DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: Dawn of Revolution

The Tricksters

Four days before the coalition war began...

"We did well to eliminate the sisters' guards, but the job is just beginning," Vinswith Babert told his minions during their team huddle in a back alley. "Sir Farraday is paying us to bring his five daughters in alive and unharmed. They're vulnerable, but not helpless. I'm sure you see the distinction?"

"Yeah, I got it, boss," Brick, an orc fellow, agreed. "We can break their legs, but not their necks. Right?"

Vinswick scowled and slapped the oafish orc. "No, you dolt! We use capture magic and ropes to subdue them. Farraday would flay us alive if we injured them!"

"Sure would be easier if we could rough 'em up a little, though," Josig, a muscular fire genasi woman, put in. "I'm with Brick. I'd take half pay if it means no chance of the sisters escaping." She made a wicked grin.

Vinswith rolled his eyes. "Very funny. Maybe that's how they do things in the Khanate where you're from, but not for this job. Farraday's instructions were clear. Written right there on the contract we all signed."

Josig's grin widened. "The contract I can burn to ashes with one finger."

"No burning! No leg-breaking! Just capture them!" Vinswith snarled. Gods above, he really got what he paid for with these low-cost mercenaries! Even for a bounty hunter on a budget, perhaps he had been too frugal for this mission. Well, the mission was already half-done. Vinswith might as well work with what he's got.

"I don't mind a stealthy approach," Donn, a gray-furred tabaxi man, said. "I'm called Quiet-Paws in Mehir Balad for a reason. I'll get those sisters for you, boss."

"Very good," Vinswith said, nodding. "Now -"

"What flavor of catnip do humans like, again?" Donn added, frowning.

Vinswith nearly choked. "Cat... nip...?"

"To lure Farraday's daughters into my trap."

"That don't work on humans, fur-face!" Ired, a female human ranger, snapped. "It's called catnip!"

Donn flattened his ears in embarrassment. "I never thought to take it literally."

Vinswith groaned and ran a hand over his temporary face. "This is going nowhere. Look, we followed Farraday's daughters all the way here to Warwick, and it's a long way back to Sassanoit. I am not going back empty-handed."

Brick nodded. "Neither am I. Let's just catch those quintuplets, break their legs, then -"

"No leg-breaking!" This time, it was Donn who slapped Brick.

Josig burst out laughing. "I'd take a quarter pay if we could break some bones. It would make things so easy."

Vinswith was quickly being reminded why he usually hunted bounties alone. Ugh. "I've got a decent plan. Just follow my head!" he hissed. "The sisters are still busy with errands for their little revolution here in Warwick, but not for much longer. We're losing time."

"Let's do it, boss," Ired said with a wicked grin.

Finally.

Vinswith laid out the plan, and after Brick got slapped for a third time, the group was ready for action. Vinswith's team of five fanned out in Warwick's busy main street, passing all kinds of quaint shops and taverns, all while colorful pennants fluttered on the breeze overhead. This walled city was a wonder, perched on a steep cliff with a sparkling waterfall feeding a winding river in the grasslands below, and Vinswith liked it when his jobs took him here. But Farraday's daughters... those quintuplets were slippery. Good thing Farraday was offering top coin for this job!

"There's one now, boss," Donn muttered when a certain brown-haired young lady appeared in the crowd. "The lass in the green outfit. She really stands out."

Vinswith cracked his knuckles, preparing his next face for this part of the job. "I see her, too. Get ready, team! That one is Miranda. She likes wearing green and is a carefree, easygoing lady who doesn't always pay close attention to her surroundings. And see how she's got a goofy skip to her step? That's definitely Miranda, the fourth sister."

"Wow, boss, you've really got 'em memorized," Ired commented.

"The sisters are tricksters. They're adept at mimicking one another, but even so, they're underestimating me," Vinswith said coldly. "Now, let's do this."

Vinswith broke out into a rapid trot as he transformed into a kind elderly woman, careful to keep his face relaxed and cheery to maintain his disguise. Even changelings like him had to be careful when doing this, but Miranda was as good as captured.

"Excuse me, dear," Vinswith said, tapping Miranda on the shoulder. "I'm afraid I'm lost! I'm visiting my nephew, but I took a wrong turn. Which way to the residential district?"

