Blues Note Bar

More than thirty flights above the flooded streets of the Iron Gardens, perched atop one of the district's few surviving skyscrapers, the Blues Note Bar presides over Old York like a relic of a world that never quite died. The interior is a carefully maintained illusion of pre-fall opulence: dark wood paneling lines the walls, colored glass catches lamplight, salvaged metalwork trim frames doorways, and artwork looted from ruined museums hangs in smoky air above heavy wooden tables. At the center of it all stands a massive stone table, the undisputed symbol of Affiliates power.
 

The Stone Table

The stone table is where Old York's gang disputes are settled, turf grievances aired, and declarations of war negotiated. No major play in the Iron Gardens occurs without the approval of the Affiliates, the council of veteran gang leaders who have survived past the age of forty and earned the right to sit at that table. Mr. Jackson Bluenote heads the board, and his word carries the weight of decades of blood and barter.
 

The Lower Levels

Below the main floor, the Bar supports an ecosystem of commerce: a working distillery, small trader posts, doctors offering their services, and an aviary where messenger birds are kept and dispatched. Private guarded antechambers host the most sensitive negotiations, and deeper within, a room exists where each Affiliate's name is branded directly into the wall as a permanent record of membership.
  Disrespecting the Affiliates within their own house carries a single penalty: ejection from the Bar to the waters far below. The Blues Note is equal parts gentlemen's club, war room, and throne room, and it tolerates no one who forgets which of those it is at any given moment.