In a little used alley -- or perhaps in a heavily trafficked shopping mall, or the corner of a fish market -- you may find a little shop bearing a plain letterboard sign: Gods and Services. The shop wasn't there yesterday. It won't be there tomorrow. And in its inventory you will find the most amazing trinkets, gewgaws, and tchotchkes. But caveat emptor! Anything you purchase from proprietor Hiram Priest comes with something a little extra -- a god, a god who is now determined to make your life better... in the opinion of the god in question.

Featured here are 10 stories from Ross Baxter, Ira Bloom, Laura J. Campbell, Aristo Couvaras, Jon Del Arroz, David J. Pedersen, Zach Smith, Michael Tierney, and Katherine Traylor, all of which are cautionary fables of people who made a hasty purchase.