Hello! Welcome to the fifteenth installment of Son of Thunder!

Well... we actually pulled it off! The Forte 20th Anniversary gathering, that is!

Yes, Aaron, Mike, Jeff, Adam, Randy, Jim and myself got together in Seattle, birthplace of Forte, to celebrate our getting together some twenty years ago! And I'm going to tell you a little about it - very little.

Because, let's face it - we all know Mike is going to do a really detailed piece that will be funnier, more informative, and just plain better than this one. I've contributed about two dozen photos (mine have the weird captions - don't blame Mike) to Mike's site and a couple of paragraphs and details to Mike's con game write up - because Mike does such a good job mine's going to be superfluous.

However.

All that being said, I am going to try and write up my impressions of the gathering. Just wouldn't be a con without several different viewpoints, eh?

I flew in on Thursday, primarily because I was coming from the Midwest and one teensy thunderstorm could have ruined the weekend. See, many of the subsequent flights were sold out, too, so if mine didn't take off for some reason there really weren't a whole lot of options. And I was not about to miss this!

As it turned out, what with flight delays and getting baggage and all, by the time I actually caught a bus out to the hotel it was pretty late in the afternoon. Aaron and his lovely wife Jeni and I got together and had dinner near the hotel, then we hung out and picked up Jeff a few hours later.

That doesn't sound like much, but remember, we hadn't really seen each other much over the past couple of years. We had plenty to talk about!

The next day, Friday, the rest of the guys came into town. We picked them up, and headed over to Aaron's for hot dogs, burgers, and brats. And we talked all day and all evening, catching up with each other's lives.

Truth to tell, I was beginning to sense a palpable sense of excitement toward the upcoming game, and that worried me a bit. I hadn't GM'd for years, I was not as familiar with all the characters as I could have been, and I could not find my dice, map and figures that I had set aside for the game. The guys came through on that last part, but I was really hoping I'd come through on the other stuff.

Saturday morning we went downtown, to Pike's Place Market (visit holmquisthazelnuts.com - great lemon and orange hazelnuts!), and then walked down to the Underground Seattle Tour. Since it was sold out for a few hours, we went over to a nearby BBQ restaurant and sat down for a spell. Had a Curve Ball - good beer (yes, I had my semi-annual beer).

The Underground was really pretty cool. I had been there once, at least fifteen years ago, and I felt something was... wrong. We were coming outside and then reentering across the street. When I asked the tour guide she said, yes, the tour had been changed, since they had lost rights to go under some buildings. And you guys say I have a lousy memory!

Okay, I do have a lousy memory. Sometimes.

We found the Post-Intelligencer Buiding along the waterfront. Heck, we even found the original "Unusual Bookstore" - I had picked out the Seattle Mystery Bookstore nearly two decades ago, but it was still there!

Then, we went back to Aaron's house for... the GAME, Elwood! The GAME!

Uh, not before stopping off at Jack-in-the-Box. What can I say? I LOVE Jack-in-the-Box.

The game was titled "Forte Forever", and since I brought the guys in one at a time, it kind of did last that long. We went until three in the morning (Randy: "Next time let's start the game at noon, okay?") and ate a wide variety of snacks (including some salmon Jim bought - awesome!) and incidently saved the world. Everyone seemed to enjoy the game (less yapping, more pulping!), I remembered all the heroes' abilities (I gamed with them every week for years, for Pete's sake), I had every one of the heroes face villains specific to them, even the heroes who came long after I left (it's Cauldron? Wait a minute - ) and the players acted pretty much as expected - all in all a great game.

And if you want to find out more go read Mike's write-up. Okay, so I put a little into it too. At any rate, it's the write-up for the game and it's a fun read.

Sunday, as you can imagine, many of us slept late. Some longer that others (AhemJimandAdamcough). We all went down to the Space Needle (or should I say, went up in the Space Needle) and wandered around Seattle Center afterward. What can I say, being where Dr. Jackal got knocked off the Space Needle was a dream come true (the Mist probably got knocked off the Space Needle too, but she can fly, so it kind of loses some panache).

We all went to the movies later in the afternoon, and like true comic book fans, chose "Transformers". I liked it. Big frickin' robots beating the tar our of each other. What's not to like?

The time had come for our good-byes, and the Sacramento crew went to the airport while Aaron and Jeni went home.

Jeff and I went to Black Angus for dinner, then went over to the airport. Big lines through security, so big that Jeff and I started in different terminals and ended up in the same line, because it was the only one that was open. Okay-y-y. Didn't matter too much to us, since we were there a few hours early (Aaron and Jeni needing SOME sleep!) but lots of other people were more than a little surprised.

Then we both said our final goodbyes, took redeyes home, and that, as they say, was that.

Okay, honestly, that was what happened, but not what I felt.

You have to understand - I gamed every week with these guys. And I hadn't seen them in years! What do you think I was feeling?

I'll tell you - I was happier than I'd been in a long, long time! Good friends, good times - it was like nothing had changed at all! I was so damn glad to be with them, if only for a weekend.

Kudos to Mike for his constant beating the bushes to drum us all up, and to Aaron and Jeni for hosting us, and to all the rest of the guys for showing up and still being you!

And I'm putting out the word, volunteering here and now - whenever it is, our next meeting is going to be in Chicago! My place! Woo!

Thanks for a GREAT weekend, guys!

Well, I guess that leaves this issue...

Well, last time Americana had reverted to Astrea Starr, was alone in a burning forest... except for a lone gunman... who shot her.

I guess that's it. From the Ashes.

Artwork

Guess what? That's right, more Americana artwork keeps trickling in - hopefully including one drawn by my favorite artist, Fred Hembeck! Check it out in Americana's Art Gallery #16!

Next time

Okay, time I got started on The Last Hornet Story.

Geez, I am getting used to these "last stories", it seems.

And by the time your read this the Cubs could be in the World Series!

Probably not, but...

Go Cubs Go! Go Cubs Go-o-o! Hey Chicago whaddaya say, Cubs are gonna win today!

K.C.