Book of Tarchamus

The Book of Tarchamus was a sentient artifact book that actually held the consciousness of the ancient Netherese arcanist Tarchamus the Unyielding.

Abilities
The Book of Tarchamus had the consciousness of the arcanist and it could talk with his reader, however said consciousness was evil and wanted to manipulate the reader to do things to advance its own purposes. The book could communicate telepathically and read minds, and had the ability to translate its own text to any known language. It was willing to share information with researchers but often answered questions with half-truths or outright lies.

It also had the ability to absorb knowledge from anyone who touched it, producing scrolls and smaller books containing said information almost instantaneously.

Description
The book appeared as a large tome written in ancient Netherese. The words seemed to shift when read and the volume seemed to remain unusually dusty. A page had been cut from the book at one time but was reunited with the book by a party of adventurers led by Tam Zawad.

History
After Tarchamus built his library, he turned his physical form into a powerful mummy with the help of his apprentices. He placed most of his intelligence into a magical tome with the remainder staying with his physical body.

In the, the Library and the book were discovered by the Harper Tam Zawad and his companions Farideh, Havilar, Dahl Peredur, and Aubrin Crownsilver. Tam recovered (or kidnapped) the Book of Tarchamus from its secure tomb, and kept it in secure and secret storage in Waterdeep, utilizing its mind-scrying abilities to interrogate suspected Harper turncoats such as Aron Vishter. Although useful in extracting information, the book's curious and calculating intelligence was considered a great risk, with several neophyte Harpers caught fascinated by its pages before being sent to distant postings.

The Harpers eventually recognized that the Book of Tarchamus was too powerful for them to manage, and handed it over to the Blackstaff, Vajra Safahr. Her patience with the sentient book ran out after three tendays, and so she promptly donated it to Candlekeep.