Andre trudged down the road, absent-mindedly dodging a psychotic-looking chicken. He gave himself a mental slap, he was a BRUTE, he should have booted the chicken halfway to the castle rather than avoiding it. He was very careful about his brute image, plenty of scars and clothing designed to intimidate, his weapon, an urgrosh, was chosen for it’s brutish image. Even the name was good – grunt, growl, hiss – can’t get more brute than that.

Eventually he arrived at The Headless Goat, the preferred hangout for mercenaries, assassins, thieves and various other dodgy characters looking for a job and some amusement in the meantime. He headed to the gaming zone and grabbed a free GameStation400(TM) console. If he couldn’t get some brute action happening on the street, at least he could practice online.

He entered the virtual challenge arena and sent out his broadcast – he was ready to take on any and all comers.

A couple of hours and ten brutal(!) encounters later, he was down to his final life, just one heart pulsed on the screen, and needed one more challenge win to level up. A new adversary entered the ring. “Brute! I answer your challenge!!”

Andre grinned, just in time, the stopwatch on the screen was nearing zero – his gaming session time was nearly up. The newcomer continued, “As I am the one being challenged, I have the right to decide the weapon…”

“Brute, I challenge you to a battle of… … … WITS!”

Andre blinked, he was a BRUTE, he wasn’t meant to have wits. He was in trouble now.

“What has a head and a tail but no body”

Andre thought fast, “A coin”

“Hmph, lucky guess brute, but you need to get two more correct to win and the second one’s not so easy. What belongs to you, but others use it more then you do?”

Was it a trick?That was super easy, “Um, my name?”

“There’d better not be anyone helping you! Cheating will cost you your last life. Next one, what walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at midday and three legs in the evening?”

Andre was flabbergasted, “Dude, that’s the Sphinx’s riddle, everyone knows the answer is Man – you crawl as a child, walk upright as an adult and use a walking stick in old age.”

The challenger vanished with a frustrated scream and spiral of black smoke and the game timer ticked down to end the session. Andre put down the controller and realised everyone in the room was silent, looking at him, the brute who just won a battle of wits, DAMN!

Then a voice came from a table in a dark corner, “Hmmmm, a brute with a brain, I may have a job for you my boy.”