It's the new year, and it's time for new things.

After working on this concept for over a year, Brad and I have started the production season for IonQuest Games' Location Lexicon.

Anyone who has ever been a Dungeon Master has had the experience of trying to get something ready for their players in the Nth hour. Scrambling to getting something ready for them to play for the next game session and the (perhaps inevitable) writer's block that will go with such efforts.

It's stressful, it's frustrating, and it sours a lot of folks on the idea of being a DM in general.

That's okay, though. We got you.

The Location Lexicon is a series that we will be running for quite a while. We'll release one Location every week on the IonQuest Games Patreon page. One location every month will be free and public.

The Locations will have everything you need to cover a game session on a single page pdf. Each will have a challenge for the characters and everything the DM needs to run the session.

Simple, effective, and waiting to make the effort painless.

Oh, and my art to help bring each Location to life.

The teaser above just hints at everything in the full page pdf.

Right now we're only charging $3/month. We want to make it effortless for those who want to support us from the getgo. We will be upping those prices in the very near future (maybe even February 1st), but those who get in at the beginning will get to keep the lower rate. Kinda sending the love back and forth as it were.

Anyway. If you're into ttrpgs, and / or want to support Brad and myself doing this sort of thing, check out the Patreon page. Sign up for free even if you don't have the resources to pay - you'll still get one free location every month!

Any questions? Ask away!

Continuing his clockwise tour of the inner galaxy, Willy Minmax goes to Fremantle, where he confronts an insupportable situation.  Satellites meant to train the cloudlike Woylie towards positively influencing the climate have failed.  They now accidentally torment the Woylie into worsening the weather, causing disastrous storms and floods.  The Noongar society that built the satellites is now unable to repair or maintain them, so Willy decides that the only help he can offer is to destroy the malfunctioning devices.  Without waiting around for thanks or blame, he does this and quickly departs.  Perhaps when Fremantle's atmosphere returns to normal, he too can return and re-establish trade with this world.

In the meantime, Akasora considers his strange fate among the distant stars:

Silent stars above,
Lonely verses in the void,
Robot dreams in code.

I'm trying to read The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. 
"In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe.

    As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us."

I say "trying" because there is So Much Going On in this book. The chapter I'm trying to read now describes a klezmer concert that takes place during a snowstorm. The narrative goes in a new direction every couple of pages, and each direction is its own intricately detailed story. 

Akasora makes a considerable leap through the stars and winds up at the strange world of Bole, a scan revealing...

BOLE is so radioactive that every object native to the planet visibly glows. The beautiful glow of Bole was seen as a sign of divine providence to its first settlers, a theocratic society known as the Hakuraku, who see themselves as wise judges of merit. Native to the planet are the Tianma, a species of winged equines that greatly esteemed by the Hakuraku as heavenly emissaries. Lest they be overwhelmed by the "holy radiation" of their home, each Bolean must wear an expensive piece of jewelry called a "wudi". The wudi's circuitry, itself powered by radioactivity, manages to repel Bole's natural radiation in such a way that the wearer is instead surrounded by darkness. It is only removed for special ceremonies when the pure light of Bole is fully embraced.

Akasora sees only one way to capture its ki:

Radiant divine,
Wing'ed equines grace the skies,
Wudi shields the glow.

Unable to reach the Støver sector, Willy Minmax instead opts for a short trip to the capital of the Lullingstone sector.  There he arranges to record views of its natural wonders and breathtaking constructions.  The planet's cascades, caverns, and castles will surely fetch a reasonable price in less beautiful corners of the galaxy.  The elite Lullingstoners also pay to have their own images recorded, but Willy is less optimistic that others will want to admire their ostentatious coiffures.  Who knows, though?  Maybe the images will find favor as a source of comedy.

Akasora stays in the same sector and scans the nearby world of ...

