Simon Aumar

Simon Aumar was a half-elf sorcerer and thief based in Triboar in the Savage Frontier in the late 15 century DR. He was a fellow adventurer of Edgin Darvis, Holga Kilgore, Doric, and Xenk Yendar. "My family has always been absorbed in magic—or, at least, that's their reputation. The name "Aumar" carries weight, but I didn't realize how much until I decided to study magic myself. You wouldn't believe the pressure to measure up to my ancestor... I feel like I'm supposed to do great things and then wait for the bards to show up and sing songs and tell tales about those great deeds. But things never seem to work out that way for me. Whenever someone's watching, the magic doesn't work, or I mess it up."

- Simon the sorcerer

Description
He was slender and of average height. Being a half-elf, he had somewhat pointed ears and appeared boyish and youthful despite his age.

He wore a yellow shirt, purple vest, and brown cape.

Personality
Simon had low self-esteem, was lacking in confidence, and was plagued by self-doubt. He cared, and feared, what other people thought about him and so he tended to make self-deprecating remarks, reasoning it was better to tear himself down before others had the chance. Nevertheless, he performed well under pressure.

Relationships
As a half-elf, Simon was a descendent of an elf and a human. He was also the great-great grandson of the legendary wizard Elminster Aumar, the Sage of Shadowdale, and carried his name Yet Simon felt burdened by it, for it revealed his connections to both his illustrious ancestor and to the royal family of the long-lost kingdom of Athalantar. In any case, Simon did not know much about Elminster personally. Less importantly, he also had an uncle.

Simon tried to court Doric once, but she broke it off, claiming he made her feel sad, because of who he was rather than anything he did. However, he continued to be enamored with her and she pitied him for his low self-esteem and self-deprecation. Eventually, she allowed him to court her again.

Possessions
With a variety of magic items in possession, he carried a bag of holding and two pairs of sending stones. He also had a deathly token displaying Kelemvor's holy symbol; this allowed him to speak with the dead. Later, he would obtain the legendary helmet of disjunction, which could produce a disjunction effect that would break all magic, and a Hither-Thither Staff from Holga that could produce linked portals.

He could fight with a quarterstaff.

He had a mechanical spell component pouch that could produce the desired material components for a spell on command.

Abilities
Despite his heritage, Simon had little talent as a mage and he struggled with the Art and he had a hard time attuning to magical items that required it. In fact, his true power lay in wild magic, a force that he could not control but had to learn to master in order to tap into his true potential. As a result, his spells would miscast, fizzle or explode, produce entirely different effects to what he intended, or just not work at all until he was most desperate or threatened. He tended to let loose his magic on instinct when times were desperate, and when seriously injured or just unlucky he could unleash a surge of wild magic. But more deliberately, he could fire chaotic bolts of energy of random type.

He knew the cantrips mage hand, minor illusion, and prestidigitation, and could cast these at will. His prestidigitations included such hits as firefinger and producing the smell of freshly cut grass. He was also capable of, or at least had been known to cast, fog cloud, mage armor, magic missile, and spider climb, each twice a day, and Bigby's hand and major image, each once a day, as well as counterspell. Another spell he could cast was Maximilian's earthen grasp. Finally, Simon could conjure a shield spell, producing a shield of force with a radius to shelter himself or his allies from an incoming assault.

As a half-elf, Simon's fey ancestry helped him shake off charm magic and he was unaffected by sleep spells. He also had darkvision.

Once a Thief
In the early 1490s DR, Simon was hired by the residents of an unnamed village on the Sword Coast to investigate mysterious happenings and disappearances on a supposedly haunted isle just off the coast, but he failed to return as well. Finally, two of the villagers, Del and Grace, went in search of help finding their missing friend, Feltin, and got in contact with Forge Fitzwilliam, Edgin Darvis, and Holga Kilgore, who agreed to help for a reward. Edgin, Holga, and Forge traveled to the island and found a single survivor: Simon, still alive but ensnared in strange black oily vines that dragged creatures close and restrained them against the trees, slowly consuming them. Begging for help, he convinced the thieves to cut him free in exchange for a lead to a grand target in the city of Neverwinter that would give them enough coin to last a lifetime. Their investigation led the group to the lair of a green hag named Drueena, who held Edgin's daughter captive. The band confronted the hag and her enthralled roper, but eventually they broke her magical control over the monster. The angry roper ended the hag's life and with it, the black oily vines withered across the island. As they returned, though they received no reward, Simon had found companionship among the thieves and was invited to stay with them in Targos, to Kira's delight. Before long, he was part of the team.

