Under Watchful Eyes is the prison break at Stoneward Post, and it is short by design: four entries, all of them inside one location. The journal files it under The thirty days and records Briar Sloughs as its journal region — an NPC band of roughly 5–12. The introduction sets up the difficulty: “Mert was caught by the soldiers and taken to Stoneward Post for questioning. I need to speak with him, maybe help him get out of there… But it won’t be easy. The place is heavily guarded.”
Where the quest sits
Mert the miller is the objective, and his information is what the manumit thread runs on afterwards — The Firebrand and Shadows in the Woods both depend on what he knows. The journal’s four entries are a straight line: get the key from the overseer’s side of the post, open the cell, walk Mert out through the main gate, and collect your own gear on the way. The last entry repeats the confiscation beat that Taking Back What’s Mine covers on its own.
Journal objectives
The journal records these four entries, in this order:
- Get the key to Mert’s cell — “It’s disgusting what they did to poor Mert. I should at least try to free him from that damn cell, but I must find a way to get the keys to the cells. The overseer should have them.”
- Free Mert — “I’ve got the key to Mert’s cell. Time to free him.”
- Escort Mert through the Stoneward Post’s main gate — “I freed Mert from his cell. Now I need to get him out of Stoneward Post safely.”
- Retrieve your weapons — “The soldier at the gate of Stoneward Post confiscated my weapons. I need to retrieve them.”
Before you go
The 5–12 band makes the post itself safe to approach; the risk is inside, where the journal describes the place as heavily guarded. Do this before the manumit rendezvous content so that Mert’s information is available, and expect the escort to be the part that goes loud. The Stoneward Post guide is the location reference, and the mid-game walkthrough covers chapter routing.