular structure hidden away in the guts of the boat, the electrogenerator burned coal and a lot of it to provide the boat with power. Large, bulky, noisy, its greatest sin was the smoke it produced: even with the exhaust pipe leading outside, the room still stank of burning coal, and occasionally the smell would drift upward. Of course, even with these issues, the generator was an absolute powerhouse: it would be multiple decades before a comparable commercial version would be built.

[ ] Der Gluckenmotor: In the end, Frau Gluck had run out of budget, but she had successfully produced schematics for a replacement engine for the ship, one that would run off kerosene and distilled oil. In theory, it should allow not only for the Lounge to be electrified, but it would also be a significant improvement to the ships engine in general, though it would be pulling double duty between moving the boat and powering lights.

!!!GOTHAM!!!

And, to go along with his attempts at modernization, Josiah would branch out a bit in entertainment. He didn’t really play any new acts this time: just more of the birds, this time with a few more props here and there and with better lighting. Instead, he focused more on improving the day ticket entertainment. Scouting all the small time venues he could, he looked for a new act he could use as an alternative to Violet, give the people who were just there for lunch and a show a little variety. Violet wasn’t a bad singer, of course, but no matter how good someones mashed potatoes might be, if thats your only option for a meal you’re gonna get real sick of potatoes real quick. Instead, he looked to the world of comedy, eventually hiring a duo of black vaudeville actors from Metropolis. Irwin Vogel and Adam Brown, whose comedy routines would include piano playing humorous duets, small funny skits, and fast and comedic dialogues between themselves.

Now, for a bit of context, vaudeville back then was in general less than tasteful: you know the stories, minstrel shows and black face and all sorts of tasteless stereotypes perpetuated by racist white entertainers. Unless they were part of a primarily african american troupes, black vaudeville actors would frequently be forced to participate in these shows, denigrating themselves racially in front of hundreds of white americans by being forced to wear all sorts of silly outfits on stage and made to play various now-offensive racial archetypes like…Well, I’m not gonna list em here, but you can look em up, they’re on Lexpedia.

Now, a lot of black vaudevillians would go on to form their own troupes over the course of the entertainment genres tenure, frequently to great acclaim when allowed the dignity that came from not having to pander to racist pricks. After all, talent is talent, no matter what color your skin was.

Now, Josiah was a bad boss, but he was a particular brand of bad boss. Racially tasteless, prone to unreasonable expectations and demands, and frankly annoying, but he wasn’t an out an out bigot, and he valued performance. And, most of all, he was very, very spiteful: when he heard there was a pair of highly talented black performers working as minstrel shows at Hermanns looking for more dignified, higher paying work, he was on them like a cat on a mouse. In secret he auditioned them, asking for them to come up with their best possible material a month in advance. They say our friend Josiah hired them the moment the audition ended, informing them they’d have complete control over their own material and a larger cut of the ticket revenue compared to the money Hermann’s paid them.

They were a pretty solid hit: like I said, talent is talent, and while they were still getting ripped off, Josiah letting them write their own acts paid off: Vogel would frequently play the straight man, while Brown played a role that today we’d recognize as the wise-guy, and unlike Hermann’s, they didn’t have to lower themselves as much. A nice bit of humor to go with lunch, Vogel and Brown were in many ways a breath of fresh air for the Lounge, making it more popular as a day date location.

Of course, just because a black could perform at a place didn’t necessarily mean they could drink at a place themselves.

And now we’ve got to switch frames for a moment. Yeah, this part has a lot of racially commentary. You pretty much can’t avoid it when it comes to things like entertainment and even business. This next part deals with another ugly facet of historical oppression, segregation.

