There came a wanderer #1: Well, that was unexpected!

Readers staying alert to my sidebar contents- Recently played games and Friends in particular; and remembering this post from last February (not forgetting some of my recent fB activity and tweetage); some or all of those readers might already've guessed something has been afoot. And they'd've been right: noted US games designer and author Keith Baker's Have Dice, Will Travel arrived chez yours truly last Thursday, for the first leg of Keith's Scottish tour. (For the unitiated: Gloom was designed by Keith; gloomforge is his LiveJournal; and Unpublished Prototype? - well, more on this Big Secret in due course.)

I must confess I had pretty much given up on the whole thing myself; I hadn't heard from Keith before Andy and I headed south for the Expo, so I just assumed that he'd received more appealing invitations. Moreover, what with beery late nights, long lies, and a busy tournament schedule, it was largely a matter of luck that I happened upon Keith at the D&D booth during Saturday afternoon's expedition into the depths of the Expo. On top of all that, the clean-shaven Keith I met that afternoon was different, in that discomfiting way with which I'm sure many readers will be quite familiar, from the bearded self (above left) I've come to know @fB.

A tad each then of frazzled and nonplussed- amounting between them to somewhat fracked; my last expectation as we shook hands was that Keith would ask me if I was OK with his visit, about which he'd emailed me after Andy and I had already left, naturally enough. I granted Keith's wishes with alacrity, I can assure you!

Keith's ordeal began 5 days later, with Irn Bru and curries... ;)

PS. This post takes to 65 2009's postcount here at RD/KA!; making this already my best year's blogging since I set off at a gallop in August 2005. You can imagine, dear readers, that your humble scribe is very pleased at the events of the past week and a half. :0)

Related@RD/KA!
- Epic adventure!
- There came a wanderer #2: Return to Eberron
- There came a wanderer #3: Dining out and gaming on!
- There came a wanderer #4: the wind-down and the send-off