((The following is the testament of Danwick Hale, dictated to a member of the watch in the Bree jail after being ambushed and brutally tortured while on patrol in the stone quarter.))
I was on my usual patrol route, traveling out of the stone quarter and towards the beggars alley when, from the gate of the Lowbank's estate, a party of five, all of them hooded, masked, or both emerged with weapons drawn. The evident leader of the group,((Nogfrid)) a sly, and unsettlingly jovial fellow with a brown goatee, blue coat, and dark hood with mask covering the upper part of his face explained to me that "the network was here to send a message" and began skulking around the side of me. The next figure ((Torturer)), a man with ragged leather and cloth hood and mask, had slinger over his shoulder a large lumber axe and two leashed attack dogs came forth and began going around my left flank. Then past the gate a woman ((Cerriel)), hooded and masked like the rest, had a fat-stocked crossbow trained on me, ready to shoot my legs out clearly enough. Standing in reserve was a man ((Hesagor)) dressed in thick furs and a black masked hood over his helmet was holding tight to a large battle axe, prying for an opening, and sitting atop the gate a dark skinned and black haired woman ((Oddisa)) with a mask covering her lower face was waiting with an axe of her own to leap in.
To dodge the crossbow I rolled around behind a corner and struck out at the dogs, felling one of them an axe blow to the neck, badly injuring the other with my sword. What ensued after was a haze of close quarters battle the finer details of which have now become a blur to me. In the fighting they had tried to cut my wrists and make me drop my weapons, knock me to the ground with the blunts of their axes, one of the dogs bit onto my leg, the woman with the crossbow shot me once in the shoulder, once in the leg, and once in the stomach, I stood my ground as long as I could, killing the other dog, and eventually their handler was also felled by my sword, cackling madly as he fell. Eventually I was thrown to the ground by the man in furs and a blow,to the back of my head nearly knocked me out. Even then I thrashed at the, with my axe and dagger, striking at their legs, and trying to knock some of the down. Inevitably though all the strength was sapped from me as I had my weapons forced away from me and was pinned by the rest of the group, by now the dark haired woman, who's leg I badly damaged in the fight had left, and only the leader, the woman with the crossbow and what at this distance I noticed was a very distinctive curved sword, and the fur clad man remained leering over me. I spat on them and warned them that if they meant to kill me they would only create a martyr, naturally, they thought otherwise, apparently according to them I was to be made an example of what would happen to those who oppose their "network" and from that I still am trying to figure out who it was that could have done this, though... bah, we can save it for later.
It watched as money changed hands between the leader and the woman, then... The torture began, they to crushed both of my hands, and while doing it, I ended up with my right ring finger taken completely off after it was nearly severed in the fight. From what the healers explained... I will likely heal, but may never be able to entirely make proper use of my hands again. They also tore one of the tendons in my leg, and surely would have continued inflicting their torments if not for the timely arrival of another watcher, the recruit Nygell who arrived after I didn't report back. The woman and the leader fell back into the beggar's alley while the man in furs stood and fought with Nygell. All the while a Good Samaritan ((Narchith)), a young girl native to the Beggar's Alley ran to the scholar's stair at my direction to find healers, a task she performed admirably at, the last thing I saw on that scene was Nygell and the fur clad man clashing as the healers carried me off to receive proper healing here.
((It was at this point Dan's testimony ended, he faded out of consciousness from the strain of talking as the healers were continuing trying to stabilize him.))
