In the amusing and creepy 'The Cloud of Hate' (1963), the friends are desultorily debating why they are moneyless and homeless, Fafhrd boasting that it is due to their independence ('When we draw sword it is for ourselves alone'), the Mouser skewering his optimism, when they are attacked by four formidable thralls of an ectoplasmic cloud of hate ('human venom' empowered by religious fanaticism) that could 'shake the city and land of Lankhmar and the whole world of Nehwon.' 'Lean Times in Lankhmar' (1959) is a satirical, farcical, and perfectly plotted story that ambiguously plays with religion, friendship, and financial vs. As in the other volumes in the series, the 'blood brothers, tall and small,' engage in supernatural, loopy, and eerie adventures, maintain their spirits (and ours) with plenty of snarky banter, and fully command the stage fashioned by Leiber's baroque and poetic prose. Swords in the Mist (1968), the third entry in Fritz Leiber's set of sword and sorcery tales featuring the giant barbarian Fafhrd and his compact ex-slum-boy comrade in adventuring and thieving, the Gray Mouser, cobbles together four stories from the 1940s, 50s, and 60s in fix-up rather than publication order, along with two transition vignettes written for the collection. A Mixed Bag of Bantering, Stylish Sword & Sorcery

Swords in the Mist by Fritz Leiber