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. Pug brought the stranger another stein of ale and
clunked it before him, the foamy head spilling over and
onto the table.
The stranger took a sip and cleared his throat. "I once
served that wretch-of-a-hobgoblin," he said. "And, yes, I
was there that day. . . ."
And so the stranger told a tale that, since then, has been
retold many times throughout Krynn.
*****
For many weeks Toede had been stewing in his somber
manor in the decrepit port city of Flotsam, grumbling about
how his subjects were not paying him the respect due to a
Dragon Highlord. "They don't pay their taxes, they desert
my army, they laugh behind my back!" he growled. Then
he would just sit slumped on his throne, his two pink eyes
squinting out of his flat, fleshy face as if he were hatching
some plot that would make everyone realize he was not to
be taken so lightly.
But all he did was put himself in a worse and worse mood.
If anyone crossed him during those weeks - if an attendant
so much as spilled something at the table - Toede fell into a
rage. More than one such fellow was tossed off the docks to
be eaten by sharks.
Naturally, his attendants were getting increasingly
nervous. Finally one of them, Groag - a fat hobgoblin like
Toede but who liked to dress in elegant, stylish robes and
wear large, bejeweled rings - tried to divert his master from
his self-pity
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