Steve

Maybe due to the chocolates?

I have long had a love of the Ars Magica version of Europe, but translating it into Hero System has always been too intimidating for me.

Oh dear.  Sounds like time to dust off the Book of Erotic Fantasy there.
 
You remind me that one of the expendable magic items in 13th is enchanted oil, which turns mundane items briefly magical.  True magic items are frequently at least semi-aware and will also ask to be oiled up on occasion, which does nothing for them mechanically (as they're already magical all the time) but they can get sulky and uncooperative if you don't treat them now and then.  Given the situation above the lube jokes pretty much write themselves.
 
On a more general note, true (ie permanent) magic items (including swords) in 13th Age all come with quirks, which modify their user's behavior and thinking unless they deliberately suppress them.  This usually isn't a problem, but if you try to carry too many true items at once the quirks will overwhelm you and start manifesting whenever the GM wants - usually at inconvenient moments.  You can also get minor bennies from the GM if you choose to roleplay a quirk briefly bleeding through in an entertaining or dramatic fashion when you aren't being forced to.  A few oddball effects can amp up your quirks even when you would normally be able to restrain them, so magic items aren't ever entirely safe to use.
 
Most swords (and other items) aren't truly sentient and can't fully take you over even when their quirk is pushing hard, but a fair few are self-aware enough to have personalities and at least negotiate a bit about how they're used.  Think limited AI more than fully realized personality - most of the time.
 
Think I'm finally out of corner-case examples now.  Intelligent swords aren't as common as you'd expect - and I don't think the singing sword in that one Bugs Bunny cartoon really counts as intelligent as such. 

Lady Blue is indeed in 6E, in Champions Villains Volume Three: Solo Villains. We haven't seen Ladybug since Classic Enemies for 4E -- another overlooked Canadian.
 

Poppy McCauley - Pluckiness Defined
Background/History: Poppy McCauley emerged as a star journalist at a young age, quickly becoming America's sweetheart with her tenacious reporting and charismatic presence. Despite her seemingly perpetual bad luck in finding herself in the clutches of villains, she has never let it deter her spirit. Instead, these experiences have provided exclusive insights into the workings of Retropolis's dark underbelly, making her an invaluable asset to both the public and the hero community for her ability to expose the truth behind the chaos. She has been kidnapped a statistically unlikely number of times. She's often lovingly referred to as "America's DNPC." 
Personality/Motivation: Poppy is the epitome of determination and optimism, often seen with a smile that can light up the darkest corners of Container Town, the Port of Retropolis, Prime's Isolation Station, and O'Neil One. Her green eyes shine with an insatiable curiosity, and her investigative nature is driven by a genuine desire to inform and protect the public. She is motivated by a relentless pursuit of truth and a steadfast belief in justice, which often puts her in danger but never sways her commitment.
Quote: "No villain too devious, no lair too dark. The story will be told, and it will be told right. That's the McCauley promise. Don't touch those."
Powers/Tactics: While Poppy possesses no superhuman powers, her wit, resourcefulness, and resilience are her greatest strengths. She has an uncanny ability to land exclusive interviews with the most elusive figures in Meta-Earth and often uses her notoriety and charm to disarm those who underestimate her. Poppy's tactics involve a combination of stealth, persuasion, and a knack for being at the right place at the right time, often yielding scoops that no one else can secure. She pays END when her Luck is active. This is so she can Push her Luck. [I'm so funny....]
Campaign Use: Currently in the clutches of Bishop Bad Ass, Poppy is unaware that her little brother Chet McCauley is an air pirate in the employ of PLUNDER.
Appearance: Poppy McCauley is known for her classic, all-American looks. She has a bright, approachable smile, fiery red hair that she often wears in a professional style, and piercing green eyes that miss no detail. Her attire is always impeccable, favoring smart suits and skirts that serve both her on-camera role and the need for mobility during unexpected fieldwork. Her signature look is completed with a press badge that she wears like a medal of honor, symbolizing her dedication to her craft. She is also fond of carrying handcuff keys, a small blowtorch, a book of matches from the last bar she visited, a Floating Fixed Teleport Location, four candles, Mental Defense torc, Bronsonite underwear, ETHEL Reality Stabilizer, the keys to a storage shed she bought during a promotion on WFBQ, and the Bottled City of Tragus-Telgar. 
 
Find Poppy here: HERO Forum Uploads

Runequest has a somewhat well-known magical sword that goes by Nose-Biter (it tends to hit foes in the snout/snoot/proboscis more often than is should).  It's fully intelligent and self-aware with its own agenda, and prefers to find wielders who are "cooperative" in the sense of being weak-willed and generally dependent on the blade to survive.  By tradition these wielders are known only as Nose-Biter's Feet, which pretty much says everything that needs to be said about the relationship.  The current Feet in the published material is a trollkin, one of the runt troll-spawn created by a curse their fertility goddess is stuck with.
That first Indiana Jones film really did have a great ending, didn't it? 
 
