Overview

The Red Lantern is a layered haven built for discretion and logistics. Public street level is an old brick tavern with polished wood, low music, and a staff trained to forget. The court occupies the sealed floors above: blackout shutters, panic stairs, and rooms purpose-built for quiet governance. It’s where the Prince takes audience, where the Seneschal keeps the timetables, and where the Sheriff decides who’s ash and who’s merely fined.

House Maxim (plaques by the stair): Harbour calm. Keep time. Leave no story.

Floor-by-Floor

Street & Tavern (Cover)

• The Bar: mortal-facing cover; sound-managed; staff briefed in “polite ignorance”.
• Back Corridor: key-locked door marked “Private”; camera shows only a stock room.
• Cold Store: genuine; also hides a lift-call for secured access upstairs.

First Floor — Court Antechamber

• Registry Desk: Seneschal’s clerk (mortal by day, ghoul by night) logs audiences, licenses, and tithe receipts.
• Waiting Room: no mirrors, soft chairs, white noise; blinds shut at dusk.
• Feeding Parlour (Licensed): discrete red room with medical consent protocols; donors vetted and compensated off-site.

Second Floor — Court Proper

• Prince’s Chamber: Eleanor Calvert’s office; blackout shutters; antique desk; safe for documents and regalia.
• Council Room: oval table; no recording devices; sightlines designed to kill whispers.
• Sister Mercy’s Chapel: a small, candle-lit room for augury and counsel; no feeding within.

Third Floor — Security & Dawn

• Black Rooms: five coffin-dark suites with double seals; negative pressure, sprinkler cut-offs, dawn locks.
• Armoury Nook: Sheriff Nyla’s lockers; ash-poles, cuffs, fire blankets; logbook signed on checkout/return.
• Panic Stair: concrete shaft to a bricked sub-basement two doors down; exit masked as boiler access.

Roof — Lantern Walk

• Service Deck: tarred roof with screened rail; no sightlines from neighbouring windows.
• Signal Mount: the “red lantern” itself — not lit; a coded cover for internal radio checks.

Infrastructure & Safeguards

• Blackout Shutters: steel-backed, inward-locking; auto-drop on UV and fire alarm; manual crank override.
• Sprinkler Zoning: tavern wet; court floors dry with fire blankets and CO₂; kitchen hood scrubbed nightly.
• Access Control: key chits issued by the Seneschal; dawn-time locks engage 30 minutes before sunrise.
• Medical Cold: two compact fridges (court-use only) with chain-of-custody seals; inventory reconciled each dusk.
• Sound Mesh: panel baffles between joists; meetings do not travel down to the bar.
• Clean-Out Plan: staged “renovation” kit (dust sheets, permit signs) to explain sudden closures.

House Protocol

Arrival & Audience

• Present at the Registry; state business; surrender weapons or peace-bind them.
• Unregistered visitors see the Seneschal; registered broods may petition the Prince by docket.
• Feeding only in licensed parlour, during booked windows, on registered donors. No exceptions.

Security Rules

• No phones in Council; devices sealed in lockers; emergency line available via desk phone.
• No fire demonstrations, no “party tricks”, no glamour play with staff.
• Panic stair is for actual panic: misuse earns fines; genuine need earns gratitude.

Boundary Etiquette

• No hunts launched from the Lantern; violators lose parlour privileges.
• Respect neighbouring factions: no Free Court salon poaching, no Iron Belt provocation, no Lodge slip games.
• Meridian liaison admitted by prior notice; interviews held in Antechamber with curtains drawn.

Keepers & Regulars

• Prince Eleanor Calvert — Receives final petitions; sets policy.
• Rafiq Haddad (Seneschal) — Timetables, manifests, ledgers; keeps the court on time.
• Sheriff Nyla Voss — Security, sanctions, retrieval teams.
• Sister Mercy — Augury and counsel; chapel hours at her discretion.
• Mortal Cover Staff: bar manager, two bartenders, three servers (rotating), cleaner with keys (vetted, well-paid).

Cover Operations

• Members’ Dinners: monthly upstairs tasting that never actually happens; explains blocked calendar nights.
• Renovation Permits: kept current to justify sudden closures or noise.
• Supplier Routes: deliveries via alley at odd hours; invoices padded with “specialty glassware”.

Hooks & Scene Seeds

• The Wrong Delivery: A “medical cooler” arrives with perfect paperwork and the wrong scent. Who sent it, and why here?
• Panic Stair Footage: A rooftop tourist catches a sliver of the stair door at dawn. Retrieve the clip without a bar fight.
• Parlour Breach: A donor arrives already light-headed and too agreeable. Sister Mercy asks questions; the Prince wants answers.
• Fire Drill, Real Fire: Kitchen hood flares during a council night. Keep mortals calm, clan safe, and the story tidy.
• Lantern Signal: The “red lantern” code flickers without order. Ghost signal? Sabotage? Or a test from within.

GM Notes

• Tone: old-brick respectability hiding modern control; logistics as power.
• Capacity: Council room seats 10–12; parlour can handle 2 donors/hour under protocol; five black rooms at dawn.
• Complications: bar staff turnover, fire inspections, rival clans testing the door, Meridian “just visiting”.
• Map Keys: mark tavern cover, private door, lift-call in cold store, antechamber, parlour, council, chapel, black rooms, armoury, panic stair, roof signal.