Harp of Stars

The Harp of Stars was an enchanted harp crafted by Elminster Aumar to counter the threat posed by the mysterious malaugryms in the late 12 century DR.

Powers
When played, the Harp of Stars made shapeshifting easier by weakening the life energies that bound living bodies together, thus allowing the owner of the harp to manipulate their body more effectively. When wielded by a natural shapechanger, such as a malaugrym, this allowed them to assume larger and more powerful forms than they would have otherwise been able. However, over time the harp's magic had the effect of weakening the wielder's body and thus making any transformations more unstable.

The Harp of Stars had an additional set of enchantments designed to make it a powerful tool for subterfuge. First, it possessed the property of acting as a beacon to allow it to be tracked, but this feature was quite obvious to any sophisticated user and could be easily deactivated. However, a far less obvious second enchantment would instantly recorded the thoughts and memories of any creature that deactivated the beacon, thus turning it into a trap. With these enchantments in place, Elminster hoped to trick the malaugrym into revealing the secrets about who and what they really were.

History
Following the reappearance of the malaugrym in the, Elminster and Khelben Arunsun determined that they were a threat that needed to be addressed. At the same time, the two wizards were looking to restructure the Harpers organization, believing it to be too large and too dependent on powerful members like themselves. Elminster devised a plan to address both of these issues by crafting the Harp of Stars.

Around the, Elminster began spreading rumors that the Harp of Stars was not only a powerful item but also something of special value to the Harpers. Using these rumors, he tricked the malaugrym into stealing the item for themselves, and then called on the Harpers to retrieve it. Only by physically reclaiming the Harp of Stars would they be able to gain access to the information it was collecting from the malaugryms who used it. This started the Harpstar Wars, which would last for forty years and leave both the malaugrym and the Harpers badly depleted.

Khelben ended the war in in the, by taking over the mind of the malaugrym leader, the Shadowmaster, and convincing the remaining malaugryms to withdraw. Khelben used the Shadowmaster to retrieve the Harp of Stars, however another malaugrym who aspired to seize the title of Shadomaster for itself attacked and slew the old leader, nearly incapacitating Khelben with the backlash. The Harp of Stars was never seen again, and was presumed to be either destroyed or lost on some far off plane.