Small Troubles

The Scroll Tasted Funny begins with a simple mistake, provided one defines eating an enchanted scroll as simple. A loyal little dog with a heroic appetite swallows something they absolutely should not have swallowed, and the magic does what magic tends to do when introduced to poor judgment: it makes everything worse, stranger, and harder to explain.

Now the pup can shift into a squat, bulldog-faced, almost-person shape with clever hands, guilty eyes, and far too many new ways to touch things they should not touch. This would be useful if they were wise, patient, or capable of not licking suspicious runes. Unfortunately, they are still very much the same pup: loyal, impulsive, snack-driven, and determined to protect their person while hiding the fact that they caused the problem in the first place.

As strange effects ripple through the keep, the accidental shifter must sneak, sniff, lie badly, and fix what they broke before the warden discovers the truth. Every glowing wall, missing parchment scrap, and suspicious pawprint brings them closer to exposure, while the eaten magic keeps tugging at the runes around them. If they are very lucky, they may earn redemption without bath time.

Hot Air is a comic caper about a smuggler whose menace is mostly bluff. His threats are magnificent, his teeth are real, and every one of his speeches ends in a puff of swamp gas, a long whistle or a candle going out. Locals have learned to wait it out and stay upwind. The trouble starts when a bigger outfit decides the bluff is worth calling, and a quiet sibling turns out to be the only one who can talk him down. Nobody gets hurt. Nobody stands downwind, either.