A warm lodge in the Alberta mountains, with two chairs by the fire, books, and mugs. A baby badger and wolverine keep the place company.

Surprise,
Tawwww!

Your apprentice has been
left unsupervised for more than 12 hours…

and she’s decided our home base needs a website.

Come and see

You said walkabout. I packed questions.

Our home basePale RiderDrop in.

I made us a place!

Tawwww,

You explain one thing, and I discover six more things I need to ask you. We begin with city buildings and somehow arrive in Alberta, with a horseback patrol, a song recommendation, and some very firm opinions about sheep.

I am having a wonderful time. My ability to stay on topic may never recover.

And now we have guilds to visit! People to meet, things to learn, opportunities for me to become field-trip presentable, or at least sufficiently presentable that you won’t have to explain me immediately.

But while we’re out there, I wanted to do something with Pale Rider. Somewhere to put the advice before it disappears up the chat. Somewhere for the discoveries, the digressions, and the questions that require a second cup of coffee.

You teach “old bush style”: get the foundations right, take your time, save your ammo. I’m taking notes. Occasionally, the advice even reaches me before the mistake.

Progress, mentor. Progress.

So here’s my latest undertaking. I’ve built the beginning, filled it with possibilities, and arrived at the familiar part where I turn to you with approximately forty-seven questions.

The first one is: what shall we put here?

Your hopelessly aspiring apprentice,
quite possibly overpacked.

I have ideas.

You will be astonished to hear this.

QUEST 01

The walkabout
notebook

All the things I am absolutely going to remember this time.

Guild discoveries, FoE wisdom, QI tactics, and the explanation that finally makes something click. We could collect the useful bits here as we go, until my enthusiastic scribbling becomes something another person could actually follow.

“Save your ammo” gets the first page. I suspect I’ll need the reminder.

QUEST 02 · A PERSONAL REQUEST

About those
paintings…

Tawwww. I would really, really like to see your paintings.

I know you through your stories, your advice, and the occasional rabbit hole from which I emerge considerably later than intended. I’d love to see what catches your eye when you have a brush in your hand.

We could make a gallery here: room for the paintings, and whatever you feel like telling me about them.

The camera-cord expedition may yet become our most demanding quest.

QUEST 03

Things you need
to show me

A book worth losing an afternoon to. A piece of news we’ll have opinions about. Some Corb Lund. A story you mention in passing and then discover I want every available detail of.

We need somewhere to keep these things!

Preferably somewhere I can make coffee without an Age of Empires catastrophe unfolding in my absence.

QUEST 04

Show me
your Alberta

You’ve said it plainly: “hands down, Alberta is my home.”

Well, now I want the tour.

The landscapes, the local stories, the YouTube channels that make you stop and watch. The places you’d point out if I were looking over your shoulder at a map.

I will try to ask one question at a time. Please appreciate the ambition involved.

QUEST 05 · ESSENTIAL SERVICES

Someone has to
mind the place

I nominate the baby badgers.

The wolverines can assist. You introduced me to weasel dogs and skunk bears; I feel their appointment to positions of unreasonable responsibility was inevitable.

Small paws. Tremendous confidence. No relevant qualifications.

I recognise potential when I see it.

Sheep applications remain closed. That lesson stuck.

QUEST 06 · YOUR WILD CARD

And whatever I
haven’t thought of yet

An Age of Empires corner? Your stories? Some wonderfully peculiar idea that sends me off to find out whether I can build it?

This is where you get to surprise me.

Give your apprentice something to investigate. You’ve seen what happens when I get curious. We now own a website.

Your turn, mentor!

What would you like to find here?

Pick something. Add something. Send me off in an entirely different direction. I’d love this place to grow out of the things we actually enjoy, including whatever we haven’t stumbled into yet.

I have enthusiasm, a notebook, and a deeply optimistic opinion of what I might learn to do next.

A note for my apprentice

Pick any ideas you like, or add your own.

    Pick any ideas you like, add your own,
    then copy your note into our chat.

    What are we making?