Crown of Horns

The Crown of Horns was an evil, intelligent artifact of great power. While its origins were murky, the Crown was believed to have been forged either in ancient Netheril, or by Myrkul, the former god of Death. The artifact carried with it a long history of corruption, mayhem, and tragedy.

"We found an artifact, the Crown of Horns, and I in my pride decided that my powers of will and magic were sufficient to counter the evil I sensed within it. I wore the Crown, and it claimed me as its own. Years went by, terrible years during which I lost Laeral and became the Wild Woman, the Witch of the North. I remember little of those years, which in many ways is a blessing."

- Laeral Silverhand, in a letter to her nephew Danilo Thann, Ches 3, 1368 DR.

Description
In its original form this crown was a helmet made of electrum and fully covered with small horns, and a row of black gems, the center one of which was black diamond.

After its destruction and subsequent reformation, 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
It is unknown what powers the artifact had before it was possessed by Myrkul other than its sentience and its capability to interfere with the minds of its wearers. After its possession however, the Crown imbued the wearer with several considerable necromantic powers. They were granted an aura of undeath similar to those that surrounded liches, became immune to necromantic spells and all manner of death magic.

Following the god's destruction, the vestiges of Myrkul could strongly influence the actions of whomever wore the Crown of Horns, making suggestions within their consciousness, possessing them outright, and even altering their moral and ethical outlook to more closely resemble his own. No individual could remove their crown untless Myrkul's essence wished for his artifact to find a new host.

Over time, anyone wearing the crown became increasingly paranoid, specifically about their possession of the Crown itself. Eventually, they succumbed to the call of madness and undeath, and became a lich themself.

Additional powers the Crown possessed or granted to its wearer, included:
 * The power to command undead.
 * A fear aura similar to that possessed by liches.
 * An aura that compelled anyone within a radius to claim the Crown for themself.
 * The ability to teleport without error once every tenday.
 * Emit the unique ray of undeath, which slew creatures where they stood and raised them as lesser shadowrath.
 * Myrkul's Hand, which surrounded the wearers hands with black flames; their touch engulfed creatures in dark conflagration, possibly transforming them into greater shadowraths.

History
The origins regarding the Crown of Horns were not entirely clear. Some scholars believed it was created by the God of Death, Myrkul himself, yet others say it was designed by the Netherese archwizard Trebbe, the founder of the flying Netherese enclave Shadowtop Borough. Regardless of how it was created, the Crown was known to have played at least some role in the fall of the original Netherese Empire.

It was said that in, the Crown exploded while being worked on by Trebbe, destroying an entire block of the enclave. The Crown itself wasn't destroyed, but it was lost.

In, 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. After the insensate arcanist was overthrown, his killers searched for the Crown but despite powerful divinations, a thorough search of the city, and many parties of adventurers scouring the Eastern Forest over the next 150 years, they failed to find it.

In, the Crown was finally rediscovered by the archwizard Shadelorn. Shadelorn was working on a project to succeed where Ioulaum had failed in creating an improved mythallar. In, another archwizard, Shenandra, was working on countering the lifedrain magic of the phaerimm at the same time. As misfortune would have it, the two successfully completed their projects at precisely the same time on Shadowtop Borough. The Crown, wanting revenge on the city for its previous defeat, had been imperceptibly corrupting Shadelorn's work and when he activated his new mythallar, it drained all magic and memorized spells from everything and everyone within a 20-mile radius. The enclave fell, its inhabitants died, the threat from the phaerimm persisted and the only thing to survive intact was the Crown.

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 the, but Aumvor's plot failed when the Crown's powers conflicted with Laeral Silverhand's spellfire power and drove her into madness.

Eventually, Khelben was forced to beseech his goddess Mystra for aid, and challenged Laeral to a terrible spell duel in the High Forest. In the, the Crown was sundered by her future consort, 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 that same year, 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. People and creatures who had remained dedicated to Myrkul, or who had become dedicated to him following his demise, devoted themselves to him through the Crown of Horns by touching it and were known as Horned Harbingers.

As of the, the Crown of Horns was in the possession of a yuan-ti pureblood Horned Harbinger named Nhyris D'Hothek. He had eventually disappeared from his haunts in Skullport after the Crown transformed him into a lich-like being.

There remained conflicting accounts regarding the Crown's whereabouts in the decades that followed. It was said by some that Nhyris lost the Crown of Horns, but retained the horrific transformations it had inflicted upon his form. Yet others stated that Nhris became "fused" with the Crown when the Spellplague struck the Realms in the. It was said that the Horned Harbinger lost his mind, and was transformed into a feral creature known as the Murkstalker, lurking in the lower reaches of Skullport, and feeding on careless locals well into the late 15 century DR.

Rumors and Legends
Following the fall of Netheril, a group of surviving arcanists fashioned the helmet The Black Hands of Shelgoth out of the remains of the lich Shelgoth. Later historians speculated that this was an attempt to create an item similar to the Crown of Horns.

The ray of undeath let loose by the Crown was said to resemble "spell of Undeath", as described by the self-proclaimed Harper King Rundorl Moonsklan.

It was rumored that the Crown of Horns could be destroyed by being placed upon the brow of Kelemvor, who succeeded Myrkul's replacement as the God of Dead, or by being submerged in the blood of the divine avatar of Garqos the Reaver.

Notable Owners

 * Nhyris D'Hothek, a yuan-ti pureblood from Skullport who bore the Crown for over a year.