October 2023 Challenge: Potato sack dungeon.

[Kisachik the Wanderer]

Hello Friends.

Here's my sketching in progress for this map. I am doing a side view of the most common dungeon in the world: a basement. Usually when I dream of being in a basement it is this multi-level labyrinth and there are sounds of mummified corpses grunting and shuffling about just beyond the nearest corner... Ever have a dream that you're trying to run, but your legs are refusing to have it your way? You won't have this problem here, the basement is always a great motivator for your entire body to get itself out of there as soon as possible, like, preferably, yesterday.

Since I don't use my tablet for anything other than drawing, and I have to post from my PC, here's a photo of the work in progress, as a photo of my tablet. The irl Kisachik is inspecting my work.

I'm not tagging it, since there isn't that much progress, but just wanted to add a post to the challenge.

[ChickPea]

It looks like you're off to a good start. It sounds like a fun/terrifying project!

[Diamond]

Yeah, not a huge fan of basements. Mainly because of the spiders. Great start, Kisachik!

[Kisachik the Wanderer]

I'm not afraid of spiders. They're ridiculous looking creatures, sure, but you see a spider, you know it's a spider. That dark corner in the basement though, that's the scariest thing: not knowing how far the zombies are. You can feel their presence, but it's hard to tell if they're right around the corner and you should run, or you have the time to risk picking up that one thing that you came for.

Here's a photo of some more work done, I'm doing line and colouring at the same time, for some reason.

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[Straf]

Yeah, not a huge fan of basements. Mainly because of the spiders. Great start, Kisachik!

I love basements, especially when they're bars. I used to like going to The Cavern Club when I was a student in Liverpool. OK it wasn't the original one but it was still a basement with drink and music.

[Kisachik the Wanderer]

Straf, those are not proper basements.

A proper basement is always dark, until you go inside that pitch blackness and turn the light on. You locate the switch by knowing where it is, you can't see it on the wall in all that darkness.

Then, it is always cold there. You see the raw building materials: unpainted concrete, exposed brick, and, at the lowest level, dirt floor, all radiating their natural coldness.

Some doors to the storage units are just see-through fence type doors. You usually reach your unit after you've turned on a few light switches, as they don't provide enough light to illuminate a large area. And there are just so many turns and corners that even if the first light was one of those stadium contraptions, the light just doesn't bounce that way in this world, unless you can persuade the laws of physics to change for a minute, good luck with that.

Sometimes, if you are extremely lucky, one of the neighbours who also needed something down there has already turned all those lights on. At such a time there are no monsters lurking, because it's against the law for monsters to occupy a basement while more than one living human being is present.

But normally, no, nobody is there, just the darkness and the silence, that type of silence that encourages you to hear very loudly every bump that could be coming from just about any direction.

A proper basement is also ugly. If there's no light, there's no reason to put anything down there that an eye would appreciate seeing. So, no decorations, unless you have a fondness for all sorts of pipes, exposed brick, grime on walls, and cobwebs. Not even graffiti makes its way down there. The hooligans are just too emotionally delicate to come down here with their markers.

[Kisachik the Wanderer]

I couldn't get myself to continue drawing the dungeon today. Maybe it's too scary. Too nightmarish. So I added some cute trick or treaters. Hopefully they'll fuel my creative process tomorrow when I pick up the tablet again.

[ChickPea]

I like what you've got here, Kisachik. It's turning out really nice. Also, I'm never setting foot in a basement again....

[Kisachik the Wanderer]

Some proper file for a change today.

Incidentally, I had a nightmare today that I was attacked by a vicious orange tabby cat. I was inside a house with glass door, and saw the beast approaching, so I closed the door and window, so the cat couldn't get in. There I was, satisfied with how safe I am, while that mad thing kept jumping at the door, baring its teeth. Suddenly!!! The cat glitched through the glass! Like in a 3D game, where there's just some gap in geometry. The cat also changed colour from orange to black. I grabbed it by the back of its neck, as it was very eager to bite me, but apparently forgot the claws at home or something. I threw it out the main entrance this time, which was wooden, and tried locking the door. The cat opened the door somehow, but I threw it out again and locked the door for good.

### Latest WIP ###

[ChickPea]

Oh no, poor cat! D

It's looking great. I love this style.