The Market

So, I'm rambling on in my other blog about how much I love this city, and it leads to a tiny little comment about the maze that is The Market. Since that's not my gaming blog, I figured I should talk about the maze here, instead.

So, there's this place called The Pike Market. It's that place with flying fish and the big neon sign that shows up repeatedly in any movie or tv show set in Seattle. Not as well known as the space needle, but still not exactly unheard of.

It's a produce market, it's the coolest strip mall in the world, it's a historical district, and it's an underground maze. In my Scion campaign, it was built by Dwarves, who were forced to do so by Giants, after they'd burnt down the city as part of a plan 100 years ago to break an Ogdoad out of prison. Current occupants include the above, plus Frozen Flying Fish, a Minotaur, and a fey named Puck'O'Pike.

It's a big complicated, convoluted maze. And it's clearly enchanted - both in reality and in my campaign. The stores are strange, and not just because of funky products, clientele, or employees. Stores move, changing their floors, swapping their places. Signs on doors say "enter this shop by the second stairway to the right". Multiple buildings are connected underground. Certain sections on the same floor are only connected by going up or down stairs and then coming back by a different route. Maps posted on the walls and pillars are intentionally incorrect, and often upside down. The further down you get the more random things become. There's a wall covered with about a million pieces of previously chewed bubblegum. You can literally set out to discover a new shop every visit, and you will. Good luck finding them again next time. There's an exit where the Sanitary Market is two stories higher than it is from any other angle - like entire floors only exist when observed from certain directions. Words can't describe it.

Two days ago, in the real world, Sarah and I got into an elevator there. The buttons were labeled "I", "PA" and "-1". We pushed "PA". It let us out on an alleyway. and then locked us out. I'm not kidding. Seriously, dumped out on the street. Had to walk around the building to get back in.

In my campaign I supplemented the existing shops of every description, oddity and ethnicity with a Egypto-Roman Slave Market, a humidor run by an animated wooden Indian, "Gettysburg Submarine Sandwiches and Civil War Souvenirs", an all-Lovecraft bookstore, a dwarven mine, and a place called Cyclopean Cutlery. The further down you get, the more supernatural the stores become. To defeat the mind-altering enchantment of the place and successfully get to the lowest levels requires a really good Wits + Survival roll and/or the Psychopomp Purview.