Watcher: Constable Penham Fletwood
Subject of the report: Stone Quarter Bandits
During the course of my patrol this day, I had set my eyes on a man matching the description of one of the Stone Quarter Bandits to a suspicious degree. Encouraged by this fact, I decided to follow the man for a while to cause a reaction and confirm my suspicions, which he quickly did by beginning to flee from me. After chasing him all across town, I managed to bring him down outside of the town, on a hill near Staddle. There he pulled back his hood and surrendered, claiming he could not flee anyways.
Not believing a word of this, I took my blade off his throat, where I had it initially, and tried to run my sword into his leg in the knee area in an attempt to demobilise the man and prevent his escape while leaving the possibility of further interrogation open by keeping him alive. The man managed to divert this attack and engage in a long lasting fight, during which he sustained multiple hits and the loss of his pinkie finger on one hand to my blade. The fight carried over into Staddle proper, where he attempted to use hot metal from a smithy against me before throwing his dagger at me. I had to jump to the ground to avoid the blade, knowing the man was too battered to make a quick escape, but just in that moment the other bandit, whom we identified as Robert Brokenridge, showed up after being called upon by my initial opponent. Interestingly it seemed like my opponent thought this "Rob", as he called him, was supposed to be out there and lamented that he did not come to his support earlier. Finding myself without reinforcements, outnumbered and utterly exhausted while facing another, fresh opponent, I saw myself forced to retreat.
I regret to inform you that I could not apprehend the men in question and that a later search of the area with the help of guards from the Combe Gate returned no trace of the men.
To prevent further regrettable incidents of this kind, I would suggest to increase the size of patrols to at least two men each, as these bandits are clearly able to call on their friends when finding themselves in combat. With our new influx of recruits, we should surely have the capabilities to do so.
Signed,
