-----   Day One: Oaths and Orders   The first rays of morning sun catch on Ser Wyn’s polished armor as he stands in the training yard of Isondale’s central barracks. Commander Renswick, a grizzled veteran of two wars and more street brawls than he can count, steps forward with parchment and solemn eyes. Before anything else, Wyn is asked to take an oath—not just to the city, but to its people. Loyalty, courage, restraint. He repeats the words and seals the vow with a firm grip and a nod.   Training begins with long hours of drill instruction: command protocol, whistle signals, and the chain of authority that runs through the Watch. The barracks is a disciplined place, but the whispers among the recruits and officers speak of something chaotic stirring—tales of tremors shaking the southern Wyrm Mountains. Wyn files it away. For now.   ----   Day Two: Blades and Bureaucracy   Day two opens with combat drills. Wyn spars with the barracks sergeant, a nimble half-orc named Dalra, and soon learns that commanding men requires more than strength—it demands precision, anticipation, and a calm center. In the afternoon, his sword hand gets a rest as he is walked through reports and arrest procedures.   At evening muster, a patrol returns early, shaken. Their captain reports that a trader arrived from Plumefall claiming entire herds of livestock were found dead—flattened and pulped in the fields with no sign of a predator. Renswick tells Wyn not to worry just yet. Still, the rumor grows legs.   -----   Day Three: Walking the Beat   Wyn is assigned command over a squad for a full day shift. He walks the central market with them, takes testimony from a merchant whose goods were tampered with, and calms a street brawl between gnomish laborers. He demonstrates a steady hand, using his voice more than his weapon, earning nods from Renswick.   That night, a scribe from Dewbreak arrives, requesting an audience with the Commander. The scribe speaks of seismic activity around Lake Haliwaki. His message is odd: the fish have fled the shallows. Ser Wyn listens from the corridor and notes the unease in the man’s voice.   -----   Day Four: Fire and Flood   A training fire drill erupts into something more—an actual warehouse blaze down in the docks. Wyn organizes a cordon with the help of the watch and directs the bucket lines. Though the structure is lost, no lives are, and the Commander is clearly impressed.   As the flames die, a courier arrives with a dispatch from Titan’s Dream. Strange pulses felt beneath the streets. Ground vibrates like something stirring. Ser Wyn hears more than a tremor in those words. He knows Titan’s Dream rests atop a buried spelljammer. The implications chill him.   -----   Day Five: Leadership Under Pressure   Wyn leads two patrols in tandem, one to investigate a counterfeit coin operation in the artisan quarter, the other to monitor a group of suspicious travelers. His orders are efficient, his strategies calm under pressure, and his respect among the guards solidifies.   That night, a traveling bard plays a new verse of The Ballad of the Backwards Delvers in a tavern. But just before the chorus, he pauses and adds a line:   Now deeper drums from southern dark, That whisper death beneath the bark.   The room quiets. Something old is moving. Ser Wyn listens, heart clenched.   -----   Day Six: War Council   The city council summons Captain candidates, including Wyn, to a closed briefing. Rumors from the south can no longer be ignored. Plumefall has gone silent. Runners sent to investigate have not returned. Councillor Varn shares a map where strange sinkholes have been reported.   Wyn is asked for his thoughts. He speaks not only as a knight, but as a man who has walked under the wings of dragons and survived what others called madness. This is no siege of armies, he says. This is the world itself groaning.   ------   Day Seven: The Weight of Command   On the seventh morning, Ser Wyn receives a silver pin shaped like a falcon’s talon—symbol of a Captain in the City Watch. Commander Renswick clasps it to his cloak himself. You’ve earned more than rank, he says. You’ve earned their trust.   But before he can savor the moment, word arrives: Wyrmstone is in ruin. The beast has risen. Again.   Wyn looks south, toward the hills where the kobolds live. He knows now what he’s been preparing for—not just to lead men, but to stand against a horror that history forgot. The final march has begun.