Magic Item: The Boneheart

The Boneheart: A singular lute, though related to an older strain of harps, the Boneheart is stripped of nearly all colour; the instrument has been fashioned of bleached wood and cunningly shaped ivory plates, its pegs and details carved of bone and the grillwork of its soundbox woven from splinters of baleen. Only amongst the gut of its strings is there notable pigment -- four of said strings are a deep crimson hue.

So long as the Boneheart is being played, once a round the musician may attempt to charm (as the relevant spell) a single undead target as if it were a living creature. However, no matter the number of successful charms, once the music ceases playing the Boneheart's influence ceases and the effect fades away within one round.

If so chosen, one of the crimson strings may be removed and wound around the neck of a corpse, causing it to rise as an undead creature fully under the control of Boneheart's owner. The undead type is as follows:

1-3 skeleton (shedding flesh as necessary)
4-5 zombie
6 ghoul

Once all four strings have been used in this manner, Boneheart dissolves into dust.

Legends speak of an order of knight-musicians found in the courts of Aejeron -- now the Shattered Plains -- that consorted with the dead and cloaked themselves in ivory and bone. A connection to the Boneheart and other such instruments is often speculated, but unproven.