Simon indeed delivered on his promise and led them to a greater mark. Edgin's thieves received many details about the West Caraway Acres mansion outside Neverwinter through its owner's disgruntled servant Alyanna. The group hatched a plan to infiltrate the eccentric dragonborn wizard Torlinn Shrake's masquerade party and steal the legendary Staff of Aorth.

They were also caught in a town threatened by the Bandit King on one Feast of the Moon.

At one point, the team did a robbery in Loudwater; Simon couldn't get his spider climb spell to work until the cooper Jolym set his dog on him. On another robbery, they stole the spear of the war mage Aoth Thezim, but when arrows were shot at them, Simon couldn't cast stoneskin until the last moment.

Finally, one night whilst the thieves were celebrating a score at the Trip and Shuffle tavern in Targos, a mysterious hooded figure calling herself "Lady Sofina" met the team. She wanted to hire them to help her steal the treasures of Korinn's Keep, a Harper storehouse that only a Harper could enter—Edgin. He refused, but Forge promised they would find there a Tablet of Reawakening, a magical relic capable of resurrecting one deceased soul. Against his better judgement but with hopes of restoring his late wife Zia to life, Edgin relented and acquiesced to Forge's and Sofina's scheme, bringing the whole band in.

Donning his old Harper uniform, Edgin led the team to Korinn's Keep and gained admittance. While the thieves helped themselves to the treasures of the vault, and Sofina claimed a strange red horn, Edgin went for the Tablet of Reawakening. But the poor thief triggered an alarm, summoning Harper guards, whom Sofina struck with chain lightning, to Edgin's dismay. She then cast time stop, trapping the guards, Holga, and Edgin—Simon tried to counterspell, but found her too strong to beat, and was forced to flee with Forge and Sofina. In fact, Forge and Sofina had double-crossed them and never intended for Simon to escape Korinn's Keep too. Sofina tried to kill Simon and the sorcerer only just got away with his life.

Alone Again
In the mid-1490s DR, Simon was traveling alone when he first met the young tiefling druid Doric while she helped a village with their problematic well. He tried to court her, but she broke it off.

For a time, Simon apprenticed with a cleric of Kelemvor, god of the dead. From this priest, he acquired his deathly token that let him speak with dead.

Ultimately, Simon returned to the town of Triboar but eventually found himself "desperately" short of coin and homeless. After a time, he found 'work' as a petty thief and stage magician at the Triboar playhouse, where he would cast cantrips and put on poor performances while using a mage hand spell to pickpocket members of his audience remotely. He tended to sleep in the theater itself.

That's where he was in the late 1490s DR when Edgin and Holga, newly escaped from Revel's End prison after two years, came looking for him. Unfortunately, his audience were utterly unimpressed and, to make matters worse, Simon was surprised to see his partners-in-crime, lost concentration, and dropped the valuables—loudly. With that, his audience transformed into an angry mob looking for justice. When a big guy grabbed him, Simon tried to cast a shield spell but inadvertently got a reverse gravity, plunging them to the ceiling, where they kept pursuing until he dropped them again. The next time he tried this, Simon flew through the skylight outside the playhouse, where Holga caught him. The trio rode swiftly out of town.

A Thief Once More
Joining Edgin and Holga's scheme to rob Forge Fitzwilliam—now Lord of Neverwinter and based in Castle Never—Simon suggested they recruit Doric to their cause for her wild shape ability. He led them into the Neverwinter Wood, where Lord Fitzwilliam's loggers were clearing the forest and his soldiers were making war against the wood elves, and they came upon an attempted execution. Just as the soldiers threatened to execute an elf by quartering, Doric transformed from a horse to an owlbear, handily defeated the soldiers, released the elf, and escaped. Simon watched admiringly.

