"Raider 01: Manhunt" by Richard Lorenz

Manhunt

They came for me at night. Late at night. So late, in fact, it was almost morning. They were tired and disgruntled from searching for me all over town. But it was their own fault, their own arrogance, really.

They started in the taverns close to the keep walls, and worked their way down to the docks and warehouses, hitting every brothel and low dive in between. A lot of other undesirables were rounded up in the manhunt designed for me. These were people the City Watch had been looking for, but it took the Duke’s Men and the Prime Temple’s Priests to drive them out to be arrested, jailed, and await trail. But it was only me for whom they were prying into all the dark recesses after.

Taverns, bars, brothels, opium dens, fighting pits. The Duke’s own Men had been brought to organize and execute the search, and they had certain ideas about me already. Violent, brutal, a butcher. A stealer of innocence, slayer of the innocent, and one who awakens Dreamers. Heretic and Atheist.

I said that this manhunt was designed to unearth me, but it wasn’t. Not really. It was based on flawed assumptions about my character. They had all heard about the atrocities, read the stories, and the Officers had interviewed the survivors and studied the reports. The description of me they had was accurate, right down to the freckles on my elbows. But that doesn’t mean they knew me.

The Duke sent his men in with my description, and orders to find, bind, and transport me back to his castle-keep. Nothing was said about utilizing locals, or even letting the local constabulary know what they were about. That in itself would have saved them a lot of time.

And the destruction. Their basic tactics were to surround and overwhelm with superior numbers. Fully armored knights marching into taverns with drawn swords usually cause a panic. Overturned chairs and broken crockery are expected, but the knights chased anyone who ran, smashing the chairs, tables, and other people in their way. I think there were two taverns and a wharehouse that burned to the ground that night, and another half dozen closed for a month or more for repairs.

Oh, I haven’t told you where I was that night. The City Watch knew. Everyone else in town probably knew, too. That’s why there is a Special Inquiry into the Watch, the City Fathers, and the town in general. How could they know there was a monster in their midst, and not point the Knights and Priests in my direction.

I was at home, sleeping in bed.