and behead immortals. This alerted certain immortals to the fact that someone was hunting them down. When they killed the immortal Darius, who had given up violence to become a priest, the group earned the attention of his friend Duncan MacLeod. MacLeod discovered the existence of the Watchers from the Watcher journal Darius had kept. After meeting Joe Dawson and learning more, Duncan discovered that Horton was the leader of the Hunters. This led to several confrontations before Horton's death. The Sanctuary While the Watchers were mostly interested in keeping their existence secret from immortals, the 2000 movie Highlander: Endgame revealed that a sub-group made an exception for immortals who wanted to seek refuge from the Game and leave the world behind. To this end, these Watchers provided a secret place Sanctuary where they would place immortal volunteers into a coma-like state and care for them afterward. By providing this service, these Watchers meant to ensure that the Prize would never be won because there would always be at least some immortals still alive. There must always be two. It is unclear if the immortals who joined the Sanctuary knew they would be placed into a state where they would not be able to change their minds and ask for freedom unless awakened by someone else. It is also unclear if they knew that the Sanctuary was run by Watchers or believed it was an independent organization and didn't know about the larger Watcher order. In Highlander: Endgame, an immortal villain named Jacob Kell invades the Sanctuary and kills the immortals who are there. Matthew Hale, the Watcher who supervises the facility, is desperate that the Prize must not be won and decides to kidnap new immortal "volunteers" to maintain the Sanctuary's purpose. Kidnapping Duncan MacLeod, he comes into conflict with Joe Dawson. Later on, Joe shoots down Hale when the man attempts to kidnap both MacLeod and Kell and force them both into the Sanctuary. It is not clear if Hale's death meant the end of the Sanctuary. In the theatrical version of Highlander: Endgame, Methos refers to the Sanctuary as existing on holy ground. In the TV series and previous films, it was said immortals followed a traditional rule that fighting on holy ground was forbidden. The movie Highlander III indicated that fighting on holy ground would lead to unforeseen consequences but no other story indicated this and