Now, Josiah isn’t himself particularly prejudiced, as we’ve established: racially tasteless and insensitive, but he himself isn’t hateful, just one of the many tools of history. But just because he’s not a racist asshole doesn’t mean he isn’t a crass, greedy dick, and when it comes to segregation, being a crass, greedy dick led many business owners to uphold the institution,  setting aside worse parts of their facility and providing worse service to patrons of color or just banning them outright. Of course, there were those who didn’t participate in the institution, but many of these didn’t do so without consequence due to the harassment (if not worse) of a certain organization: you know the one, burning crosses, white hoods, those nasty bastards. It wasn’t just physical threats of course, but also economic ones: when rich racists are the ones at societies helm, there becomes a number of financial disincentives to be progressive. For an example of that particular phenomenon, in Las Vegas, sometime in the 50’s, there was an integrated casino by the name of the Moulin Rouge, one that served blacks and whites alike. It had a great reputation, brought in both black and white celebrities: good booze, good entertainment, good crowd. Real jewel of the city, so I hear, until a bunch of other segregated casinos conspired to boycott any producer that supplied them, making the club lose easy access to not only food, but also booze and other goods needed to keep itself running. Heck, these segregated casinos even got the Rouges liquor license yanked: without it, the place would up shutting down, going out of business.

That’s the median level of resistance you’re gonna get from trying to desegregate: not the absolute floor for how bad it can turn out, no, that dear reader is far worse. Expect a sharp price hike, expect a lot of controversy, and expect to lose a lot of customers, at a minimum. Alternatively, you can opt for the easier path, and just go with the flow until the civil rights struggle provides a safer stage to change your policy: the consequence free option, you’d have to spend time developing additional amenities for african patrons if you wanted to serve them, but that’s about it. Personally, I hope you go for the former and aim for egalitarianism, but the reason I’m leaving this decision open to you is because it is not a consequence free decision. It would be deeply dishonest for me to ignore the many, many barriers that society placed in front of businesses trying to integrate and the dangers that accompanied it.

So, pick your poison. Code is [CHOICE].

[ ] Integrity: Josiah had never particularly had a segregation policy, but it wasn’t until his new employees wanted to spend their hard earned simoleons at the bar they worked that the man decided to officially desegregate, realizing the african american population of the city a ripe audience to exploit and, somewhat more admirably, believing that any who judged a man for something other than the color of their money was a fool. Immediate difficulty increase until desegregation. History will remember Josiah somewhat better.

[ ] Safety: …Well, he still thought it was better to gauge a mans value by the value of his dollar, but unfortunately there were external factors at play, like a bunch of inbred white hooded psychotic nut-jobs with torches and pitchforks and institutional backing. Better to adhere to the standards of the time and make most of the bar whites only: black patrons would have their own section, away from the stage and bar. No difficulty increase. History will remember Josiah slightly worse.

Meanwhile, while that’s going on, you decided to go with multitools for what the Arsenal would be producing. Now, let me expand on what exactly the Arsenal is. On it’s surface, it’s a track of land created going into the swamp, an industrial district created by our good friends in the Ring for the purposes of advancing the cause of anti-germanism in the form of equipping our (and I say this voice dripping with sarcasm, dear reader) good friends, the US Military. Not just factories either: engineering workshops, laboratories, office firms. All financed by the Ring pouring millions if not billions of dollars into its construction, which will likely only take a half a decade to complete enough to come online and start production of gear. Meanwhile, the Rings hired inventors are gonna be hard at work developing the technology that’ll be produced ahead of time. It’s probably not gonna be profitably, not for awhile if ever, but it’s not meant to be.

By selecting multitools for the Arsenal, you’ve caused Chalmer Chill to decide that what America REALLY needs to help beat those dirty krauts is for its soldiers to always have tools on hand for any emergency, ones that can be used in a pinch to defend themselves. During the voting period, I said picking the arsenal would result in Gotham becoming the melee weapon capital of the world: this is why. You, my friends, have an open ended assignment: I want you to come up with three different multitool concepts that can double as instruments of combat. The only stipulation is that they have to have at LEAST two non-combat applications, and cannot be ranged. Action code is [WEAPONS]. Remember, this being DC and the pet project of a group of very, very rich weirdos, you ARE allowed to get somewhat speculative about it.

[ ] [WEAPONS] Insert idea here.

[ ] [WEAPONS] Insert idea here.

[ ] [WEAPONS] Insert idea here.