The Blood of Dawnwalker: Under Watchful Eyes and the Growing Momentum Manual

Under Watchful Eyes is the side quest that begins the moment you finish The Firebrand by speaking to Mert the Miller in the dungeon beneath Stoneward Post. Mert has to survive that quest for this one to trigger. What follows is a low-level escape from a camp full of soldiers, with a 250XP reward and three time segments spent from your 30-day clock.

Quick answer: Take the Prison Keychain from the table upstairs while the guard captain’s back is turned (or loot it from the guard’s body), unlock Mert’s cell, then leave through the locked door in the lit alcove on the north side of the overseer’s tower — it uses the same key and completes the escort objective without touching the main gate.

Quest details for Under Watchful Eyes

Detail	Value
Location	Briar Sloughs / Stoneward Post
Quest giver	Mert
Requirement	Mert must survive The Firebrand
Objectives	Get the key to Mert’s cell, free Mert, escort him through the main gate
Reward	250XP
Time cost	3 time segments
Fail state	None

The camp doubles as a Court Activity for Ambrus. Clearing the enemies inside and rescuing the Miller counts toward the Prisoner Processing Camp entry as well, so you are raising Ambrus’s anger level at the same time.

Get the Prison Keychain and free Mert

Climb the stairs after talking to Mert. Friedo, the guard captain, will be facing away from you, which leaves the Prison Keychain sitting on the table at the back of the room. Grab it while he is not looking — the Steal prompt turns red the moment someone can see you.

If you would rather fight for it, the guard’s body near the cell drops the same Prison Keychain along with a Saffron Milk Cap, some Denarius, and the Amulet of Fortitude. At night you can use Voracious Bite from Focus Mode to take that guard down without a fight starting.

Loot prompt appearing over a fallen guard's body inside the Stoneward Post prison — The Loot prompt over a downed soldier — this is where the Prison Keychain and other drops come from. Image: Rebel Wolves

Before you open the cell, sort out your weapon. If you entered through the front gate and surrendered your gear, there is a Weathered Longsword in the back right corner of the room. Stealing it makes the guard hostile, so go straight into your inventory and equip it before the fight properly begins. You can swap weapons mid-combat, and claws are often stronger than an early sword after dark.

Unlock Mert’s cell. The guard sharing the room draws his sword the instant the door opens, unless you already dealt with him. There is a second cell nearby holding a woman you can free as well; she simply runs off and does not change the quest.

Fighting out of the tower

Freeing Mert alerts the camp. Expect Friedo upstairs alongside the miniboss Rayko the Incorruptible, and shortly after that a group of three guards plus a dog pushing into the tower. There is no stealth route past this ambush, so hold a doorway, use the directional parry system, and dodge the unblockable swings rather than trying to block them.

Make a quicksave the moment combat ends. Crafted healing items matter more than food here, since you are underlevelled and the fights come in waves.

Quest tracker pointing toward the bridge near Stonepost as the character climbs a ladder — The tracker switches to the bridge objective as you move up through the camp interior. Image: Rebel Wolves

Note: keep an eye on your hunger before the quest ends. If Coen is starving during the final conversation, he will feed on Mert automatically. Drinking from animals or a stray guard beforehand avoids that.

Where to find the Growing Momentum Manual

The Growing Momentum Manual is a Swordmastery book, and the copy most players run into here comes off the guards you clear outside the prison. Loot every body and container in the camp — the manuals that drop from soldiers are randomised, so the exact pile it lands in varies, but the bodies from the tower ambush are the usual source. The same sweep also turns up Common Yarrow and Dog Hide.

Growing Momentum sits in the Swordmastery tree and raises your weapon damage with each successive attack. Owning the manual is only half of it. To actually unlock the perk you need to interact with a Shrine, open the perk selection, and spend a Skill Point earned from levelling up or quest rewards.

New Growing Momentum perk highlighted on screen next to a Voracious Bite interaction prompt — Growing Momentum appearing as a newly available Swordmastery perk. Image: Rebel Wolves

If you miss the drop, the manual is not lost. There is no cap on manuals in the game, and several merchants stock this one.

Merchant	Location and access
Constantin	Southern Bandit Camp in Rockfalls — beat him in a duel, then spare him
Tantari Blacksmith	South of Tantari Shrine, St. Tyna’s Grove — reach Tantari village
Drogos	Svartrau City, Sliberstein — during the Manumit questline
Catalin’s Tutor (Baltzer)	Northeast of Oghasti — free the captive outside Lunar Manor
Parlita Blacksmith	Parlita, Boar’s Back — reach Parlita village

Merchant stock rotates somewhat between saves, so a vendor who is not showing manuals on one visit may have them on the next.

The back-door exit that skips the main gate

The objective text tells you to escort Mert through Stoneward Post’s main gate, and that is misleading. On the north side of the overseer’s tower there is a lit alcove with a door locked by the same prison key you already used. Behind it is a second door, again on that key, opening straight through the outer wall.

Leave the tower and turn left instead of walking forward into the open camp. Follow the exterior wall of the prison tower around to the north until the lit alcove comes into view.

Use the Prison Keychain on both doors. Passing through the outer one counts as completing the escort, even though you never approached the main gate, and it cuts out the bulk of the camp’s remaining fights.

Objective marker for the bridge near Stoneward Post as the character passes through the gate — Clearing the wall with the bridge objective active. Image: Rebel Wolves

Fighting your way out the front instead is a longer road. You take on four guards in the eastern section, then Cerbus, the Scornful with three more soldiers to the north. Cerbus is worth killing on purpose if you want the loot — his body carries 130 Denarius, One-and-a-Half Mead, two Minor Fortitude Paste, Brencis’s Elite Soldier’s Fibula, the Ring of Purging amulet, a Wicked Falchion, and an Adrenaline Rush Manual.

Ending the quest and sending Mert to safety

Once you are outside the walls, a cutscene plays and Coen asks Mert where he can go. Pick “The almshouse in Svartrau” to point him somewhere safe. The quest closes out and 250XP lands.

Coen speaking with Mert outside the camp walls in the closing cutscene — The closing conversation with Mert after leaving Stoneward Post. Image: Rebel Wolves

Freeing both Mert and his wife back at the mill pays off later — with both alive, you can find them again in Svartrau. Skipping the animal blood beforehand is the one thing that reliably ruins the ending here, since a hungry Coen takes the “[give in to the hunger]” route and Mert never makes it out.