#szass tam

[thyeternalhunger]

*drops liches in your dash*

[writeious-hand]

Holding Out for a Hero: Part 1

"Fine, I'll do it myself"

After watching the D&D movie yesterday, I have had *brain rot* for Xenk Yendar. And no fic has been posted. I want romance. And you know what they say - If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. Probably will be multiple parts if the writing bug bites again.

Please be kind, I haven't published fanfic in years, and never on Tumblr.

After defeating Sofina and saving Neverwinter from the Wizards of Thay, the Thieves did try to lead a normal life.

Honestly.

However, it wasn't a surprise when on more than one occasion, Thay assassins showed up to try and kill them. So often in fact, that they had to constantly travel in order to stay ahead of their hunters, who would reanimate within hours of being killed, no matter how bloody Holga or Doric made the scene. They had made an enemy of Szass Tam after all, and he was not the forgiving sort.

Finding a letter on the corpse of their last assassin (they had taken to "liberating" all of their would-be killers' belongings before they were able to revive, as it really delayed the next time they would meet) showed that the tide of undead assassins would not be slowing any time soon. By order of Szass Tam, they were to be killed in the most painful ways imaginable with a mighty prize to whoever was successful.

So Edgin and the troop once again tracked down the illustrious Xenk Yendar to find a way to put the assassins in the ground, permanently. You couldn't always count on an overfed dragon to do the job for you.

"What do you mean, a cleric? Clerics are healers!"

Xenk turned to face Edgin. "Clerics are the holy warriors of the gods. They can use the light to perform miracles, yes, but they also can harness the gifts they have been given against the undead in ways unparalleled by even the mightiest warrior or wizard."

"For the record," Simon spoke up from behind Edgin, "I also thought they just stayed in their temples healing people. So do we just stay at one until they catch up with us again?"

While it would offer the party safety, as temples are normally built or given hallowed ground and no undead can step foot there, it was decided (mainly by Edgin) that they would have to set a trap if they wanted these assassins gone for good. And they would need a cleric. The only connection they had to a holy order was the Emerald Enclave, who supposedly had dealings in the past with a traveling cleric.

There had been a small faction of the Church of Eternal Winter which had frozen a swath of land in their forest. This cleric had come through and removed the taint of Auril and in return was given a seedling of their largest oak tree and a promise of a place to rest whenever they passed through the area. According to Doric, the cleric was an elf, though she didn't know which god she was in service to. The last time they had passed through was before Doric was born.

Their journey brought them to Loudwater, the city of grottos. In searching and questioning in the section of the city populated by elves, they did not receive a warm welcome. Asking around at the many temples of Lathander and other woodland gods, there were no clerics who traveled or were willing to leave on such a dangerous quest. The party upon exiting was stopped by an orcish man.

"Sounds like Lyra. Why are you looking for her anyway?" He looked the party up and down with suspicion. "She hasn't done anything wrong."

Edgin served his role as face of the party. "No, of course not, it's just that-"

"We heard she can kill our enemies."

"HOLGA!"

After the misunderstanding was cleared, the orc who introduced himself as Zedroar Brittlebone brought them out to the Forestview Gate and into the town of tents and other less permanent structures where the orcs who labored in the fields had lived for a long time.

"Lyra's been here for a while now, keeps saying she'll leave soon but always finds a reason to stay. Says there are stories left to be told but I think she'll just miss us."

As they passed through the camp they could see the relaxed atmosphere of the community that had been built. Ahead on the path, there was a whole crowd of children orcish, human, and a few mixed in of other races and combinations. They were all sitting around on blankets or each other, listening to a woman tell a story.

"And the mighty warrior let out a fierce roar, saying You'll never get her, fiend!" The children squealed with excitement and laughed at her attempt at a deep heroic voice. She was elven, most likely a sun-elf with her golden complexion. At the sight of her, Xenk began slowly backtracking but was caught by Edgin.

"What are you doing?"

"I never should have come here." His eyes never left her.

"What are you talking about? Do you know her?"

Xenk was able to pull his eyes away, and look into Edgin's soul. "If she sees me with you, she will never agree to help."

"Now wait just a minute."

"It is high time for me to return to Mornbyrn's Shield"

"You are afraid of her." Edgin knew he was right, when Xenk stopped struggling to get away.

"i am not afraid," Now Xenk wouldn't look him in the eye, "I just don't wish to reopen old wounds."

"Come on, man. We need both of you if this is going to work. Take it from someone who has had to deal with their past catching up to them almost constantly for the past few years. The only way to get closure, for whatever happened, is to face it head-on." Edgin reached a hand to where Xenk had taken cover behind one of the wooden buildings. "I'm sure she's probably forgotten about it, since you both have been around for a long time."

