Enc.: 7.5#	IS:	Aura:	XP: 5,000	GP: 25,000
-	-	Magic Items	-	FR4

Description: Albruin is a broadsword of
a steel/electrum/silver alloy, demonstrably
as effective as silver against undead
and other creatures who suffer particular
effects from contact with that metal.
It is +1 to hit and +3 on damage. It
sheds an eerie blue radiance (up to 1"
radius) when drawn from its scabbard.
It is of chaotic neutral alignment (Intelligence
17, Ego 13), communicates by
speech (alignment tongue, common,
elvish, drow, thieves’ cant), and can
read languages and magical writing.

Albruin's bearer can, at will,
activate—and maintain by concentration—
the sword’s power to detect
invisible objects in a 1" radius. Albruin
can also neutralize poison once every
three days, and heal its bearer once every
12 days. These powers are evoked at
the will of the bearer, or by the sword if
the bearer is unconscious and Albruin
deems it advantageous to itself to activate
either power. Physical contact
between Albruin and flesh of the bearer
is necessary for the powers to work,
but the sword need not be drawn to let
it neutralize or heal.

Lore: Albruin is believed to be the creation
of the long-dead smith Surdee, who
was famous in his day for the craftsmanship
of his work that came out of
the forges of ice-bound Glister, where
he worked ore fresh from the mines
above the city on the edge of the glacier.
The blade itself evades questions as to
its origins: there are no markings or
definite touches of workmanship that
identify Albruin as the work of anyone
in particular.

Albruin was held for decades in the
royal house of Cormyr, kept as a family
treasure but seldom (due to its alignment)
borne by the kings of that land. It
was stolen from the palace at Suzail
some ninety winters ago by the thief
Nypan (“Nipe”), a halfling who was soon
arrested at Wheloon by soldiers of Cormyr
and slain when he attempted
escape. Nipe did not have the blade
when seized, and did not reveal its
whereabouts. It was rumored among
the thieves of that place that he had sold
it to a “grey trader” (fence) by the name
of Blusken Shult, who had a merchant
barge on the Wyvernwater, and that
Blusken had sailed from Wheloon up to
a part on the northern shore of the
Wyvernwater and delivered the sword
to a waiting buyer.

The blade’s whereabouts were uncertain
for some twenty-four winters, until
a lady of high birth in Selgaunt, one
Shamur, found the blade left behind in
her bedchamber by a visitor fleeing the
city guard. He never returned, and Shamur
sold it when she married. It was
bought by an adventurer visiting the
city of Selgaunt on matters of trade
(gold for mercenaries) and wielded
thereafter in several minor skirmishes
about the Eastingreach before its owner
died in an ambush. His slayer, the
adventurer-prince Thaum of Telflamm,
used Albruin to help take the lands of
Impiltur forcibly from his father’s rule
and found his own kingdom. Thaum
eventually died by magic (hired by his
father Kuskur, who was unable to
regain control of the lost lands militarily),
and Albruin was acquired by one of
Thaum’s warriors, who fled the dead
king’s keep and took the blade back
westward into the Dalelands.

This warrior, one Adjuz by name,
perished at the hands of brigands on a
northern road, and Albruin disappeared
from view—but not before
Adjuz had sought out a sage (Elminster,
of course) in Shadowdale to learn the
blade’s true nature and powers.

After the death of Adjuz, the trail of
the sword is hidden for some eight winters,
but it is known to have been in the
hands of the mercenary general Malakar
on his visit to Zhentil Keep in the
spring of the ninth year thereafter, and
was identified again by the sage Murail
of Sarbreen when a mercenary warrior
sought him out to learn the blade’s
properties in that city some six winters
beyond that time. From then to now,
the whereabouts of Albruin are
unknown, but Elminster is careful to
remind us that its plain appearance and
its ability to control many of its bearers
contribute to this anonymity.