Could be Useful is an introductory piece of fiction for Silkgift: The City of Sails, one of the supplements for Cities of Sundara, which is available in versions for 5th Edition and Pathfinder.

“Did you read that?”

“Read what?”

“That!” said Thaylus, pointing at a label on the bottle.

“Oh,” replied Darna, “that. I didn’t think it was relevant.”

Thaylus stood up, just so she could slump down again and hold her head in her hands. There was a crunching noise as some of the broken glass was ground beneath her feet.

Both she and Darna had been hiding behind one of the, solid, wooden, thick, cupboards in their Nightmare Alley laboratory. Thaylus sighed. “It’s a warning to not do with that liquid what you just did with it. Why did you think it was there?”

Daran shrugged. “I didn’t think it was necessarily right,” he said.

“That doesn’t mean it’s definitely wrong!”

Thaylus gave her partner an exasperated look. “You do remember this sort of thing is why we got kicked out of the Ingeneurium in the first place. Then out of that good place in Fool Street. Then the bad one. And why we are now renting this shack in Nightmare Alley, because no-one trusts us enough to keep us around anything expensive!”

She shook her head. “If we lose this place, we have nowhere else to go. Nowhere in Silkgift anyway; we’ll have to move beyond the city limits.”

Daran brightened up at that. “That sounds like a fantastic idea! No more neighbours causing trouble or people complaining about explosions. We should definitely do that.”

Thaylus sagged. “I could cry, I really could.” She wandered off mumbling “I wonder why I bother, I really do…”