Post Seattle: Belltown, Where you can get an Espresso

  

This is the beating heart of Post Seattle, some say; a glimpse of civilization; our own resident metropolis; also known as scum-town, dirt-town, and no-town.

Bell Town is one place you can still buy a decent espresso. And most anything else is available at the Slab Market for a price. Folks here even have a sort of law. Note that justice is particularly harsh and swift for fraud and theft; murder less so.

People here still dig music like they did in The Day, so keep your ears open after sundown and you might just hear something worth hearing. Plenty of underground clubs open after sundown.

--Dee Dee's Doomsday Guide to Seattle

See a bigger version of the full map.

Coffee Break

A friend of mine is planning to open a co-working space in Seattle that includes childcare for small children. This is possibly the best idea ever. She commissioned this dungeon. I rather like how it turned out.

In case you haven't run into it before, co-working is a way of creating a shared space for freelancers, traveling workers, and small startups to work in. It replaces the isolation and inconvenience of working in cafes, hotel rooms, and home offices with a community where one has neighbors, services, and amenities. At Office Nomads, there are free waffles on Tuesdays. You can't beat that.

Coffee Dungeon

Because it is important never to lose sight of your inspirations.

Where to get good coffee in post-apocalyptic Seattle

You'd be surprised how many places have coffee in post-apocalyptic Seattle, but unless your well-armed enough to make your way up to the Joe Bar Enclave or have an in to the Starbucks Bastion down south, New Belltown is your best bet. Even though there's nothing like a global economy any more, there are enough ocean nomads and blockade runners to keep a slow trickle of beans from the far South. A few isolated growers seem to be able to produce batches of beans hydroponically, although the hybrid beans are a little wonky sometimes. And there's always that instant stuff from the Starbucks facility, though no one;s quite sure what they're making it out of.

The Obsidian Labyrinth Show in West Seattle

I've kept it quiet because up until the last moment I wasn't sure it was going to happen, but my art is now hanging in the West Seattle Cupcake Royale!



Getting these hung was an epic four-hour death march in which everything went wrong, and I made my retired mother-in-law stand on a chair and hold paintings up for half the time. Let us never speak of it again.



Based on the success of the Microdungeon 10, I've put up a custom microdungeon request sheet. Cost is $10. The constraints are based on the show. Sorry, but you have to go to the venue to get the rules. Please no cheating!



The space at West Seattle is pretty small, so there are only 9 micros included in the show, but they are 9 of my favorites.



No plans for a party for this one, but if there is an Art Walk in the neighborhood, I'll try to be around for it.

A new Wall

This month I was due to have an art show at Verite Coffee in my own Madrona neighborhood, however the show was cancelled due to a double-booking with a school group. Sad news, considering I had just spent the last two weeks furiously completing and framing pictures, several of which featured somewhat twisted versions of Madrona houses and buildings.

To make up for, they offered me an October show at their Capitol Hill Location: the one with the huge walls. The one where you can see the art blazing out across Pike Street when you walk by. The one that's a favorite stop on the Capitol Hill Art Walk (though, perhaps more due to the cupcakes than the art). Seduced by walls, i said yes.

Life has a weird way of closing doors and opening doors at the same time.

So my existing art will be horribly swallowed by the giant walls at the store. I can probably fit my whole existing inventory on the back wall alone. The plan is, over the next four months, to make at least 5 huge dungeons, 24'x28' or bigger. So I'm going to be pretty busy.

Another consequence of this change is that I realize it's time to finally let the Year of the Dungeon come to and end. I don't mean this blog, which will continue to have a trickle of activity. Rather I'm letting myself off the hook for posting microdungeons to the blog in any kind of regular schedule.

So that's the story. I'm not quite sure what any of this means except that I really hope there will some extremely cool dungeon art showing up on this blog pretty soon. Fingers crossed.

Joe Bar

One of the complex and difficult things we've had to deal with this year at home is my daughter's transfer from one school to another in mid-year. One of the side-effects of this transfer is that I will be spending a lot less time at Joe Bar, one of Seattle's best coffee shops. This micro was drawn at the Joe Bar.

Why didn't I post any dungeons last week!?

I didn't post any dungeons last week. The reason is that I've been spending a lot of what used to be blogging time drawing stuff for the art show in December. I'm going to show a couple dozen microdungeons. But the microdungeons alone don't feel like enough for a show. So I'm spending a lot of time in the "studio" (which is known as the kitchen table the rest of the day). I'm going to make it up next week by posting more dungeons than usual.

In the meantime, here's a glimpse of what's been eating up my time.

Some color microdungeons:


Some BIG dungeons:


Some in-between stuff still in progress:


And a few surprises not to be revealed here.

I'm having a blast drawing for at least an hour every day. I had no idea getting ready for a show would be this much fun.

Some details on the show: it's at Cortona Cafe at 2425 E Union St in Seattle's Central District. The art will be there the month of December, and the opening party is Saturday December 18th, at 7:00 PM.

Holy Crap! Should I do an Art Show?

I have one of those "fake paper mug" ceramic coffee mugs with a plain white unglazed exterior. Being the doodler I am, I wasn't able to resist the pristine surface, so I doodled all over it. Anyway, to make a long story short, one of the managers at my local cafe saw it and told me that she'd be willing to hang my art in the cafe!

So I'm all in a tizzy now. My stomach feels funny. What do I bring? How do I present it? Maybe I'm not ready for a coffee shop show. Are microdungeons too inaccessible to the non-gaming crowd?

Lair of the Cappuccino

The Cappucchino is a fearsome opponent, but can be defeated in a number of ways, providing access to the sweet, sweet sugar. Cold magic won't harm it, but will negate its heat attack so you can defeat it faster. It is best to establish a resistance to caffeine before embarking, either by spell, or through long exposure. if a fully charged Punch Card is available, it can be an invaluable asset.

Another Coffee Dungeon

12 Random Beverages

1. Coffee
2. Coffee substitute brewed from fungus
3. Slime mold juice
4. Fermented slime mold juice
5. Blood
6. Crystal clear water
7. Tainted water, causes abdominal cramps for 1d8 hours
8. Unstable quintessence, roll on potion imiscibility table
9. Ethereal water, invisible, weightless, and tasteless, but quenches thirst
10. Alcohol
11. Cranberry liqueur
12. Herbal tea, cures 1 HP of damage

Beyond the Domed City

A hidden chamber filled with secrets under the eyes of a watchful guardian

A doomed settlement, it's city fathers blind to the threat before them

A ribald sailor, full of tall tales

A young man, bold and ambitious, a heretic against his cause

The members of a dark cabal, ever plotting amongs themselves