Book of Tarchamus

The Book of Tarchamus was a sentient artifact book that was actually 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.

Appearance
The book appeared as a large tome written in ancient Netherese. The words seemed 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.

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 1478 DR, it was removed from the library by the Harper Tam Zawad, who utilized its mind-scrying abilities to interrogate suspected Harper turncoats. However, as the book was considered too dangerous, it was eventually sealed out in a Harper vault in Waterdeep.

Novels

 * Brimstone Angels series
 * Brimstone Angels: Lesser Evils