From Fewmaster with delusions of grandeur to noble lord of Flotsam, let’s learn more about Toede. Buy Age of Mortals: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/557/Age-of-Mortals-35?affiliate_id=50797
Transcript
Cold Open
From Fewmaster to Immortal, Toede is one bad HobGob.
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to talk about Lord Toede. I would like to take a moment and thank the members of this channel, and invite you to consider becoming a member by visiting the link in the description below. You can even pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate links. I am referencing the original DL modules, the Age of Mortals sourcebook and the novel Lord Toede for this information. If I leave anything out or misspeak, please leave a comment below!
Discussion
One might rightly ask why anyone would look kindly on Toede. His life is one of bitter survivalism and cowardice. He would just as likely turn on his own men than stand and fight the enemy. How then could there be any redeeming qualities for this nefarious hobgoblin? Besides being the most long lived, in every sense of the word, villain in the Dragonlance Saga, he has proved time and time again to be the very personification of the second Law of Consequence, Evil Feeds Upon Itself. Understand that you have no obligation to respect the tenacity of this hob of all hob’s, but seeing as he was the first evil leader we were introduced to in Dragons of Autumn Twilight, and he is still out there thriving as the Lord of Flotsam with a resume submitted to Judith the hell-maider, and Keeper of the Peace in the Abyss for Takhisis, on the off chance he manages to stay dead the next time he is killed, I would say he is pretty damned (I could’ve stopped there) impressive.
Toede outlived Dragon Highlord after Dragon Highlord, then Dragon Overlord after Dragon Overlord. He has foiled many heroes’ plans, to their utter dismay and disbelief, been burned to death, eaten alive and run over, and that’s just the beginning of it! But he keeps coming back. You may rightly blame denizens of the Abyss for this, and I won’t fault you, but it was Toede that it happened to, no one else. So let’s stop pretending there isn’t anything humorous and entertaining about this creature and get to know Toede through all his faults and foibles.
Toede is a hobgoblin, but not the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition war leader looking hobgoblin, no. Toede isn’t even the samurai styled hobgoblin from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition from whence he came. Toede is more like, well, an anthropomorphic toad, you know, a frog that walks upright. But his appearance aside, he was born into a small hobgoblin tribe in Abanasinia. His mother ruled the tribe and this reality is possibly what gave him his overblown and undeserved confidence. Toede was bright, industrious, eager and cunning and though many rivals tried to have him killed off, Toede was always one step ahead. He is truly bright for a hobgob.
The Dragonarmy swept across Ansalon early in the War of the Lance, and came across his tribe. The Dragonarmy demanded subjugation and as his mother knew the tribe would end up as cannon fodder if they joined the army, and Toede could spot an opportunity a mile away, he chose to murder his own mother and pledged loyalty to the Dragonarmy in exchange for a position of leadership. See what I meant by ambitious? He was granted the leadership role of Fewmaster and attached to the Red Dragon Army under the Dragon Highlord Verminaard. Fewmaster Toede’s initial role was to find the Blue Crystal Staff, and as the Dragonarmy used the Seekers to control the population of Abanasinia, they operated in open defiance of the Seekers’ promises to the population. By the time it was realized that the Disks of Mishakal were stolen from the Black Dragon Khisanth in Xak Tsaroth, Toede was reassigned to collecting slaves for the mines in Pax Tharkas.
Now, I don’t know if any of you have ever tried to have your party surrender to any group no matter how menacing, I have never been successful, with my players always choosing to fight to the death rather than live to fight another day. But Fewmaster Toede not only was wildly successful in capturing heroes, he captured the Heroes of the Lance! Of course, it was temporary, but I think we can justifiably blame that all on the Gully Dwarf and future King of Pax Tharkas Sestun, after all, Fewmaster Toede did. But heroes would go on to do what heroes do, and defeat the Highlord Verminaard, so Toede would be resigned as the Highmaster or military Governor of Flotsam over a black dragon wing. This was entirely unfair according to Highmaster Toede as he didn’t command the respect or military action other Highlords did. And when those Heroes of the Lance came through Flotsam, Toede was sure to keep his distance. After all, he did have a lot on his plate as the ruler of Flotsam. He couldn’t be expected to turn his attention to those pesky heroes could he?
There was a brief time when Highmaster Toede was called to serve as the temporary Highlord of the White Dragonarmy, but his cowardice in battle saw him returned to Flotsam in a role it seems he was destined to fulfill. Highmaster Toede decided to engage in a Kender hunt, though it did not go quite as planned. The Kender, Kronin Thistleknot, woke a Green Dragon who summarily ended Toede’s life. Normally this is where I would give a proper wrap up for the character, but the Abbot of Misrule and the Castellan of the Condemned, two Abishai in the Abyss, made a bet about nobility. This led to Toede’s resurrection, the first of many, and subsequent capture by Kronin Thistleknott’s daughter, Taywin Kroninsdau. Toede misheard her introduction and never bothered to correct himself. From here the story gets even more absurd. Intent on reclaiming his post in Flotsam he returns and ends up killing his former henchman Gildentongue an Aurak Draconian and when he confronts his former Amphi Dragon mount Hopsloth, Hopsloth eats him.
Returning to the Abyss, the devil’s realize their mistake, which was the wording of the bet, not of course using Toede for the bet, so they return him to life yet again. This time Toede wanted nothing to do with Flotsam, he rescues a Gnoll and comes across archeologists studying ancient Irda ruins. This leads Toede to being trapped in an ancient temple erected to contain a Juggernaught, and Abyssal fiend. Upon making a deal with said fiend, Toede helps him escape and enact revenge on Hopsloth. Jugger’ ended up killing Hopsloth and Toede was the unfortunate collateral damage of the incident. This returned his soul once more unto the breach as it were, and was once more returned to life with a raising of the original bet’s stakes, again.
This time, Toede’s one-time lackey Groag, another hobgoblin, had taken control of Flotsam in Toede’s name. The archeologists realized that the Irda runes were actually Irda pornography and published the collection under Toede’s name which was seen as a metaphor for political revolution. Yea, seriously, and with newfound popularity, Toede led a revolution of Gnolls, Kender and undead to overthrow Groag and return power to Toede, but by this time, Judyth, the aforementioned Hell-maiden, had had enough of the Abishai’s shenanigans. She appeared and put a stop to the battle, and after everyone’s insistence that Toede was actually noble, she allowed him to continue living and take command of Flotsam once more.
Though Toede was killed many more times, he was always restored to life, and as his body aged, he became obsessed looking for rejuvenation and healing of his aging body. His version of his own history is infinitely more glorifying and grandiose, and perhaps that’s the way we should see this vile and noble creature. As the narrative juxtaposition that he is. So I take my hat off to our protagonist and hero, Lord Toede the Wise, Saint Toede the Protector, Master of All Noble.
Outro
And that is all I have to say about Toede. Do you think he was as instrumental in introducing Raistlin to Fizban as he insists? Would you read the Irda pornography that was published under Toede’s name? And finally, how bad of a character can you actually be when you are equally as funny? Leave a comment below.
I would like to take a moment and remind you to subscribe to this YouTube channel, ring the bell to get notified about upcoming videos and click the like button. This all goes to help other Dragonlance fans learn about this channel and its content. Thank you for watching, this has been Adam with DragonLance Saga and until next time, remember:
Now is not the time to go delirious on me.
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