Melisma Gat had put any ideas of a career in magic and adventure behind her long ago. Now all she wants is to run her inn, entertain locals and tourists, and provide that one final decent night’s sleep for adventurers (whether seasoned pros or hopeful trainees) before they head off into the forest for whatever ridiculously dangerous quest some rich idiot from the nearby city of Twunhorm has decided to fund.

But Melisma’s modest and reasonable ambitions suddenly become a lot less realistic when her nightly performance is interrupted by two large creatures bursting into her inn. The city has declared emergency lockdown and it falls upon her to lead a party of trainees off the script of their final examination quest and halfway up an imposing mountain, so that she can get back to her simple life and, if it’s not too much to ask, save most of the city’s population from being devoured, torn to shreds, or whatever the unleashed magical hybrid creatures have in mind.

Why halfway up a mountain? They’ll just have to ask the villain when they get there. Maybe she doesn’t believe you can have high fantasy at sea level. To find out, Melisma is first going to have to lead her inexperienced team to overcome obstacles, defeat henchmen, solve riddles and avoid being eaten. All she has at her disposal are distant memories of her incomplete training, knowledge of a few simple spells, a couple of books she barely remembers buying and the unreliable translation skills of her pampered pet cat.

Discworld meets Knightmare on a planet with purple plants, a magic system inspired by music theory, and adventure questing as a serious field of academia. The Dungeon Campaign for Animal Rites has all of the quirky humour you’ve come to expect from the author of The Weapon and the Fruit series, but with added satire and no murders.