They followed Doric back to the wood elves' treetop village, and introduced themselves, though Doric did not even remember Simon. At a tavern there, they explained their quest. Though she doubted their capabilities and said Simon was a poor spellcaster, Doric agreed to help in order to save her people.

Later, Doric used her wild shape power to spy inside Castle Never, learning Sofina was a Red Wizard of Thay and that the vault was protected with a powerful Mordenkainen's arcane seal. Hearing this, Simon declared the vault impenetrable, proposing he'd need to be Toril's greatest sorcerer or else have the helmet of disjunction, a long-lost enchanted helm that could break all magic. So Edgin proposed they find it. Simon was dismissive; the helmet was lost and privately admitted he would never be able to attune to it anyway. Edgin's attempted encouragement went nowhere, and he decided not to tell the others about Simon's doubts. Fortunately, Holga's people, the Elk tribe, had once battled the Cult of the Dragon and the black dragon Rakor for control of the helmet at the Battle of the Evermoors a century ago. This gave them a lead, as Simon could enable them to question her deceased ancestors.

After a stopover in Longsaddle so Holga could catch up with her ex-husband Marlamin, they headed to the Evermoors cemetery to dig up the corpses of fallen Elk tribe warriors, so Simon could use his deathly token to speak with them. Simon insisted Edgin ask all the questions to finish the spell, rather than leave the dead waiting. After several attempts, they finally learned from the body of Ven Salafin that a Thayan named Xenk Yendar had retrieved the helmet of disjunction. Edgin was disgusted, thinking all Thayans were killers and corrupted by the Red Wizards' evil. Nevertheless, Simon had heard of him; according to his uncle, Xenk had held back a beholder with nothing more than a sharpened gourd, or something else sharp, at least.

Fortunately, they could find the heroic paladin Xenk just nearby, in Mornbryn's Shield and, after seeing him in action, Simon was jealous but was left to negotiate with him. In a Harper sanctuary beneath Caldreth's Pickles, Nuts, and Foods, Xenk told them of the evil of the Red Wizards and Szass Tam's takeover of Thay and the turning of its populace to undeath. For his assistance in finding the helmet of disjunction, Xenk required that the thieves share any stolen riches with the Neverwintan people, which to Edgin very reluctantly agreed under Simon's teasing, swearing it on a Harper book.

Xenk led the party to the Kryptgarden Forest, where an entrance to the Underdark lay. After venturing down into the Underdark, the party passed uninterested intellect devourers and arrived at the ruins of Dolblunde, wherein Xenk had hidden the helmet of disjunction long ago. But before Xenk could finish explaining the intricately complicated technique needed to cross the trapped collapsing bridges, Simon inadvertently stepped on it, triggered the trap, and collapsed it, Fortunately, as they considered their options, Simon noticed Holga had a Hither-Thither Staff and used it to create portals through which they could cross into the city. Finding and opening the gnomish mechanical box, Xenk retrieved the helm, which Edgin passed to Simon. But that was when a band of undead Thayan assassins led by Dralas showed up, having been sent by Sofina to find and kill the thieves after Doric's spying. Xenk handily took down the whole squad of assassins and impressed the others, while his companions provided a little aid with Simon holding them back with his spells, but mostly they just watched. But the undead did not stay dead for long; their wounds regenerated and they gave chase. Then they were all interrupted by the surprise appearance of the red dragon Themberchaud, far from his home. He took care of the undead assassins, by simply eating them, but then turned his attention to the others, chasing them around the ruins and its bridges and breathing fire, though Simon's well-timed use of the Hither-Thither Staff to create portals helped them get away. At last, Themberchaud chased them into a narrow cave, but could not get his head through. The damage caused seawater to leak in. In the end, though, Edgin actually made a plan that worked, organizing his team and getting Themberchaud to belch gas. As they dove underwater, Simon pointed his finger above it and use his firefinger cantrip, igniting the gas and creating an explosion that would open a water channel and free them.

