Lord Toede written by Jeff Grubb and published in 1994 is a Dragonlance novel. Lord Toede is part of the 'Villains' subseries which focuses on the villainous characters from the Chronicles, though it differs from most of them being set after the Dragonlance Chronicles rather than being a prequel.
Fewmaster Toede the cowardly and buffoonish hobgoblin recurring villain had been killed off offscreen during the events of the Chronicles and his actual death was depicted in the 1987 short story 'Lord Toede's Disastorous Hunt' by Harold Bakst. Grubb resurrected the hobgoblin both in and out of universe and led him through what may be the most offbeat of all the Dragonlance series.
The late Lord Toede finds himself brought back to life by two demons from the Abyss who are holding a running bet between themselves to see if a villainous person can also be noble. Finding himself back on Krynn with vague orders from the shadowy beings to "live nobly" Toede must deal with his old lackey and closest thing to a friend Groag, a tribe full of poetry-loving Kender, gnolls, scholars, a demonic steamroller, various human and not-so-human villains, becoming the deeply reluctant leader of rebellion and being falsely credited with writing a collection of Ogre erotic poetry...
As the above synopsis suggests it is very much played for laughs.
This novel provides examples of:
- Adaptational Intelligence: Lord Toede gains several points in Intelligence and Wisdom, allowing him to be the Only Sane Man in the story.
- Adaptational Personality Change: Lord Toede in the Dragonlance books is a sniveling moronic weasal. The one in this book is an erudite cunning Deadpan Snarker.
- Back from the Dead: Toede is resurrected no less than three times during the course of the story. Having only the very vaguest guess as to why this happening he can only marvel at what he sees as an elegant and ingenious method of torture.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: All of Toede's allies, including the "good" ones, betray him to death. Toede actually takes note of this.
- Cosmic Plaything: Literally the case as the entire plot is kicked off by Lord Toede being the subject of a bet between two demons who keep resurrecting him.
- Deadpan Snarker: Lord Toede's wit is exponentially higher than it was in the Dragonlance Chronicles books.
- Demon Lords and Archdevils: Subverted in that Toede is brought back by a pair of demons but they're Abishani, who are (almost) the lowest level of devil in Dungeons and Dragons.
- Dumbass No More: Toede is far cleverer in this book than in any previous appearance. While he does go through Character Development in the novel itself even at the start he is depicted as a savvy thinker and liar rather than the bumbling oaf he was in Dragons of Autumn Twilight.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After multiple deaths, countless betrayals, and being the Butt-Monkey of the book, Toede ends up Lord of Flotsam and presents his resume for a job in the Abyss after his next death.
- Expy:
Jeff Grubb confirmed that Lord Toede was made one for Blackadder. - Hulk Speak: The Gnolls Toede runs into speak Common with this kind of speech.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Most of the major villains including Gildentongue the draconian, Hopsloth and the Abbot of Misrule and Castellan of the Condemned are at least part reptilian.
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Toede hovers between this and a Villain Protagonist. He's thoroughly out for himself and has a real rotten streak but he is also the most cynically intelligent character in the story and painfully aware how bizarre the events and people around him are. The narration even describes him as "Our Protagonist" until the end where he becomes "Our Hero".
- What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: In-universe done when Toede finds out that a bunch of ancient Irda (ogre) pornography has been passed off as his metaphorical political writings.
- Wretched Hive: Flotsam is a particularly awful port town that deserves the kind of ruler that Toede is.