Approaching the group, their other companions turned to face them.

"Where were you guys?" Holga looked them both up and down suspiciously.

"Good news," Simon smiled, "Lyra agreed to help us, right?"

The elven woman turned around from gathering her things and saying goodbye to some of the children. The casual smile on her face fell as she locked eyes with the paladin.

"Xenk"

"Alariel"

[dreamlandcreations]

[fantastictalesofadventure]

𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐇𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐥𝐥!

Be sure to check out the 'Fantastic Tales of Adventure' YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/fantastictalesofadventure!

[legendl0re]

Szass Tam, Zulkir of Necromancy & the Lich Regent of Thay

His video is up on our YT now! Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubN1I9b1aDQ&t=267s

[nichetheorist]

Szass Tam: Doff your cowl. You needn’t hide your sigils from me.

Sofina: I’d rather be flensed and flawed than spend another hour with Forge Fitzwilliam.

Szass Tam: The man is insufferable.

-“Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves”

[adurna0-art]

I simply think Szass Tam is pretty neat 🥀

[yodaarchives]

LEGO Dungeons and Dragons: Szass Tam

This is Zsass Tam, red Wizard of Thay. He is a necromancer. He is one of the named characters of the D&D Mini figures set. The others are Tasha Witch Queen, The lady of Pain, and Strahd von Zarovich. Your thoughts Have you got any of the LEGO Dungeon and Dragon figures yet? Do you plan to get them? Whose your favorite? Share if you dare! If you like this please support us. It’s just us, no…

[apodemus-sylvaticus]

Today I watched Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, and this

reminder me of something from Star Trek: Picard:

So while we wait for the revelation on what's up with Jack Crusher, here's one more unhinged crack theory about what's on the other side of the door :D

[nyxiemania]

Wizards eight on Thaymount above, Guiding our nation with their love.

More art for Terminal Ambitions, the campaign that I'm playing Destiny in! The overarching villain of this campaign is the Red Wizards of Thay, and one of our characters, a Divination Wizard, recently had a vision of their council meeting. It seemed like a really fun scene to draw, especially to contrast the campfire scene that happened in the same session, so I cooked this up. It was a really fun spot of character design making a bunch of extremely powerful evil wizards dedicated to each school, though in hindsight I think I went a bit overboard on some of the designs and would do them differently. Still, a lot of fun to draw, especially the looming Szass Tam and Destiny's dad being a bastard as per usual!

[thyeternalhunger]

It's Children's Day. Have some shitty undead family

im taking too much freedom with the way I draw young Acererak but I want to give him the tail he deserved. He's a cambion, and why doesn't he have a tail?!

[yendarvis]

how there’s no xedgin body swap fic?

[elvhenmage]

when someone in dnd honor among thieves mentions something that’s also in bg3

[chronomally]

I thought I could be normal about Regé-Jean Page as Xenk. Failed step one

[salemsreblogs]

I…. This………

My side reblog only account has been noticed by an artist I like

I am frightened

[tanadrin]

wife and i watched the chris pine dungeons and dragons movie last night, and it was (compared to historic entries in the d&d filmography) pretty good! but seeing the forgotten realms in up-close live action is a bit weird: there's something about the conventions of filmic verisimilitude (plus the on-location shooting in ireland and britain) that makes me ponder the implications of the generic conventions more.

like, obviously d&d settings can be a bit weird in the way that, having inherited fantasy tropes at a second or third remove and reprocessed them in a way suitable for a game setting, the forgotten realms has oddities like a whole economy of adventurers and dungeoneering, and extremely high magic world where characters have to be killed off using powerful magic to prevent them easily being resurrected, and a wildly inconsistent relationship between locations' political organization, their technological sophistication, the sorts of social institutions they support, etc., etc. on the other hand, i definitely found it a fun movie to look at: more than a a few individual stills would have made bitchin' magic: the gathering cards, or flavor art for a setting rulebook.

but since the villain of the movie is a powerful lich, whose plot is to convert more people to undeath to serve him, it did get me thinking about the really weird metaphysics of the d&d setting. like. necromancy is ontologically evil, but if i found myself in the d&d universe the very first thing i would do is try to become a lich, because death sucks and in this setting gods are real and i don't want the fate of my soul to be subject to their whims. and the second thing i'd probably do is start an effective altruism program to turn as many people as possible into immortal undead beings, to spread the advantages of unlife to as many people who wanted it as possible.

but i think this would be considered Evil behavior in the setting? idk man maybe Szass Tam is just really misunderstood. maybe he's onto something with this whole "cleanse the world of the taint of life" thing!