Miranda made an embarrassed smile and giggled. "I'm sorry, madam, but I don't know, either. I'm visiting this place, too!"

"Oh, is that so?" Vinswith said with false disappointment, then motioned to Josig and Brick. "In that case -"

"Oops! Gotta go!" Miranda glanced over her shoulder, then utterly vanished into the crowd. What the...?

"After her!" Vinswith hissed. "Pincer maneuver! Go!"

Brick and Josig came from the left, and on cue, Donn and Ired came from the right, but Miranda was simply not there. But another human lady was.

"Hey! Ain't that another one?" Brick cried, pointing with a clawed finger. "In the yellow!"

Vinswith whirled around, and sure enough, recognized Minerva, the eldest quintuplet, primly walking down the street like the noble-born lady she was, head held haughtily high. She was identical to Miranda, of course, but her manner of walking and her bright yellow dress clearly marked her as a different sister. So Miranda wasn't alone after all!

"Go! Plan B!" Vinswith barked, motioning with his hands. Then he morphed into a stern-faced water genasi man and broke out into a run to distract Minerva, fists pumping. These sisters were good, watching each other's backs like that! But Vinswith was a seasoned bounty hunter. Catching tricksers like these ladies is how he made his living.

Vinswith pushed aside a startled firbolg woman and bumped into an elderly halfling man to break free of the crowd, and there Minerva was, totally vulnerable in that tacky yellow dress of hers! She had no weapons, no magic scrolls, no nothing. One quintuplet would have to do for now!

Minerva saw the water genasi approaching her, saw the four mercenaries flanking her, then scowled and ducked low, dashing back into the crowd. She even raised the hem of her gown to make sure she didn't trip.

"GO!" Vinswith roared, too impatient to care who heard him. Josig even took a running leap to tackle Minerva, only to miss and crash into a barrel of apples, with the dragonborn shopkeeper cursing at her with his fist raised.

Then, a moment later -

"Another one! In the blue dress!" Donn hollered, pointing with a clawed finger. Sure enough, there was another quintuplet, cautiously and fearfully navigating the busy main street. That nervous composure, combined with her sky-blue outfit, clearly marked her as Mozzie, or sister #3.

Time for plan C! The sisters were getting away and going in all different directions, but Vinswith had an agent for each of them, 5 vs 5. He barked orders for Josig to go after Miranda and Brick to pursue Minerva, and then he sent Ired after Mozzie, who had just rounded a street corner. Scattering like this would do the quintuplets no good. They are fools to underestimate a bounty hunter!

Vinswith jogged after Ired and Mozzie, hollering, "Did you get her? Report!"

"Can't find her, boss!" Ired cried. Like Vinswith, she clearly didn't care that more and more people were watching Vinswith's team with alarm and confusion. "But another sister's going that way! Look!"

Curses, these sisters were persistent! Vinswith followed Ired's finger and spotted a familiar-looking human lady in a violet gown making her way toward the financial district. That was Maggie, the second sister and a skilled diplomat. Well, she's not gonna talk her way out of this one!

"Donn! After her! In the violet dress!" Vinswith shouted, and his tabaxi minion sprinted right after her, his tail puffed up with excitement, his feline agility allowing him to easily gain on his quarry! Ha! Don't try to outrun a tabaxi!

Except Maggie did just that.

"Whoa!" Donn leaped after Maggie, only for Maggie to leap onto a shop's awning and make her way onto the next building's roof. Since when did noble-born ladies do parkour? And in a fancy dress like that!

Vinswith spent a moment looking this way and that in the intersection, this time posing as a gnome lady with braided hair, his eyes narrowed. His minions were all chasing after Miranda, Minerva, Mozzie, and Maggie, which left just him and -

"Murbella! So there you are," Vinswith muttered to himself, spotting the final sister visiting a potion shop just up the road, wearing a bright red gown. Vinswith raced after her, preparing his rope and person-holding spell to catch one of these wretched quintuplets and get this increasingly annoying assignment done. He let out a cry and lashed out his rope -

"ARGH!"

A surge of electrifying pain raced through Vinswith's body from head to toe, and he suddenly felt like limp rubber. He collapsed in an awkward heap just ten paces from Murbella, who yelped out in alarm, staring at him while clutching her face in horror. Vinswith didn't blame her.

Then Murbella broke into a wide smile and pointed. "Haha! We got you!"

