Bootstraps and Bourbon

Allen Dessel is Palladia’s newest supernatural contractor — freshly certified, questionably qualified, and already in over his head.

After getting booted from magic school for entrepreneurial misconduct (read: selling “enhanced study aids”), Allen figured contracting with the Registry of Unorthodox Contracting was rock bottom. Hunt monsters. Sling spells. Fill out paperwork. Try not to die. Simple enough.

But Palladia doesn’t do simple.

The jobs are getting weirder. The creatures nastier. And behind the bureaucratic tangle of spell-forms and task orders, something is festering — a growing unease, unspoken tensions, and a trail of half-buried truths that lead somewhere very dark and unpleasant.

Allen didn’t sign up to fix Palladia.He just wanted the paycheck.

But the city may have other plans.