The Curse of Robotic Movement: The Fourth Hassle of Merganser McNeap

of their own actions, hire a witch new to the area and eager to make a name for herself as one ready and willing to do the dirty work for you for cash and for her own amusement and satisfaction.

This time Merk is feathered, twice kidnapped, and finally reduced to stiff robot-like movement under specific conditions.

Further complicating things, an inventor friend is starting to street-test his mobile actual man-like robot, named Jiminy, that he made to look like Merk as a compliment that becomes a burden.

And Merk's photo on newspaper ads for his employer have the police looking for him about possibly pulling a street robbery.

Strangers, one pair wanting the robot, another pair wanting an item they think Merk is carrying, confuse Merk for the robot and try to steal them both off the urban streets.

During that, Jiminy is damaged and left wandering, and then hiding, as the robot's inventor and Merk search for him.

Merk and his wife try to figure out how to turn it back on the tormentors while not badly harming anyone by what they do. She wants to learn to cast spells in self-defense, but only with his okay.

Can Merk repeatedly use the limitations of that class of spells to evade the effect? Tormenting him is now a personal challenge for the third witch. Can he push her to make a critical mistake?