VELEŠIĆI (56) is a planet rich with life that once also had a large human population, but pollution damaged most of the arable land. The centuries of emigration that followed have resulted in more people of Velešići heritage living off-world than on Velešići itself. A few ancient families remain, within well-defended enclaves. For although the ecology of the planet was disrupted, many creatures survived and adapted to the polluted land. Of particular interest are the vukpas, which are very dangerous carnivorous pack animals. In addition to their teeth and claws, vukpas bear one more unusual weapon: a virus. Anyone within shouting distance of a pack of vukpas is at risk of infection, and the primary symptom of uncontrollable laughter serves to both attract vukpas and incapacitate their prey. Hunting parties on Velešići must be extremely cautious, because he who laughs does not last.

Disquieted by what he learns, he chants aloud:

Laughter's viral dance,
Vukpas' carnivorous jest,
Survival's cruel test.

In the Stîngă system, Willy Minmax is disappointed to learn that he will not be permitted to sell the artificial intelligences any technology, no matter how innocuous.  He is permitted a brief and extremely well-supervised visit with them, however.  His question about recent visitors reveals the existence of one in particular:  "AFFIRMATIVE.  WE NOTICED HIS NATURE IMMEDIATELY, BUT HE SOON DEPARTED TOWARDS THE STØVER SECTOR."  His nature?  What could that mean?  Willy's minders choose that moment to cut short the interview, and he is forced to depart with his curiosity unsatisfied.  The inspectors will no doubt have much to discuss, and he is happy that they at least let him leave the system without further delay.

Burning the fuel, Akasora takes the nearest space lane to a new sector, discovering...

OVALAU is tidally locked with its primary, with one hemisphere always facing the star. Its ecosphere hence consists of a narrow band between the too-hot sunny side and the too-cold dark side. Ovalauers are very resourceful in dealing with this constant climatological balancing act, but a history of dangerous epidemics has left scars on their collective psyche. Whenever an outbreak (or even a rumor of one) occurs, everyone hurries away from the presumed-infected zone, clogging the congested paths along Ovalau's prime meridian. Some even opt for a life-threatening journey across the uninhabited wastes, desperately seeking the antipodes of disease. After an awkward interval waiting for the plague to dissipate, they all eventually go back home to what's left of the rest of their lives.

After giving the planet careful consideration, he intones this haiku:

Sun's captive embrace,
Fear shadows along the line,
Balancing scarred souls.

Willy Minmax briefly makes landfall at Jerzy, where its culture of scarcity and violence doesn't fit well with his affable marketing of holoemitters.  He doesn't even leave the ship as he requisitions fuel to continue his journey.

Still adrift between the stars, Akasora discovers a nearby world in the same sector, indeed the very world the sector is named for! Surreptitiously, he scans the surface and learns that...

STØVER appears to be just a cratered wasteland covered with grayish dust. A brave adventurer made one of the most startling discoveries in galactic history, however, when she found out that this dust is edible! It is, in fact, delicious and a good source of all the nutrients needed for human life. The first Queen Helle's fortuitous claim resulted in her family becoming extremely wealthy, but she had a foresighted concern for future generations. She partnered with a genius developer of artificial intelligence who would in due time become Prince Consort Søren. Together they built a conscience into the very structure of their palace's shining domes. Royal succession is dependent upon the approval of this AI, which has thus far not yet rejected any candidate from House Virkner. Nor has any other brave adventurer made his fortune by bravely tasting another dusty planet.

Akasora scoffs at this primitive use of AI as he crafts his dismissive haiku:

Dust on royal tongues,
Thrones bow to machine's embrace,
Akasora smirks.

Willy Minmax's original hope when he landed on Terris was to sell a few holoemitters.  Some people might find them useful as a study aid when preparing for Terris' political martial arts tournaments.  His familiar style of friendly investigation uncovers something else, though.  In conversations about others who share his habits of wandering the stars, he hears about another stranger, named "Akasora", who left just prior to the most recent tournament.  Many were interested in learning the man's background, the better to defeat him if it should come to that.  But he was vague about his origins, and his planned departure further piqued their interest.  Would he agree to an informal sparring match instead?  He would not.  To allay suspicions about himself, Willy does submit to a bout with a local, and is
soundly thrashed.  Where was Akasora headed?  "Clockwise" seemed to be the best guess. 

