The absurdity of the killer fog smoke from the Temple of Hate
The Temple of Hate in the story "The Cloud of Hate" is a powerful underground entity consisting of thousands of worshippers. During the sermons, the evil masked priests from the underground temple command a killer smoke to interact with the city's smog to kill and take people's minds. Therefore, the Temple of Hate never misses its targets. When the masked priests summon the fog, it kills an innocent girl and takes away the minds of armed criminals in the street. Paradoxically, Fafhrd and Gray Mouser use their inner power to save the city's people by defeating the killer fog. The fog was targeted at them, but on the contrary, they tolerated it.
The irony of Gray Mouser
Gray Mouser and Fafhrd are great friends and partners, as introduced in “The Cloud of Hate.” One principle that defines these two friends is honesty. During the economic slowdown in the story “Learn Times in Lankhmar,” they decide to suspend their business partnership but promise each other to continue doing other works diligently and honestly. Fafhrd joins Bwadres, an honest follower of the god of peace cult, and helps him to attract more followers with time. Ironically, Mouser does the contrary when he joins a racketeer as a lieutenant who forces all the religious groupings in the Streets of God to pay him protection fees. Mouser gets a lot of money, which he spends, on entertaining prostitutes and living a reckless life, which contradicts his principle of honesty and serving with integrity.
Fafhrd and Mouser’s expectations of having sex with the slender fish girls
One of the interesting moments captured in the story “When the Sea-King Way” is when Grey Mouser and Fafhrd’s expectation to have sex with the slender fish girls in the King’s palace in the sea is thwarted. Initially, these two heroes think that the only difficult task to tackle while getting into the King's palace is walking over dangerous creatures. Paradoxically, after arriving at the palace, they are confronted with the new reality of fighting with terrible monsters and the animated corpses of the sailors who use misty swords. Sadly, the opponents defeat Mouser and Fafhrd, and they flee when the water starts calming without achieving their objective of having sex with the girls as they had anticipated.
