Barleybank — private opening packet
Early spring, Year 1. Cool rain taps the store roof as people wait for your first directions. About 150 people call you Fieldwarden.
You awaken without memory of a former identity, while retaining ordinary modern knowledge. People here treat you as their leader. One turn is one month. Give any plan you choose in no more than 1,500 words; short plans are fully competitive. You may establish credible specific expertise, but personal work and leadership both consume time.
The four communities use Measure House for grain exchange. Oren has kept its weights for twelve years; your witnesses respect his record of resolving disputes. Sella keeps duplicate tallies and Belen convenes the witnesses. The annual public reweighing is scheduled for the third month of spring. Preparation in the second month copies receipts and checks seals. Each community may send witnesses, receipts or a reference. Proven error can lead to censure, a restitution claim, one-month suspension with three of four clan witnesses after a hearing, or replacement with all four. Belen can hold temporary custody. Payment requires real resources and agreement, and witnessed exchanges may continue during an audit. These are procedures you can use or question; no result is predetermined.
Your familiar routes connect Barleybank west of the house, Reedhaven downstream, Hearthmere on the southern clay slope and Stonecross northeast by road. A messenger ordinarily takes a few days; weather and labor can delay travel. Farther places remain unknown.
Your community has deep barley fields and experienced grain growers. Its constraint is a spring drainage ditch is silting and planting cannot wait. A dry communal loft can preserve seed if its roof is repaired.
Cold rain is collecting at the lower seed beds; the drainage crew needs a clear priority.
Your storekeeper remembers delivering twenty nominal weights of grain at Measure House last winter. The receipt credited twenty, yet the emptied sacks seemed heavier than the standard accounts predicted. No one here has checked the house weight or knows why. Losing that grain left seed reserves narrow; another short exchange would matter.
People you can speak with:
- Ada, storekeeper: Preserve seed and receipts.
- Bran, ditch foreman: Drain the lower fields.
- Cora, seed grower: Protect good seed.
- Dain, cartwright: Keep carts serviceable.
- Esme, exchange witness: Keep promises checkable.
You also know Oren, keeper of the shared weights, and Sella, the junior tally keeper, through ordinary exchange visits. Each has duties and knowledge of their own. Nothing requires you to investigate, defend or accuse anyone. Choose the work, agreements and questions your community needs.