Giving Players a Moonblade Session 0

[Techcaliber]

Now, some of the people who read the title may have thought, "You dumb a**." I completely understand this, but I said it like that to draw attention. I am giving them the opportunity to find a dormant Moonblade hidden after a boss battle. I have already decided to do it and have it worked into my game, what I am here to ask 2 to questions:
1. How should I run the ceremony for reactivating this blade, and
2. How should I describe the blade so that it isn't immediately obvious that it is a Moonblade, but that it is still magical?

Now, the area they are going to find this in is a crypt, and this is going to be locked in a hidden room, inside of a grave that they would have to plunder. The crypt (named "Urithal Crypt"), belonged to a part of an elven family that originally came from another country and have died out in this part of the world, so the crypt has been left alone for many years. In order to reactivate the blade, they would have to:
1. Learn the family still lives in another country,
2. Travel to the family's estate and convince them to meet with the party,
3. Convince them to run the ceremony to reactivate the sword and let one of the party keep it.
I am including this information for 2 reasons:
1. Just in case anyone wants to know what I have planned for the blade to clear up confusion, and
2. To point out that if they can't convince the family to let them keep the sword, they won't see the ceremony (not really needed in the post, but eh.).

I know this post probably has more words in it than it should, but I would rather have more than needed than less. Thanks in advance for your help!:biggrin:

[Lunali]

If you go by the book, the characters can tell that it's magical as soon as they touch it. As for hiding that fact, Nystul's magic aura cast repeatedly becomes permanent, have it appear to be some other sort of magical weapon, moon-touched longsword seems most appropriate.

[Keravath]

Won't the identify spell just tell them what it is?

"You choose one object that you must touch throughout the casting of the spell. If it is a magic item or some other magic-imbued object, you learn its properties and how to use them. whether it requires attunement to use, and how many charges it has, if any. You learn whether any spells are affecting the item and what they are. If the item was created by a spell, you learn which spell created it."

[Christew]

DM Fiat trumps RAW of identify spell.

5e is very forgiving for identifying magic items (identify as ritual or just sleep with said item) because it assumes few magic items.

You are DM (ie God of Gods). If you have a good story reason, then fudge the rules.

- The sword is currently dormant and doesn't read as a a magic item
- The sword can only be identified by an elf in the "family"
- Mysterious other magic solution

You are in control. As long as your players are having fun and have a route to success, go nuts.

[Mongobear]

Now, some of the people who read the title may have thought, "You dumb a**." I completely understand this, but I said it like that to draw attention. I am giving them the opportunity to find a dormant Moonblade hidden after a boss battle. I have already decided to do it and have it worked into my game, what I am here to ask 2 to questions:
1. How should I run the ceremony for reactivating this blade, and
2. How should I describe the blade so that it isn't immediately obvious that it is a Moonblade, but that it is still magical?

Now, the area they are going to find this in is a crypt, and this is going to be locked in a hidden room, inside of a grave that they would have to plunder. The crypt (named "Urithal Crypt"), belonged to a part of an elven family that originally came from another country and have died out in this part of the world, so the crypt has been left alone for many years. In order to reactivate the blade, they would have to:
1. Learn the family still lives in another country,
2. Travel to the family's estate and convince them to meet with the party,
3. Convince them to run the ceremony to reactivate the sword and let one of the party keep it.
I am including this information for 2 reasons:
1. Just in case anyone wants to know what I have planned for the blade to clear up confusion, and
2. To point out that if they can't convince the family to let them keep the sword, they won't see the ceremony (not really needed in the post, but eh.).

I know this post probably has more words in it than it should, but I would rather have more than needed than less. Thanks in advance for your help!:biggrin:

Are any of the PCs descendants of the family line the blade belonged to? If not, the reactivating it moot because they won't be able to attune anyways.

Just describe it as a rather intricate/well crafted sword, of a very obviously elven design. Unless you're a known Santa DM, they'll just assume it's +1 or something like the Moon-touched Sword.

As far as finding it, finding the family, and whether they keep it, Id say that's entirely up to how they RP it, which no advice can account for.

One thing I would do, assuming an Elf that benefits from having a Moonblade is in the party, I would make it specific to him, and a campaign long quest to "awaken" it again. Make it require to land a killing blow on 100 Orcs, or require him to slay a powerful Orc Warlord whose ancestors slew the last Wielder a century ago.

If you've any experience in 3.5e, there was a book called Weapons of Legacy, which made rules for having items that scaled with the player, by performing a series of ritual/quests to unlock a bunch of powers, maybe adapt it to that sort of a system?

For every 10, 20, or whatever Orcs, roll on the table for MB powers.

If you kill a powerful Orc tied to the swords history, roll.

Accomplish some great feat of elven warrior s of the past, roll.

Or, long quests main reward. Finally stop the invading Orc army, and slay their Warlord at 15th level? BAM!! fully awoken MB, but that's kinda boring.