Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu was the first book in " The Lando Calrissian Adventures " . Publisher ' s summary . Gambler , rogue , and con - " artiste " , Lando Calrissian was born with a well - developed taste for the good life . More comfortable at the dealer ' s end of a fast shuffle than at the rear end of a blaster , Lando always had his sensors scanning for the chance to pick up easy credits . So when he heard that the planets of the Rafa System were practically buried in ancient alien treasure , he hopped aboard the Millennium Falcon and brushed up on his rusty astrogation . He never stopped to think that someone might be conning the con man . . . Plot summary . Not long after winning the " Millennium Falcon " , Lando Calrissian visits the Oseon system in the Centrality . In a sabacc game on the asteroid Oseon 2795 , Lando meets the Ottdefa Osuno Whett , who tells him of the supposed treasure of the Rafa system , one - time home of a highly advanced race called the Sharu — and also source of the extremely valuable life - crystal s , which are harvested at a penal colony on Rafa IV . Running short of credits , Whett persuades Lando to let him put up a droid as a gambling stake . When Lando wins the hand , he discovers that the droid is actually in storage on Rafa IV . Hoping to claim his prize long enough to resell it , Lando travels to Rafa IV and picks up the Class Two multiphasic robot , a chrome - plated , five - tentacled droid called Vuffi Raa . He is subsequently waylaid by the local police force and beaten and arrested on trumped - up charges . Brought before the system ' s governor , Duttes Mer , and Mer ' s sinister associate , Rokur Gepta ( a Sorcerer of Tund ) , Lando is railroaded into searching for a legendary artifact called the Mindharp . He is given the Key , a miniature version of the Mindharp , and set free , although Mer and Gepta disable the " Falcon " s hyperdrive to insure that Lando does not attempt to renege on their deal . Lando and Vuffi Raa soon encounter an old man named Mohs , one of the Toka ( the Rafa system ' s primitive , apparently servile humanoid population ) . Mohs , who identifies himself as the High Singer of the Toka , tells them that he believes Lando is the Key Bearer and Vuffi Raa the Emissary described by Toka legend . He convinces them to travel to Rafa V , the next planet in the system , to find the Mindharp . Unfortunately for Lando and the droid , Mohs leads them into a trap . On Rafa V , the pair are waylaid by a group of Toka armed with primitive weapons , who nearly destroy Vuffi Raa and leave Lando to die of exposure . Lando manages to free himself and rejoin Vuffi Raa , whose self - repair systems have enabled him to survive the damage inflicted on him . Overcoming a group of Rafan policemen sent by Mer to waylay them ( in the hopes that Lando had already succeeded in his mission ) , Lando and Vuffi Raa patch their wounds and set out to find Mohs . The Toka Singer , unexpectedly contrite for his earlier betrayal , leads them to the base of one of the Sharu ' s massive pyramids and shows them how to use the Key to enter it . Separated , Lando , Vuffi Raa , and Mohs make a disorienting journey into the interior of the pyramid , which seems to have the ability to warp both space and time . Mohs undergoes an epiphany — his previously stunted mental capacity begins to expand , but he is mysteriously blinded at the same time . Lando and Vuffi Raa , meanwhile , appear to be wildly different sizes , experiencing time at different rates . After observing a tableau of the planet ' s evolutionary time scale and the development of the Sharu themselves , Mohs disappears , and Lando and Vuffi Raa find themselves in a vast hall containing the Mindharp . Lando takes the Mindharp , and he and Vuffi Raa exit the pyramid , only to find themselves back on a street in Teguta Lusat , the capital of Rafa IV , with no evidence of how they got there . Vuffi Raa , responding to previously established programming , immediately has Lando arrested and brought before Duttes Mer . The governor informs them that they have been gone not for a few days , but for four full months . Mer tells Lando that everything that brought him to Rafa in the first place , including his encounter with Osuno Whett in the Oseon , had been a set - up ; Mer and Gepta needed someone who would fit the description of the Toka prophecy . The Mindharp , Mer explains , is an enormously powerful device capable of controlling every sentient mind in the Rafa system , even across interplanetary space . Having achieved his goal , the governor has Lando sent to one of the Rafa system ' s life - crystal orchards for what is likely to be a very brief life sentence . Lando is rescued , however , by Vuffi Raa , now free of his programmed imperative , and rather guilt - stricken at having betrayed his master . Lando tells the droid that he realizes he recognized some of the Toka language as Old High Trammic , a language with which he has some familiarity . He realizes that there are going to be serious consequences if Mer attempts to use the Mindharp . Rafa IV is wracked by a series of violent earthquakes . Lando and Vuffi Raa make their way to the Teguta Lusat spaceport , where they find that the governor has retrieved the " Millennium Falcon " from Rafa V . Rokur Gepta , meanwhile , leaves his cruiser , the " Wennis " ( which has been in orbit around Rafa V , awaiting Lando ' s return , for months ) , desperate to take the Mindharp from Mer before the governor causes a disaster . Lando and Vuffi Raa encounter Mohs aboard the " Falcon " . The Singer , whose intellect is no longer that of a primitive man , Mohs confesses what he has now learned : the primitive Toka are themselves the long - vanished Sharu . Generations earlier , the Sharu were threatened by some unknown external menace ; to hide from it , they deliberately concealed their cities ( and indeed , the minds of their entire population ) beneath the massive pyramids that cover most of the Rafa system . The activation of the Mindharp will reverse the process , causing the Sharu cities to emerge from beneath the surface — with catastrophic results for the Imperial cities built over them — and the minds of the " Toka " will be restored . Rokur Gepta reaches the governor ' s office too late to stop Mer from activating the Mindharp . Mer is obliterated by the unleashed energy , and Gepta himself only narrowly escapes . Although his ship is hit by a burst from the " Millennium Falcon " s guns , Gepta survives , swearing revenge on Lando and his mechanical partner . Lando and Vuffi Raa , meanwhile , make a hasty escape from the Rafa system , carrying the last load of valuable life - crystals that will ever be harvested there . Continuity . The 1998 PC program " " originally dated " The Lando Calrissian Adventures " to 10 BBY , while the 2000 reference book " The Essential Chronology " and the subsequent 2005 " The New Essential Chronology " later placed the events of " Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu " in 4 BBY . Pablo Hidalgo ' s 2012 " The Essential Reader ' s Companion " ultimately changed the series ' chronological placement to 3 – 2 BBY . Cover gallery . This is a gallery of the different cover variations of " Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu " . External links . Book review at TheForce . net