Raze_Larian: That sounds more like a glitch that reloading fixed. Guards will attack you if your reputation becomes too negative, but even killing a couple friendly NPCs (accidentally or not) shouldn't trigger that.

Was a statuette involved in your arrival at the guild? There can be a brief delay when transforming (less than half a second) before alignments get adjusted properly. Playing with the spider statuette in my first game, I entered a tent in the orc camp in the south east section of Ferol, transformed and immediately attacked an orc. He gave a dialog saying something like 'help I'm being attacked' and IIRC I got -2 reputation killing him, so I thought he was a friendly orc I was suppose to rescue, and reloaded. Upon returning, though (without the use of the spider statuette), the only orc in there was hostile.

Raze_Larian: There are 3 dwarven teleporter scrolls to be found in the game, 2 in Ferol and 1 in the Dark Forest. Two are in areas with a population of dwarves, while the first one you can get is with a lone dwarf (not Otho).

The frog statuette can let you move pretty fast, even when encumbered. The spider statuette makes you allied with orcs, so you can do the army quests much earlier than you could otherwise (though you would have to be quick when you transform back into human form to complete the required tasks), or just scout around in orc territory. The spider can also attack NPCs, primarily of use to chase (most) merchants out of their shops, so you can loot (though you would have to be careful about attracting guards or transforming around any NPCs). AFAIK there is no practical use for the cat statuette. There is also another (unique) statuette in the game, which you can find in a specific spot if you explore everywhere and read a bit of lore (though it doesn't provide any new abilities or uses).