Fantasy book in which a joker wonders what's at the top of a stone column

Question

I read this fantasy book in the mid-90s. Please forgive me for the small amount of details.

I believe it was part of a series. I remember two scenes:

In one, the protagonists' group chooses to travel through "The Ways" (they might not be called this at all), ancient paths that will allow them to save time. These ways have long been abandoned and of course they are unsafe and full of peril. The scene I remember most clearly is that as they pass through one of these ways/paths/roads, one character in the group, who was a bit immature/childish, looked up at a large marble column that extended upwards into darkness, and he wonders what is at the top.

The other scene I remember is that of some powerful being who appeared to the group as a white haired - or possibly white robed - quirky old man (original, I know). He joins paths with them for a while. At some point he argues with a tree.

I remember these as serious fantasy (despite the comic relief of the above characters). They were part of my school's modest fantasy selection.

This is not any of these series (which were available at the same library):

• The Wheel of Time
• The Belgariad or The Malloreon
• Lord of the Rings
• The Winter of the World
• The Godwars

These scenes have been in my head for a long time and I would love to find the book again!

Answer 1

This is the first book of the Dragonlance Chronicles, Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.

Fizban, in reality a very powerful being masquerading as a doddering old mage, enters the scene arguing with a tree.

Tanis glanced up, puzzled at the change in routine. The other prisoners roused themselves and looked out the cage bars. They saw an old man, dressed in long robes that once might have been white and a battered, pointed hat. He appeared to be talking to a tree.
“I say, did you hear me?” The old man shook a worn walking stick at the oak. “I said move and I meant it! I was sitting on that rock”—he pointed to a boulder—“enjoying the rising sun on my old bones when you had the nerve to cast a shadow over it and chill me! Move this instant, I say!”

The tree did not respond. It also did not move.

While traversing "The Paths of the Dead", Tas (a small childlike 'Kender') encounters a tall pillar.

Following Caramon’s directions, they headed east, passing through two more sets of golden double doors, and came to a large circular room. A tall, slime-coated pedestal stood in the center—so tall not even Riverwind could see what, if anything, was on it. Tas stood beneath it, staring up at it wistfully.

“I tried to climb it last night,” he said—“but it was too slippery. I wonder what’s up there?”