"Top men."

I have long had a love of the Ars Magica version of Europe, but translating it into Hero System has always been too intimidating for me.

Okay. If we're staying Euro-centric, PCs could be agents of the Doge of Venice, engaging in covert operations or leading battles on land or sea against Genoa, Pisa, or the Turks (or their fictional analogues).
 
Another great location/example for a more focused campaign would be the Kingdom of Asturias on the northern Iberian peninsula, which from its effective founding in 718 fought many battles with the Moors of Al-Andalus to the south, as well as Viking raiders. The kingdom was contemporaneous and had good relations with the Carolingian Empire, so trips into those lands and entanglement in the Empire's affairs would also be possible. (BTW Asturias transitioned into the Kingdom of Leon in 925.)

I'll mention an obscure but interesting setup.  Way back when The Space Gamer was still being published by Steve Jackson, it ran two short stories by Timothy Zahn about a wandering swordsman named Conaker and his magical sword Whehalken, which had a djinn bound into it providing its enchantment and a few other powers.  They ran in issue 43 and 48, and AFAIK Zahn never did anything else with the characters.  Both can be found online easily enough, and issue 48 also has an article with Aaron Alston talking champions as a bonus. 
 
The setting's magic rules mean that the easiest way to enchant something (weapons, armor, lamps, even architecture) is to summon and bind other-dimensional spirits into them, which is effectively slavery for the intelligent ones - and even minor elementals are semi-intelligent.  I won't spoil the stories beyond saying that, but it does mean that almost all magical swords are self-aware, and some are capable of speech and may have their own desires.  Well worth a read - both stories are very short, and the magazine includes some game mechanics for using this style of magic item in AD&D.  

I guess that I am very cynical L.L. , the P.T.B's say it's destroyed, the P.C.'s did not see this happen, nor did they do it themselves, I suspect that it is stashed away for that foreseeable day when things go south between elves and orcs.
I have used TWO methods for creating sentient weapons (not just swords) 1. - a demon is summoned and imprisoned within the weapon, when used by someone of like nature there is harmony between the wielder and the wielded but when wielded by a goodly natured person there is a continuous battle of wills between the weapon and it's wielder, 2. - Noble weapons (almost always swords) requires that a church commission the creation. A saintly person of that faith must sacrifice their soul unto the weapon, if a person of evil or ignoble nature attempts to use said weapon it will turn in his/her hand and refuse to damage good. (as determined by the weapon)

Well, the PCs in my urban D&D campaign encountered a magic sword with a will of its own, though it did not talk. Thousands of years old, forged by Elves for one of their ancient wars against Orcs, still devoted to the cause. Only, oops, Elves and Orcs are now equal citizens of the Plenary Empire (as are all sapient beings who are capable of obeying its laws). When the sword woke from centuries of sleep to find itself in a city with an orc minority, it overpowered the will of its owner and began a campaign of assassination intended to spark a race war.
 
The PCs dealt with the situation and freed the wielder from the sword's control. They have been assured by the Powers That Be that the powerful sword has been destroyed.
 
Dean Shomshak

There's what I think is a very interesting and plot-advancing concept for an intelligent sword in Hero Games' NPC supplement for its Fantasy HERO line, Nobles, Knights, And Necromancers. Silvertine is a powerful enchanted long sword of beautiful and noble appearance, with the ability to speak mind-to-mind with whoever holds it. Any spell to Detect Evil or Good will confirm its benevolent motivations. But all its positive appearance is a concealing illusion (Images). Silvertine is actually an ugly and brutal-looking weapon, which matches its true malevolence. It wants to cause suffering, death and destruction, and to trick or corrupt its wielder into committing terrible acts. Sometimes it will "guide" a promising victim for years, but if necessary it can take direct control of its holder's mind.
 
Silvertine feeds off the life-force of its wielder, but most insidiously. Whenever the person takes BODY damage in battle, Silvertine Drains an additional point of BODY, so it won't be noticed.
 
EDIT: I assume everyone here is familiar with the most iconic intelligent magic sword in fantasy fiction, Stormbringer, from Michael Moorcock's stories of Elric of Melnibone. But not everyone may know of the granddaddy of them all, Lord Dunsany's Sacnoth.

I have a fellow player in one of our games whose secret ID is a plucky female reporter (her heroic ID being a luck-manipulating street fighter vigilante type) but I can't think of any NPC versions.  A different campaign has a rookie police officer who's pretty much doing the whole "in over her head" thing Lois Lane tended towards back in the day, but she's not technically a reporter, of course.   
 
There's a pair of recurring news crews in the campaign I run, which are a mix of male and female and spend as much time competing with each other (they're from different stations) as they do actually filming, but I don't think I'd call any of them plucky.  My players' collective opinion of the whole lot of them as potential romantic interests is Hell, No!  There's also a sleazy tabloid reporter gal who shows up now and then, but she's more of a menace to the PCs' public images than anything else.