Some time later, with the helmet of disjunction in their possession, they emerged in the Sea of Swords and swam to shore. There, Xenk said his farewells and departed; though Simon asked him to stay and assist them, the paladin preferred to let Edgin, Holga, Doric, and Simon use what they had and rise to the occasion themselves rather than for him to keep carrying them himself. Edgin declared them victorious and a fine team of thieves, and ready to go on and rob Castle Never. It wouldn't be so easy, however. Simon struggled to attune to the helmet of disjunction, each time confronted by an image of Elminster in the ethereal plane that challenged whether he was worthy and blocked him After hours of trying, Simon eventually admitted this to Edgin, revealing to the others that he'd made him lie about being able to do it, which angered Doric and Holga about the wasted time and effort. Edgin's efforts to encourage them to carry on failed and they almost abandoned the quest and went their separate ways. Finally, he argued they were all failures, with Simon being a petty mage and petty thief, and needed to keep trying and failing, and would only fail if they gave up. Ultimately, the team chose to remain together and try again. Holga suggested a new plan: using the hither-thither staff to put a portal on a piece of treasure they could smuggle into the vault.

The Neverwinter Heist
After camping on the beach for several hours, they headed back to Neverwinter. From a market, Edgin purchased a painting of the famed travelogue writer Volothamp Geddarm for their plan. First, they removed the canvas, put a portal on the board, and Doric daubed sap on the frame for glue. On the High Road, Edgin hid under leaves as the wagon rolled over and attached the painting to the bottom of the wagon. Working through the portal, Holga removed the floorboards and Doric fell through the portal and into the wagon. But then the painting became unstuck as she tried to pull it through the hole; fortunately, Simon grabbed Doric through the portal and they managed to recover the painting and pull it into the wagon. With it flat on the floor, Holga reattached the floorboards through the portal and Simon closed the portal. Doric replaced the canvas and wild shaped into a fly to leave the wagon.

Heading into Neverwinter during the opening of the High Sun Games, they rented an upstairs meeting room at the Driftwood Tavern, not realizing they were recognized by Jil Torbo of the Absolution Council, who would summon the Neverwinter Guard. In their room, they tried to use their portal, but the painting had fallen flat on the floor, proving to be a nigh-impenetrable barrier. While Doric chiseled a hole in the floor through the portal in hopes of slipping through as a worm, Edgin proposed Simon try again with the helmet of disjunction to break the Mordenkainen's arcane seal, reminding him of his knack for making magic work at the last moment. Simon gave them all sending stones with which to communicate.

Edgin, Holga, and Simon sneaked into Castle Never by distracting the guards with Simon's major image of Edgin singing and playing songs. It proved more of a distraction when Simon got his foot stuck in a pothole, lost concentration, and it distorted horribly. Discovering the illusion, the guards gave chase, but the thieves got inside and pulled down the portcullis. Inside now, the party split up, with Holga and Simon going to the vault and Edgin searching for Kira. While Holga held off the guards, Simon reached the vault, but a group of guards intercepted him there. In desperation, Simon donned the helmet of disjunction and was again confronted by the image of Elminster, who called him a fool and a stain on the family name. Angry, Simon lashed out, punched the old mage, and saw him revealed as Simon himself—it wasn't Elminster, but Simon's own insecurity holding him back. This time, he successfully used the helmet of disjunction, bowling over the guards, opening the vault, dropping driftglobes and obliterating magic across a swath of the city, as well as making him feel better about himself. Holga caught up to Simon at the opened vault, but they found it empty—Forge had stolen all its treasure. A magical trap caught them in an Evard's black tentacles spell. With the whole team captured, Edgin pleaded for a fighting chance, that is, to compete in the High Sun Games.

Background
Simon is played by actor Justice Smith. He was confirmed to be a sorcerer via a promotional video played at the San Diego Comic-Con 2022's Tavern Experience. He comes from a line of wizards, but lacks confidence. According to writer-director John Francis Daley, "He has to learn to grow into his own and become the great sorcerer he was destined to become."

Appearances

 * Film & Television
 * Honor Among Thieves
 * Novels
 * The Road to Neverwinter • The Junior Novelization • The Quest Begins • Heroes Unite!
 * Comics
 * Honor Among Thieves: The Feast of the Moon