Prehistoric Longsword

A weathered longsword found standing in the barren field on Ankley Island, ~600 meters from the ancient ruins — as old as they are, which makes it 1,400+ years at minimum. Carefully excavated (not yanked) by Fenric in Session 10. The blade is rust-eaten and chipped by time rather than battle, yet astonishingly intact for its age; Fenric's magic sight couldn't read its interior — a sheet of lead is baked into the blade, blocking detect-magic — but his read was not magical, just an extraordinarily high-quality, unidentified material that endured millennia and could take an enchantment later (or stay "pure").

Lash's weaponsmithing check slipped (rolled a 2), leaving the verdict on the tip of her tongue: "I think I know what this is" — she needs a second look in a proper environment. Her working theory: it stood in a cursed graveyard, so assume cursed. Rides wrapped in cloth on Fenric's pack, logged as "from Ankley Island."

On the metal's name: the vault spells it orichalcum, which is the Gamemaster's own word for it (Session 17 [00:17:18], Session 48 [02:01:54]). Auricalcum is kept as an alias — it is how the Session 11 transcript renders the material, where the recording says "auric alchem" (S11 [00:53:57]).

Session 10

• Found, dug out, examined, and pointedly not understood. Lash intends to clean it up and check the material at the next opportunity.

Session 17

• Reforged. Lash took the blade to the Eastport Deep Sea Smithmaster, who confirmed the material as orichalcum and taught her it must be cold-forged only (heating boils its virtue away). Working it in his cold-forge (weaponsmithing 27), she folded 3 of orichalcum's 5 properties into her in-progress crafting hammer — so the longsword's metal now lives on in that hammer. The smith warned that if the blade was cursed (it stood in the cursed Ankley Island ruin), the hammer will be cursed too.

Session 27

• All but finished. In the under-prison, the immortal lich-smith Malifax — awed by the orichalcum hammer (he offers to trade his whole workshop for it) — does two days' work in an hour, advancing it to 20/21 days, fitting the spiked/stinging edge Lash designed, and adding a "clang" rider to the finished weapon. He insists Lash forge the final day herself.