Varunastra was a legendary shape-shifting weapon, often reverting to a watery appearance, said to have once been wielded by the god Rama.
During the Second World War, it turned up in Barko, India, where it drowned sixteen Japanese soldiers on dry land.
By June 2019, Michael, of the American Jovian Diplomacy Service, had acquired Varunastra and, fearing that "Control and his goons" would take ownership of it, decided to send it to P.R.O.B.E. in England for safekeeping. Tasha Williams was dispatched to the airport by P.R.O.B.E. director Giles to receive the parcel, and found that its contents had killed the plane's co-pilot, somehow drowning him from within.
When they opened the parcel and tried to take Varunastra out, it turned from a silver dagger to a small pool of water, then into a spherical diamond energy weapon which destroyed Giles's CD collection and parts of the ceiling when Tasha dropped it in surprise and it went off. Looking through the old LONGBOW files, Giles was able to identify the artefact as the mythical, shapeshifting weapon Varunastra. Overhearing Giles telling Sir Bedevere that "the pen is mightier than the sword", Varunastra fortunately adopted the harmless appearance of a small ballpoint pen (albeit one with mysterious, indecipherable writing on the label). This gave the P.R.O.B.E. team the opportunity to figure out what to do with it, with Maxie eventually building a containment device intended to stabilise its shapeshifting, which was then placed within the P.R.O.B.E. Archive. A screen on the device displayed Giles's case file on the item, ensuring that it would not be taken out by anyone unaware of the danger it presented. (WC: Varunastra [+]Loading...["Varunastra (webcast)"])
Varunastra received an entry on the Preternatural Research Bureau Online Database, listed on the "mystical daggers" hub alongside a bloodied dagger used on Perihelion, the Majus-XVII, and Azmodae. (HOMEVID: A Message From Sir Andrew [+]Loading...["A Message From Sir Andrew (home video)"])