Join me as I review Heroes and Fools edited by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman live! Share your thoughts on this second Tales of the Fifth Age anthology, released by Wizards of the Coast on July 1, 1999. You can buy a copy here: https://amzn.to/3LAVI2M 

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About Heroes and Fools

A submarine trip to an island of ghosts. A band of fugitive actors. A deadly draconian who has had too much holiday punch. And veritable onslaught of dryads, shadow wights, and that rarest of all monsters, the dread forest boojum.

Also, from the team of Margaret Weis and Don Perrin, the latest adventure of Kang and his wayward troop of draconians.

In the proud tradition of the best-selling Dragonlance anthologies, Heroes and Fools promises a sometimes heroic — sometimes foolish — visit to the world of Krynn.

Review

Boojum, Boojum by Janet Pack

• Khedriss Mennarling, Dark Knight Strikeforce Commander


• Thrane Gunnar, Dark Knight Second in Command


• Thistleknot Tangletoe, kender


• Drethon, Dark Knight


• Relthas, female Dark Knight


• Lord Dulthan, Knight of Solamnia


• A. Diddlethompermarium, Gnome Inventor Extraordinaire


• Death Machine, cannon, Popcorn Popper patent pending

This was a fun way to start the anthology. We are introduced by a squad of Dark Knights led by Commander Khedriss Mennarling. They are needing to test out their new Death Machine, a cannon, and hear about a local monster called the Boojum from a drunk Thistleknot Tangletoe, the kender. A local in their ranks, Realthas, confirms this monster is a tale that is supposedly living in the area. The Dark Knights take the kender with his maps and search for the creature to test their Death machine on. They get to where it should live and are confronted with the Boojum which is really the Solamnic Knight friend of the kender’s in disguise. He eventually steps down after seeing the damage the cannon does and confronts them to fight. That is when the real Boojum approaches and starts taunting them and killing them one at a time, even destroying the cannon’s wheel. Some Dark Knights run off, as the Boojum faces off against the Solamnic Knight, and the Dark Knights try to fire the cannon one last time. It explodes, killing most of th eKnights, and seemingly the Solamnic as well, which Thistleknott cries over, only to discover the Boojum is working with the Solamnic, and they are acting. Then they go to investigate the cannon and discover that it’s a patent pending popcorn popper made by a gnome. This was a great new story featuring the kender and knight team, and an interesting idea that a seemingly innocuous gnome invention could end up being an actual war machine like a cannon. You know if they meant to make a cannon the end result would’ve been the same as well.

Tree of Life by Miranda Horner

This was an oddly intimate tale of a dying dryad and a dying Knight of Takhisis. The dryad’s tree was dying due to the intense heat of the summer, and it wasn’t getting any needed rain, which in turn meant that the tree’s dryad was dying and her movement away from the tree was severely restricted. Then a Dark Knight and his blue dragon crashed near the tree. The knight eventually came to and asked for help, which the dryad couldn’t give, but the dryad asked for some of the water the knight had. He was pinned under his dead dragon. They spoke of honor and honesty and the cycle of life, and the dark knight gave her little capfulls of water which she summarily emptied onto the exposed root of her tree. In the end she pleaded for the water but the knight refused, however the knight finally accepted that he would die here as well and the water wouldn’t save him. So after the dryad passed out near death, the knight emptied his waterskin which gave the tree enough strength to fight for survival, reviving the dryad who reflected on the knight’s last gift. This is such a great reminder of our place as human animals amid nature. Through our DNA we are connected to every living thing from plants to animals on this planet, yet we act as though we are separate from it all, witnessing it as if our actions have no impact on nature. Even when we are told that our actions have caused the sixth mass extinction, we take no meaningful action to prevent further death and destruction to the only place in this universe we know that we can live. I hope that our species will follow the dark knight’s actions in this tale, for when we go extinct ourselves, we do what we can to ensure other life will continue.