"What..." Vinswith numbly wriggled on the ground, struggling against the paralyzing magic that locked him in place. He gawked as Minerva, Mozzie, Maggie, and Murbella approached from a side street, all carrying rope and spell scrolls. Minerva was the one holding a spent spell scroll, casting a person-holding spell straight from the paper. Curse her!

Hey, wait a moment... Murbella was right here! Two of the quintuplets were wearing red dresses? That wasn't their style! There can't be two Murbellas!

Then the first Murbella snapped her fingers, and her gown transformed into a green outfit with a burst of gold sparkles. "Enchanted gown. Just twenty gold coins," she taunted her changeling foe. "Totally worth it. You should see the look on your face!"

"You're... Miranda?" Vinswith choked out. "But you ran off in a completely different direction! And what of my agents? They should have caught you four by now!"

"We caught them," Minerva told Vinswith, folding her arms. "We've been stalking your party the whole time, and you had no idea."

"The hunter became the hunted. Cliche, but true," Maggie said, pointing right at Vinswith.

"How...?" Vinswith croaked.

"It was me the whole time!" Miranda declared, spreading her arms dramatically. Ugh, that really was Miranda, the goofball of the family. "I ran around Warwick changing my dress every time you lost sight of me. So you thought I was all five of us at once. But nope!"

Vinswith's jaw dropped. "You did all that yourself?"

"I'm the most athletic and agile quint. It's no trouble for me."

Vinswith wanted to argue, but it was no good. He was done for, and by now, the city guards were arriving on the scene, preventing Donn, Ired, Brick, and Josig from doing a blasted thing to help. "So you were the bait, Miranda. What a risky, gutsy move. Instead of five sisters pretending to be one person, one became five. I never would have thought of it."

"We knew right away you were after us," Mozzie told him as the Warwick guards secured the scene, glaring at Vinswith. "And we're not ready to return home to our father just yet. Not until the Kingdom of Verhamaine is free of the tyranny of the king."

Vinswith scoffed. "That Lorelai put a lot of wild ideas into your heads, didn't she?"

"You underestimated us," Murbella told him smugly. "Changelings like you can mimic someone else's face, while we understand each other on a deeper level. It's easy to imitate each other in every way, not just with our outfits."

"That's what it means to be sisters," Minerva declared.

Vinswith groaned. "Oh, stop. I get it already."

"Sir, you've caused enough trouble as it is," one of the guards told Vinswith. "We already caught your compatriots. They're all wanted outlaws, and we're haulin' em in to the city jail right now. And we're taking you in for questioning."

"I'm just a bounty hunter on a job! Not a criminal," Vinswith spat as two guards hoisted him up. "You can't arrest me for this."

"He's working for our father. Who's loyal to the king," Murbella told the guards.

The guard captain nodded. "Understood. We'll make sure this bounty hunter can't leave Warwick until you sisters have returned safely to Coventry. I suggest you not leave Coventry again until the revolutionary war is won, however. This should be your last expedition for Lorelai."

"We understand," Maggie said, making a polite bow. "Thank you. We will quickly finish our business here and take the next carriage back to Coventry."

Vinswith made an irritated noise. "I thought people were exaggerating when they said Warwick was totally committed to the revolutionary army's cause. Even the guards will take the revolution's side?"

"We won't lock you in the dungeon. But we'll also make sure you can't reach Farraday's daughters again," the guard captain told him sternly. "You'll never set foot in Coventry and survive, bounty hunter. Don't mess with our noble cause."

"Haha! Serves you right," Miranda taunted Vinswith, making a rude hand gesture until Mozzie made her stop.

"We're done here. Let us prepare to leave Warwick," Minerva announced, clapping her hand together. "And I agree with the guards. We must lay low in Coventry until the king is removed from power. We can still do plenty of good hidden away in Lorelai's headquarters."

"Yeah, I know. But I feel so cooped up there," Miranda whined as the five sisters joined hands and walked off toward the city's northern gate. "It's the worst."

Murbella chuckled. "You'll just have to bear it, Miranda. You did well today! Just think back on this anytime you're feeling bored."

"Deal!" Miranda agreed, and the five sisters chuckled.

Vinswith merely sighed as the guards dragged him off (he was still paralyzed). So much for an easy job. Or the money. Or his pride. What a day!