The 13th century had the Mongol invasions, so it would be an opportunity for lots of adventure and fighting. Almost like a medieval world war, I suppose. As I recall, they went on for a couple of generations before the Turks managed to repel them.
 
I also find the politics of Italian city-states to have lots of potential. Plotting, scheming and knives in the dark.
 
Like others have said, there’s always fun with Vikings. I would go for an older era for this. Perhaps 7th or 8th century.

The 13th century had the Mongol invasions, so it would be an opportunity for lots of adventure and fighting. Almost like a medieval world war, I suppose. As I recall, they went on for a couple of generations before the Turks managed to repel them.
 
I also find the politics of Italian city-states to have lots of potential. Plotting, scheming and knives in the dark.
 
Like others have said, there’s always fun with Vikings. I would go for an older era for this. Perhaps 7th or 8th century.

The 13th century had the Mongol invasions, so it would be an opportunity for lots of adventure and fighting. Almost like a medieval world war, I suppose. As I recall, they went on for a couple of generations before the Turks managed to repel them.
 
I also find the politics of Italian city-states to have lots of potential. Plotting, scheming and knives in the dark.
 
Like others have said, there’s always fun with Vikings. I would go for an older era for this. Perhaps 7th or 8th century.

That sort of thing is why they don't make flashcubes any more. 
 
Or better yet, one of those old-timey cameras where you put the flash powder in a pan loose. 
 
"Beware my doomsday device, you Gen Z slackers!  Its technology is far too outdated for you to even comprehend!"  - the Sesquicentenarian

I had almost forgotten, you bastard.
 
 

I also recommend this book.

I would recommend the Kazei 5 setting book. There is an entire section of the sourcebook devoted to full-body and partial conversions as well as another for cybernetic parts.

This news just . . . floored me. NC Soft has actually licensed City of Heroes to one of the private servers, Homecoming. I found out yesterday, been making heroes since. It looks like Homecoming doesn't have any major changes over the old live version. It's essentially the live state, with the planned issue updates implemented. Not a huge problem getting back into it. The old cash shop is now a "P2W Store" which lets you buy things from the old cash shop for Influence (in game currency instead). The game always needed an influence sink, so that's a win win. I snipped the announcement post from their forum, but there's also a FAQ and more info in the thread linked:
 
https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/47223-ncsoft-homecoming-license-announcement/
 

Mizu had wicked trouble cutting through that tree while practicing focus; it took her several tries. The other ridiculously talented swordsperson in the story also spent some time mastering the same trick. Looked to me like a critical hit or a very high damage roll in the 2- or 3d6 range.
 
She made the sword herself from strange meteoric ore that her teacher -- a renowned master swordsmith -- could not melt. I'd have bought it armor piercing.
 
I long ago wrote up a version of Ogami Itto (Lone Wolf and Cub) with a 2d6 AP Dotanuki that he can get to 3d6 before pushing (+4DC Slashing Stoke). I figured that would be enough to cut through a ship's mast or a tree (5 PD, 8-11 BODY) ; feats he has canonically performed. (As well as cutting the tips from regular Katana and slicing heavy chainmail right off several opponents without drawing blood. Eep!)
 
Alert Readers may recall that Bruce Wayne kicks a tree down in Frank Miller's Batman Year One, although it does take him a couple of blows. Figure 8d6 from STRENGTH 20 and Offensive Strike +4DC would crack an 8 BODY tree in three hits.

Weaponmaster seemed the most appropriate, as her most impressive damage is done with a bladed weapon, either a katana or naginata.
 
In a battle on a cliffside against four pretty tough-seeming opponents, she bisected one of them (separating the top and bottom of an armored foe on screen with much blood shown). With a die or two in Weaponmaster and the right martial arts maneuvers, I’m thinking she gets up to 4d6 HKA or so. I’m also still inclined to go with 3d6 and an Armor Piercing naked advantage.
 
The tree cutting was something she did as part of her practice and focus training during one downtime scene. She didn’t cut through a tree every time. Most of her cutting was through enemies.

Well, in looking at the basic numbers, a medium tree has 5 DEF and 8 BOD, so an attack of 4d6 HKA (average of 14) should be able to slice through its trunk, or maybe a 3d6 HKA (average 10.5) with Armor Piercing. She didn't seem to be pushing STR and was instead showing extreme focus in her skill.
 
Samurai armor is listed as topping out at 6 DEF in most locations (with sleeves and greaves only being 4), so mook samurai types in armor would be about as hard to cut through as a medium tree.
 
I don't recall her cutting through a really huge tree trunk or metal armored men during the series, so a purchase of one die of the Weaponmaster Talent would seem to suffice. Then either buy a second die or add in a Naked Advantage of Armor Piercing with a sword for up to 45 Active Points of attack would seem to work.
 
That would put Mizu in the Powerful Hero category at a bare minimum, but far more likely a Very Powerful Hero.