SZASS TAM'S LATEST NEFARIOUS PLOT

SZASS TAM’S LATEST NEFARIOUS PLOT

The lich who rules Thay, Szass Tam, is known for ambitious schemes to conquer neighboring realms, or the entire Forgotten Realms, or even other worlds and planes of existence, making a bid for godhood in the process.

He’s also known for these ventures failing, time and again, be it the Dread Ring affair (a ritual drawing on the souls of the living drained in the fortresses that formed the Dread Ring to power Szass Tam’s bid for godly powers, unmaking Toril in the process), various invasions of Aglarond or Mulhorand, attempted takeovers of Neverwinter (as we saw in the movie Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves) and other places, and so on.

However, Tam’s failures don’t stop him from trying anew, time and again. He is convinced of his own brilliance and “rightful” greatness, and has come to see all setbacks as proof that what he’s trying—and will accomplish—is so difficult that no one but him will be able to do it.

Right now, he’s still at work on expanding Thay into neighbors (and traditional foes) Rashemen, Aglarond, and Mulhorand, as well as nearby Threskel, the Wizard’s Reach, and the dragon-ruled realm of Murghôm. Although he’s stopped supporting the trade enclaves of Thay he earlier established all over Faerûn, he keeps his zulkirs and senior Red Wizards busy expanding and strengthening the network of spies for Thay (really for himself personally, as Tam thinks of Thay as his) he’s established. The most magically-gifted of his apprentices (yes, he has new ones; he’s still trying to develop a consort, if he can’t find one) and Red Wizards resident in Thay, he keeps busy within the Thaymount at work on new spells and rituals, to give Thay more fearsome battle-might so he can easily defeat the Dragon Princes of Murghôm, the liches who served Larloch, the Chosen of Mystra, or anyone else.

However, while overseeing (and personally spying on) all of these ongoing ventures, Szass Tam is always hatching private plans to increase his personal power and more quickly get what he wants. Here is his latest, fresh from his decaying brain:

Develop and covertly cast spells to bring the demigod Gilgeam, Son of Victory, under Tam’s mental control, so as to conquer Unthalass, and by extension the entire land of Unther. Once Tam’s power over Unther is consolidated (by installing Red Wizards in pairs, one an open agent of his authority and the second a spy on the first and on anyone who acts against the open agent, all across the realm), the might of Unther, and its wealth to hire mercenaries, is to be used to muster armies so that Unther (and not Thay) will invade and seek to conquer Mulhorand.

Szass Tam will deny any involvement in this war, publicly claiming that his Red Wizards are in Unther because he has seen a “great evil” covertly rising there, but will mobilize the (largely undead) armies of Thay along his border with Mulhorand, ostensibly for defense—and then invade Mulhorand as a second front when Mulhorand is committed to fighting the invading armies of Unther. Tam hopes to overwhelm and take Mulhorand without provoking any response for the Dragon-Princes of Murghôm. However, if they do respond, he has plans to use beckoning death to wipe out any encamped mercenaries they are hiring (including those I’ve mentioned in another video here), and—before he moves against Gilgeam in the first place—to develop a new dracorage spell or ritual to create an effect similar to the infamous Rage of Dragons, with or without the King-Killer Star, and to perfect a means of creating ghost dragons under Tam’s complete control, so he can deploy them against the Dragon Princes (he foresees them entering into the bodies of the Princes as incorporeal entities, then solidifying and bursting the dragons apart from within).

This current scheme must begin with spells that can succeed in sliding into the mind of the god-king Gilgeam and reading it, then spells that can influence Gilgeam’s thinking, and finally spells that can control Gilgeam. Tam hopes the first sort of spells will enable him to understand the nature of this particular entity’s divine power, with an eye to eventually wresting that godhood power unto himself. (Tam’s earlier experiences, moving against other divinities, have led him to believe—correctly—that gods vary in the amount of “divine fire” they possess, how it manifests within them as powers they can reach out with, and how it maintains (and in most cases, even regenerates) their bodies.

Then, still without moving against anyone and so betraying his goals, Tam must create the spells he needs to deal with the Dragon Princes and the mercenaries they will inevitably hire and deploy.

He can already easily craft dracoliches, dragonbone golems, and the like—but won’t do so until everything is ready, or even at all if he judges his beckoning death can be deployed in the right locales and sufficiently, to avoid tipping off the Dragon Princes or anyone else as to what he’s about to do. Right now, he creates dragonbone golems within the warded-against-scrying caverns inside Thaymount, and immediately “puts them to rest” in waiting graves to bolster his undead troops in future, but avoids bringing new dracoliches into existence as they retain enough self-will to imperil the stealth of his plans. 

Now, all of this may sound not just farfetched, but beyond the reach of even the most industrious and ambitious spellcrafter. However, Szass Tam’s strengths lie in his repeated successful creations of big, bold, “impossible” spells.

The ruler of Thay may miss flaws in his schemes or rely on allies and underlings who fail him, and time and again provoke multiple foes to move against him out of hatred and fear so he can’t handle everything coming at him from all directions, but he somehow crafts new magics that are as powerful and far-reaching as his dreams.

Although Elminster and the rest of the Chosen don’t like to admit this, Mystra and Azuth have both forbidden them to try to destroy Tam. Thwart his schemes, and undo the worst consequences of his cruelties, yes—but end the entity and with him his tireless magical creations, no.

And there you have it. So if you should happen to meet with Szass Tam, and he seems rather absent-minded, he’s probably thinking about this latest nefarious plan to achieve godhood, conquer the Realms, destroy all of his foes, control gods and mighty dragons with ease, and so on. It’s people like Tam that make me realize how little I’ve accomplished in life.

We’ll talk again. From the safety of this lair that doesn’t involve deadly ambition!