This building is used to screen and register new visitors to Skullport. Anyone who comes in through either of the ports is brought in here and asked their name and business in Skullport by one of the receptionists, all of whom are bugbears and quite fed up with their jobs.
The process of registration is a total farce, and it is 75% likely that visitors returning for a second time will find that their records have been lost and they need to register anew. The whole process takes about 15 minutes, and the bugbears may request a registration fee of 1-10 gp.
This fee is entirely arbitrary and is different for every person who comes in—the bugbears simply use it as an excuse to grift newcomers. Someone who calls them out on this finds that they have to go through “deferred intake”. The bugbears do not further try to swindle this character, but hold them up for a full hour as they pretend to be doing bureaucratic work behind the counter.