Songsayer by Giles Custer and Todd Fahnestock

• Dayn Songsayer, bard


• Jayna, local woman


• Shani, soup seller


• Sir Kresean Myrk Saxus, hero


• Chandael, 


• Cessa, 

This story is about a bard named Dayn who is traveling the land, singing for his supper. He comes across a town which migrates to a temple of Paladine every year for berries and blessings. This year a young woman’s son stole berries before they were supposed to, and while the bard was singing for his supper, a mob began to form when the mother of the boy admonished the priests for trying to discipline the boy, as they haven’t healed or done anything for the people since the Chaos War. The mob started moving to the priests when the bard stepped in and tried to sing of the Heroes of the Lance to pacify the crowd, it only turned the mob against him. He was saved by a large warrior who rode them to safety. He told the bard to sing of current heroes, not past wars and events. Lift up spirits with modern tales of heroism. He told the bard he was en route to kill a dragon and the bard could accompany him. In truth th eman was going to kill a large lizard that was killing the farmer’s sheep, and used a poison pig and rockslide to kill it rather than fighting it, but when the bard questioned him about it, the warrior spoke of fighting smart not harder. On the way back he convinced the bard that people needed these embellished stories to lift their spirits and the bard came around and agreed. They were welcomed as heroes at supper when the song was sung of their victory over the dragon, and the duo decided to work together as they traveled across Ansalon. I like the story, we do need distractions in tumultuous times, I think that is why I am burying my head in these pulp fantasy novels, to distract myself from the current state of my country and the economy. But you know what, it works most of the time, and I appreciate the distraction.

Gnomebody by Jeff Grubb

• Augie, sellsword, personal guard of Verminaard


• Brack, sellswor, lieutenant of green dragonarmy

This is a story about two sellswords who were former dragonarmy soldiers. One is telling the other a gnome story about the gnome Rumtuggle. The truth is, Rumtuggle was a made up gnome to explain random mishaps and theft in the green dragonarmy, but once the gnome was invented he took on a life of his own. Gnomes from nearby communities have learned of this Rumtuggle and since he wasn’t in their community, they believed the Green Dragon army must have him captive. They demanded his release, and since the gnome didn’t exist, they couldn’t release him. So the gnomes stole their cattle. This caused a massive supply problem and when the gnomes continued to refuse to give the cattle back until Rumtuggle was released, the soldier said he killed Rumtuggle. This led to the gnomes catapulting the cattle back one at a time. Now the Dragonarmy sent a new highlord to the camp to deal with this gnomish threat and they ended up fighting in the rain and fog, against themselves. They ended up believing it was gnomish sorcery that turned them against themselves, and the soldier who made it all up, quit the post. It was a really fun tale about a story taking on a life of its own and everyone willing to believe it, no matter how absurd it was. When I was in high school, I had a friend convince me that he gave me drugs when really he didn’t. I truly felt like I was high, and it was all the power of my mind, convincing me of it. I learned then the power of our imagination, and because of that, I could actually see this story happening. It was great!

The Road home by Nancy Varian Berberick

• Griff Rees, Griff Red Hand, Killer Griff


• Broc, narrator, dwarf of darken wood


• Olwynn Haugh, woman


• Cae, Olqynn’s daughter


• Ash Guth, murderer, Egil Adare, 

Whoa. This was a brutal tale. It’s about a n assassin named Griff Rees, who began his career after a man murdered his family and took him into the service of the Dark Queen before the Chaos War. Now a hired assassin renowned across the land, he is hiring a dwarf named Broc to help him with a job. They are both approached by a young woman named Olwynn Haugh who needs a guard to Haven. They refuse as they have a job already then she shows them the money and jewels and memory strikes Griff. He immediately accepts the job and they go the following day. They are traveling past Prayers Eye Peak and a band of men and goblins attack. They fight their way through and go into Darken Wood. There they stay for a night when they are discovered again, and fight the bandits off, except Olwynn dies. It turns out Olwynn is the daughter of the man that killed Griff’s family, and Olw