The strangest tech to come out of Utah: July edition: On Utah's Dungeons & Dragons craze, metaverse-based summer camps for kids, and chocolate milk for adults.

• Author: Stone, Zara

WE'VE ALL HEARD THE PHRASE, Here be dragons," and let me break it to you: It didn't come from a George R.R. Martin book. Until recently, the Latin translation, "Hic sunt dracones," was rumored to have been inscribed on medieval maps, something that's now thoroughly debunked (the only historical inscription of the term was found on a lone globe from 1510).

Were it true,--or if a new map was scribed, it's fair to say the landlocked Beehive State might be worthy of a footnote thanks to its high propensity for dragons--Dungeons & Dragons, that is. Google search results indicate that Utahns play more D&D per capita than any other state (runners-up are Idaho and Oregon). There are echoes of this everywhere you look, from east Utah's Dragon ghost town to Pleasant Grove's Evermore, a fantasy-land amusement park that hosts an annual dragon lantern festival.

The state's dragon-related denizens include Tracy Hickman, best-selling author and co-creator of the Dragonlance series (which is referenced in multiple official D&D campaigns), and American Fork-based sci-fi supremo Brandon Sanderson of Dragonsteel Books and Dragonsteel Entertainment.

Utah's dense dragon landscape has birthed many spinoffs. Provo-based game developer Latitude launched their A.I. Dungeon scroller in 2019. The Void, a now-shuttered VR space in Pleasant Grove, featured immersive VR dungeon crawls co-designed by the aforementioned Tracy Hickman.

Sensing a theme? Before we get into the latest strange tech in Utah, it's time for this month's Two Truths and a Lie, the Utah Tech Edition--D&D themed, obviously. Of the following three D&D startups (narrowing it down was a challenging task, believe me), which is the fake one? (Scroll to the bottom for answers.)

* A startup that designs and sells reusable D&D dungeon scrolls with limitless terrain

* A startup that designs and sells D&D-themed playable tabletop NFTs

* A startup that designs and sells scented D&D peripherals to set the scene

DUNGEON MASTER UNIVERSITY: WHERE DM'S LEVEL UP THEIR GAME

As the D&D audience grows--an estimated 50 million people partook in 2021--demand for a dungeon master who knows their ogres from their ores (and has narrative flair) has exponentially increased. Enter Dungeon Master University (DMU), launched in March 2021 by Orem-based Dax Levine. Levine had offered his virtual dungeon master (DM) services for a few years, charging up to $500 for corporate clients. As interest ballooned, he realized there was a...