D&D lore buff discovers Elminster's likely been leaving magic items strewn around Baldur's Gate 3 like a fantasy wizard Santa Claus

pcgamer.com:

You ever thought about why you find so many potent, powerful magic items in Baldur's Gate 3? No, really—while most of the places you delve into are dangerous, they're also abandoned and lost to the ravages of time. Why in the nine hells is there the arcane equivalent of a fully-functioning Glock in some chest in the deep wilderness?

Turns out there's actual, honest-to-Mystra D&D lore justifications for this, and they involve a kindly old Wizard. This isn't substantiated in-game—but it is one hell of a deep-cut that justified why I keep finding enchanted cloaks on corpses.

As spotted by SurroundBulky4109 on the game's subreddit (thanks, TheGamer), a passage in the 26-year old book «The Temptation of Elminster» by Ed Greenwood details the adventures of Elminster himself as one of Mystra's chosen. Elminster, of course, takes stage in Baldur's Gate 3 as an old friend of Gale, as well as the bearer of Faerûn's worst fantasy text message from an ex at the top of Act 2. 

The passage itself follows Elminster entering into The Crypt of Moondark. Not to pilfer it, but to add wealth to it. Hilariously, it reads:

«Eaergladden Moondark had died destitute, begging his kin for a few coppers with which to buy a roasting-fowl… but who, save one Elminster, was still alive to remember that? So accomplished a mage as Eaergladden could quite well have had a wand, and of course a spellbook.» He proceeds to then put a wand, a spellbook, and a dagger in the tomb for later adventurers to find. 

«This work took up much of his time in the service of Mystra, these days, at her bidding, Elminster travelled Faerûn visiting ruins and the tombs of dead mages, planting 'old' scrolls, spellbooks, minor enchanted items, and even the occasional staff for later folk to find… and all such leavings were in truth items she'd just finished Grafting, and made to look old.»

So not only are the magic items most D&D players find complete forgeries from the mother of magic herself—they're not even antiques.