Crown of Horns

The Crown of Horns was an evil, intelligent artifact of great power. Forged by Trebbe, a Netherese arcanist, and enchanted by Myrkul, the former God of Death, it carried with it a long history of corruption and tragedy.

Appearance
The Crown of Horns appeared as a silver circlet with a black diamond set on the brow and four bone horns mounted around its edge.

Powers
The Crown imbued the wearer with several considerable necromantic powers—including the unique "Myrkul's Hand" property—but had a tendency to strongly influence that action of the wearer, changing his or her alignment to neutral evil and gradually making him or her into an undead creature, among other things.

History
The Crown of Horns was an item originally designed by the netherese archwizard Trebbe, the founder of the flying netherese enclave Shadowtop Borough. In -2237 DR, while working on the crown, it exploded, killing Trebbe and destroying a block of the enclave. The crown itself wasn't destroyed, but it was lost.

In -1423 DR, the crown was seen again, this time in the hands of another archwizard - Requiar. Requiar used it to slay 30 other archwizards and conquer Shadowtop Borough. The artifact drove Requiar mad though and he was rendered incapable.

At one point, the crown was in the possession of the Netherese lich Aumvor The Undying, who wished to use the crown to make Laeral Silverhand his bride by leaving it for her adventuring band, The Nine, to find. Laeral donned the crown in 1337 DR but Aumvor's plot failed when the crown's powers conflicted with Laeral Silverhand's spellfire power and drove her into madness.

The crown was sundered by her husband, the archmage Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun, who locked its pieces away within the heavily protected walls of his tower, Blackstaff Tower. However, when Myrkul died at Midnight's hand during the Time of Troubles, the god tore the broken shards of the Crown from Blackstaff Tower, reforged it into a new shape, and infused it with the remains of his sentience before teleporting away.

Myrkul, through the crown, continued to spread evil through the Realms, tormenting members of the Church of Cyric as well as hapless innocents, avoiding allies of Khelben and temples of Mystra.

The Crown of Horns was seen in the possession of a yuan-ti pureblood named Nhyris D'Hothek in 1370 DR, who disappeared from his haunts in Skullport after the crown transformed him into a lich. People and creatures who have remained dedicated to Myrkul, or who have become dedicated to him since his demise, devoted themselves to him through the Crown of Horns by touching it and were known as Horned Harbingers – Nhyris included.