A guide, told in fairy tale form, to the creation of a powerful artifact.

Also a popular Discordian bedtime story.

There was once a wise man (why always man?) …

There was once a wise woman who lived high up on a mountain as a hermit and was admired by many people. One day it happened that a young girl climbed the mountain in search of enlightenment and knowledge and at the top of the mountain the girl met the wise old woman. „Say“ said the girl „can you show me the way to knowledge and enlightenment?“ and the old woman picked up a fist-sized stone from the ground and said „Here, my child, this is the magic stone of Rild. That stone which comes from Atlantis itself and was once a part of its walls. And such is its power that it is able to create but also to destroy and always it shall be helpful in everything you do in life.“ The girl gazed in disbelief and was astonished that the old woman wanted to give her a stone of such boundless power just like that, and yet she took the stone and the old woman spoke again: „So then go into the world and wander for three days, and in these three days you shall gain the knowledge for which you are so thirsty. The girl went there with the stone in her luggage and as she wandered it began to rain and she became cold. So she took the stone from Rild and drove 3 branches into the ground with it, which she covered with leaves and twigs. And in front of her shelter she built a fire which she was not able to light. Then she took the stone of Rild and struck it against another stone of admittedly less magical magnitude, and lo and behold, sparks came out and the fire blazed brightly. The next day the girl felt very hungry, but except for a bush with nuts hanging from it, which were not so easy to open, there was nothing that could alleviate her hunger. So the girl took the stone and hit the nuts with it, opening nut after nut, and her hunger was relieved. Soon after, a scoundrel roamed the forest in which the girl lived and that scoundrel wanted to transgress against her, but in her distress she grabbed the stone of Rild and threw it at the scoundrel's head so that he fell down dead. There the old woman appeared and the girl ran to her and scolded her quite terribly where the enlightenment was after which she longed so much and when the old woman wanted to have the stone back the girl said „No in this stone is so much power I want to keep it! So the old woman said to her „My child, this stone is quite ordinary. I took it and gave it to you and told you about the miracles it was able to achieve. But were it not you who built the shelter, and were it not you who cracked the nuts, and were it not you who threw the stone and killed the scoundrel with it?“ And the elder laid her hand upon the head of the girl and said „The essence and magic of the stone springs from your spirit. You yourself are the stone of Rild.“ Some people say that the girl was enlightened by this…others say that she smashed the old woman's skull with it because she had deceived her, lied to her and put her in danger so much that she retreated into a dark cave with the stone of Rild which was now her greatest sanctuary and she killed everyone who got too close to the cave.

Addendum: In any case, it is still common today to give a Discordian a Stone of Rild as a symbol of the magical abilities inherent in each of us. Besides, there are always some morons who pay a fortune for such stones.