SHOPKEEPER PERMITYou must have applied as an Elsewhere character before completing this permit. The Grubstake
Shop Type: Inn, Smuggle Exchange, Loan Shark Entreprise
Location: Diagon Alley
Subforum? Assuming it’s accepted, I’ll take out a Shopkeeper Subscription, yes.
Short Description (50 words max): In the front, ordinary pub and inn, in the back, shady dealings galore.
Long Description (200 words min):The Grubstake is a pub and inn on the corner of Diagon Alley and Prime Alley. The double doors running diagonally between the two outward walls are walnut with paned glass in the middle. Above the entrance hangs a tin sign stating “The Grubstake, est. 1847”, which is continually dangling whenever someone opens the left door. The front is yellow bricks and rectangular windows, making it easy for customers to follow the flow of the street if conversation is sparse. Its rectangular shape stretches along Prime Alley.
Inside, customers of all kinds appear at first onto a cherry dais, upon which sits a hat stand. To the right behind said hat stand people will find a row of cubicles entertaining six seats, fitted with red plush to soften the experience of the hardwood mahogany. To the left, beneath the windows facing Prime Alley, are pebbled a few café tables for two.
Immediately in front of the dais is a stretch of naked wooden floor before the actual bar. A polished counter runs parallel to the Intern Alley front, and to the left of this bar is an unseemly birch door that doesn’t seem to fit into the wood palate. On the door hangs a plastic sign saying “Authorised personnel only”. The far wall hosts a fire place, a rug and three couches with a table between them. These are further lighted with small, green-shaded lamps on corner tables, and behind them, on the right side of the bar, is a door to the stairs leading up to the second floor and to the loos.
Behind the birch door is a long, narrow hallway. On the left one will find the offices of the owner, the manager and the personnel bathroom with changing closets. On the right is the door to the kitchen, which also has an entrance to the bar, from where waiters bring out the food. At the bottom of the hallway is a door leading outside to the left – this will take employees to a small cobblestone patio surrounded by an overgrown and rotten two-metre wooden fence with a door opening up to a small backyard which steals out into Knockturn Alley. Employees are welcomed to take their smoke breaks out there, as smoking in the kitchen is absolutely forbidden.
The only door left in the hallway is the locked, oak door at the end. It looks brittle but is enforced heavily with magical concealment charms, the Fidelius charms and other security measures. Only one key is in existence, with a spell that resists any copying. Behind this door is the establishment’s smuggling office. Customers are usually not invited in, though the current manager did make the mistake once. Instead they are led to the courtyard and asked to wait for their package there in order not to arouse suspicion.
As an inn, The Grubstake also hosts a few smaller flats on the second floor: twelve to be precise. These all contain one master bedroom with living/dining room facilities as well as a separate bathroom and a tea kitchen. In three of the flats are also offered another, separate bedroom for families with children. The establishment has a family-friendly reputation in its role as respectable pub and inn, while the hidden backroom contains business for those who are not afraid to dirty their hands. The owner and manager have also been known to approve of loans at favourable interest rates – to themselves.
What purpose will this shop serve other than selling things and being the home of your character? Why would people want to RP there just for fun?First of all, looking at Diagon Alley, there are no simple, ordinary pubs for people to sit and eat a hearty meal or have a drinking game. The Royal Casino, the bakery and The Rose target seemingly specific groups with specific purposes, whereas The Grubstake can be the place for a romantic dinner for two, a short lunch for the family shopping for next term, a night out or just a place to rest your legs in a place without flowers draped all over. The Grubstake would target a much larger group of Elsewhere characters.
Second of all, it offers an address destination for people who might have come to live in London recently (as war fugitives or the like) and haven’t found a place to stay or as a motel for meeting your secret lover, thanks to the apartments and rooms for rent above the pub.
Third of all, with all the criminal activity that seems to be on the upswing in Elsewhere, The Grubstake ties in very nicely with those plots. With a smuggling ring at Moulin Rouge, a mob hideout at The Royal Casino and the general criminal NPC plot, an establishment that sells these wares to potential clients and keeps the smuggling ring alive with business seems to be a good place for people to also make deals, collect special wares. This also gives Ministry workers/spies/the like a chance to try to snuff out the activity, although the peaceful family inn is supposed to work as pretty airtight cover, the awkward and insecure manager as a deterrent from even suspecting the place.