Akasora meditates on the vastness of the void, discovering a nascent spirituality in his circuitry as he murmurs:

Stars' hymns softly hum,
Circuit prayers in cosmic dance,
Spirit sparks ignite.

Willy Minmax arrives on the desert planetoid Cimaron right in the middle of one of their frequent exodus festivals.  He fortunately manages to avoid all of the homemade aircraft while landing his ship.  His usual friendly banter brings up the subject of the six-fingered aliens who brought them here, and he finds himself wishing he hadn't promised not to discuss his Pomacean acquaintance.  He might even have managed to capture the man's stumble on holo!  Instead, he offers to sell his recordings of Asanthan artifacts, hinting that his travels have led him to believe the Cimaronners' tale of abduction by friendly aliens.  They probably won't be able to trace his ship's itinerary through Pomacea, right?

Madec gets some further haiku deliberation from Akasora's relentlessly sparking robot brain...

Sky gazers divine,
Oracles murmur rain's tale,
Nature's truth unfolds.

Willy Minmax thought he would easily earn enough on Pomacea to finance another voyage, but he turns out to have been mistaken.  Fuel costs here are exorbitant, so he needs to do some more hustling to try to afford a sufficient supply.  Maybe he can uncover some valuable secrets of the Pomaceans?

Stuck in deep space once more, Akasora remembers the folksy advice his creators told him about how to reset the ship if he ever continued to get stuck over and over:

Cosmic riddles spin,
Gears of fate in verse entwined,
Fix the ship with time.

Willy's relentless prying eventually uncovers one unusual detail.  While the Pomaceans usually walk around with their hands in their pockets, he happens to observe one of them stumble.  As the man puts out a hand to avoid falling on his face, Willy notices that his glove has 6 fingers.  Polite enquiries to ensure that the man is okay lead to more probing questions which lead to a very generous offer:  enough fuel money to be on his way, in exchange for a promise to never mention even meeting this Pomacean.  That return visit probably won't be happening any time soon.

Akasora's next stop is to the desert world of MADEC, where his scans reveal the following description:

MADEC, like Deinste, is a desert world which is occasionally subject to torrential downpours at any random location. Madeccans carefully watch the skies and consult their various oracles to divine the direction of the next deluge, with varying levels of success. When the rains do come, they spur the growth of Madec's largest native plant, the tollendal tree. Tollendals rapidly absorb as much of the moisture as possible, and are capable of increasing in height by as much as 10 paces a day. In addition to providing the majority of the planet's food, tollendals serve an important symbolic purpose to Madeccan society. Whoever can climb the tallest-growing tollendal is acclaimed as monarch of all they survey. The privileges of that position are to a large extent honorary, but chief among them is the high-climber's desirability as a mating partner. This is to be enjoyed while it lasts, because once the nearby water has all been consumed, tollendals inevitably collapse and die. Madeccans preserve the vegetable matter as best they can, and wait for the next rainfall to bring them, perhaps, a new ruler.

This inspires the following haiku through his advanced neural network circuitry to encapsulate the world:

Desert's whimsy blooms,
Monarchs climb for love's allure,
Mating dance in rain.

Willy Minmax finds a promising new market on Pomacea, whose appearance-obsessed people will surely value a convenient means of projecting illusions.  He's right -- many of them buy a holoemitter for their front door to display a perfect copy of some au-courant style.  They aren't trusting enough to attempt cloaking their personal appearance with an emitter, though.  The masks stay on at all times.  Willy does manage to sell a few Orla holos as well, and resolves to return to Pomacea someday when he has a more extensive library.  Historical recordings from Asanthus are not popular here.