During my time in the bootleg psychologist recordings trade in North Africa (primarily in Marrakesh and Cairo), I went my the moniker of "Hound". I used to operate mostly out of the Kikuho Rose sushi restaurant and massage parlour, under the Yamashiro Dragon Hotel. (The Kikuho Rose served what was admittedly the worst sushi I had ever eaten, and yet the best sushi in all of Marrakesh - it was a sad time for sushi in Africa in the late 80's). I had just made a deal and scored a block of bootleg psychologist sessions taped in the office of Dr Usurious Svengali. I had swapped them for a human arm in a gilded birdcage (a long story, trust me), and had them in a shoebox with "Live Mice" scrawled on the lid in black marker, along with a few small holes for the supposed mice to breathe.

So, I'm sitting there, dodging the sushi and drinking warm Japanese beer, when sho walks in, but Crothian. Of course, he didn't go by that name at the time, we all went by nicknames, not our given names. Just as he walks in from the outside door, Johnny the Knee steps in the back of the restaurant down the stairs from the Yamashiro Dragon. And I know, when Johnny the Knee turns up, trouble is afoot, and odds are I was going to get the short end of the trouble stick. So I hop up, bolt over to the main door, and barrel through grabbing Crothian by an arm, and the top of the shoebox falls off. I somehow manage to manhandle Crothian up the shallow steps and onto the street. As we turn the corner, I hear Johnny the Knee coming up the stairs behind us, so I shove the box of tapes into Crothian's hands and bolt down a side alley. He looks down, looks at my back, and all I hear is "Hell, Hound..." and then I was gone.

So, when I found out he was on ENWorld as the ultimate lurker, I joined the board too, just to say Hi again after all these years. And I had to pick a user name, so I picked one he would probably recognize, the last words I heard him say to me back in Africa.