:: Random Item—Brick of Invisibility ::

There are few times when genius can present itself quite like a moment of need. I'm certain you are already informed, but there are a good many unexpected things in this world, and a brick with the power of invisibility happens to be just one of them. You've probably already heard this story, but suffer me to tell it again, if you will.


Zuri was an exemplar of the Dark. Which was fitting, as the mole-folk race he belonged to spent most of their time in the darkness of their underground home, the Bórean Caverns. Except that Zuri did not live in the Bórean Caverns. Zuri lived in the open plain near the city. He and his two brothers had come here to live the life of freedom and self-improvement that came with being independent of the colony.

They had needed a place to live, and they were used to being surrounded on all sides by stone walls, but as they had very little money and no skill with building materials other than stone, Zuri's youngest brother had to work as a miner. In time, he hired a thatcher to come and make him a simple shack of straw where he could rest his sensitive eyes from the light of day. Zuri's second brother had a similar plan, but was at least a little more successful when it came to procuring a sturdy shelter; for, you see, the carpenter made his house of sticks.

Now, I'm sure you know where this story is going. You can see the pattern, can't you? Yes, as you might have guessed, the two silly brothers just ended up digging straight through the sod foundations of their houses and sleeping in their own self-dug tunnels, entirely defeating the purpose of their hard-earned shelters.

Meanwhile, Zuri eschewed the life of the miner altogether; too cliché for one such as he. No, he apprenticed as a brick-maker and learned the trade of mixing straw and mud to make bricks. All day he would stir and stir, adding in just the right amount of water—not so much that the bricks would crack when they were fired, but not so little that they would crumble before they ever entered the kiln. In time, Zuri became a master brick-maker, for certain.

I suppose you can see where this is going? It's fairly obvious where Zuri lived, isn't it? Yes, he lived in an old abandoned cathedral (for it so reminded him of the caverns back home), and secretly joined the local church of the Dark (for as I said before, he was an exemplar of the Dark). So secretive were the meetings, and so dark the nights when they would meet, that no one ever once realized Zuri was even a member, let alone that he remained behind after services and slept under the altar just to have something firm over his head.

Zuri spent many years this way. In fact, he eventually became an Avatar of Darkness, using his divinely-bestowed power to disguise his otherwise squeaky voice so that it filled the cathedral with a deep commanding boom while he led services. He pretended to be a demon, chastising his brothers (for they had come to worship, too) for their shameful living spaces, on account of their lack of structural integrity, not to mention displaying an unforgivable lack of imagination. What if some horrible blowhard beast were to come along and demand to eat them? Why, their houses would be knocked flat in an instant, and they would be supper without so much as a struggle!

And that, you might have guessed, is precisely what happened. That night a monstrous creature with fangs and fur, with glowing red eyes and flaming hot breath strode up to the straw house of Zuri's youngest brother and offered to light his straw house on fire with a mere cough. In exchange, the youngest brother would kindly offer himself up to be eaten.

"But, my! your price is steep and your demolition services are quite unnecessary!" said the youngest brother. "But do come again another time, good demon!"

"But I have come all this way," the demon reasoned, his voice booming into the night. "And the fires in my belly are stoked! I am hungry after my long journey. You simply must invite me in for supper, and then I shall get to destroying your ugly home straightaway." The demon listened for a reply, but there came none.

And, alas! When the demon heard no response it opened its fanged mouth and coughed a fearsome roaring fire all over the little straw hovel, quite disintegrating it entirely before the smoke had even cleared. Luckily, our little Bórean friends know how to dig tunnels, and Zuri's youngest brother had got away quite unsinged.

And I suppose you know already what happened next. Yes, shortly after decimating the shack of straw, the demon—all fur and fangs and fire—got to the house made of sticks and knocked politely to see if anyone was home first. And coming to the door was a fine human chap with a handlebar moustache, carrying a candle in his hand. The mustachioed chap straightened his night cap, and tugged on his handlebar in consternation, and explained that the mole-man who used to occupy the place had sold it several years ago to a beggar named Jack, and once Jack had come up in his fortune he had sold it to the chap at the door with the candle, and terribly sorry for the inconvenience, and did the demon care for a cup of tea?

The demon did not care for a cup of tea, but begged the chap's pardon, and bowed politely, and stalked menacingly into the night.

And so it was that the demon, a bit perplexed, returned to the kiln to do a little work before the night was done. For day was coming on and he wanted to return to the cathedral and have some winks under the altar in a bit, but first he had some things he wanted to sort out in his head, and what better way to do that than to put in a few hours making bricks?

Of course, as you have already surmised, our good and faithful Zuri was under that illusory disguise the whole time, and he dispelled it now, with no more need of it, and promptly reached into the kiln with the tongs to remove the bricks he had left firing there several days ago. They cooled as he thought, and he thought as they cooled, and he wondered where he had gone wrong.

But as in sluffish thought he stood, his brothers two with eyes of flame came whistling from the nearby wood and skidded to a halt at the low brick wall to say:

"Brother, quick! There is a demon loose, and you must run away before it sees you here! It has been hunting you, and he, and me ever since the death of day! Now run away, run away, all the way home...!"

Or that is what they would have said, if they had not already surmised what you and I have tonight. Which is that their brother was a terribly beastly sort who would go around trying to scare his own kin into seeking alternative housing for no good reason, and all to nurse his own wounded pride for being a no account snob when it came to building materials. And who was he to think poorly of them when he lived in an abandoned cathedral where he puts on airs every week pretending to be a demon and trying to fool everyone?

Not them, of course, for his own brothers knew how Zuri trilled his r's and overemphasized his s's. What they did not know is how Zuri couldn't have heard that his second youngest brother had sold his home all those years ago and moved to the city, and now had a fine place near the gardens, where it's quite nice to dig in the cool dirt for a few hours in the middle of the day, and it might have been even better if Zuri would visit once in awhile. And they were ashamed of him, and never wanted to see him again!

And this, as you might have guessed, is when that moment of need arose. For if Zuri's brothers never wanted to see him again, then they never would. Zuri wordlessly grabbed one of the cooling bricks and poured a powerful enchantment into it. Only a moment later, both Zuri and the brick were gone.

And that—as I'm sure you already know—is the story of how you get a brick with the power of invisibility.