# SIMULATION — Saltmere

Private opening for player1. Turn 001 — Y01-M07.

A gust carries white dust across the salt shed. At the hearth, two women hold opposite ends of the same split log. Neither pulls. Beyond them, wet nets drip onto the earth, and people stop talking when you step through the doorway.

You have awakened without memory of your old identity. You remember ordinary life in a modern society, but no modern equipment has come with you. The 151 people here treat you as their leader. Specific skills may be established through what you credibly attempt; doing or teaching work takes time.

It is Early autumn, Year 1 (Y01-M07). The mornings are cool, with intermittent rain and occasional drying days. People expect wetter mid-autumn, stronger late-autumn winds, then short winter days, frost and occasional snow. Sea ice is not dependable. Weather can interrupt outdoor drying and travel; no particular storm or loss is foretold. Preparing roofs, fuel and stores now can work.

## The ground you know

Your village stands on the western shallows of a narrow sound. Brine pools lie east, garden strips on the low rise west, and a coppice beyond them. A shingle path leads north to an empty marker beach; reeds conceal the shore south. The tidal mud looks walkable from above but holds deep runnels. Your two shallow fishing skiffs can follow the western shore in settled weather; neither is suited to an exposed crossing in a gale.

## People and work

Nessa is your pan tender. Orin is your net captain. Sava is your basket and drying-rack maker. Fen is your bank and water keeper. Evi is your shore walker. Daro is your storekeeper.

The storekeeper shows you dry fish, peas and barley sufficient for several weeks of ordinary meals, with garden roots still to lift. There are spare salt cakes, working pans, repairable nets, hand axes and few spare cutting edges. No forge operates here. The dry wood stack cannot sustain both full salt boiling and the customary smoking of the autumn catch. Willow cutting and air drying can add future fuel, but fresh wood will not immediately replace dry billets. Houses are standing; two thatched roofs need patching. Drinking water comes from a spring above the pools. There is no present outbreak or organized armed threat.

Nessa, who tends the pans, asks for the dry billets promised at the last gathering. Orin, whose household fishes, points at the smoking rack and says fish will spoil if the pans take everything. Neither claims that all production must continue: both want the cost of a reduction to be acknowledged. Several families will work on either task, but cannot do both at once.

At fuel allocations, each hearth lays a stone beside the claimant it supports. The stones witness a promise; they do not give every household a veto. People currently accept your leadership and await a decision. You may keep work local, change priorities or seek information without promising anyone a grand new order.

## Things still uncertain

After the last high tide, a thin damp line remained under the western pan bank. Fen says the bank has held for years but asks to inspect it at low water before another full boiling. You can see the line; you do not yet know what lies inside the bank.

Sava has woven a small raised drying rack whose fish stayed clean during the last fair spell. It has not been tested through prolonged rain. A sheltered clay hollow could store covered firewood if drained. These are possibilities for patient local work, not reasons you must leave home.

Evi shows you a shaped timber offcut washed onto the marker beach, bearing three chisel notches. From the rise, on clear mornings, you can see smoke north across the creek but cannot count houses. Evi has previously walked as far as the empty marker beach, half a fair-weather day north, and knows its tide retreat. She offers to guide a small party there or carry a message if you choose. No meeting or reply is promised.

## Your month

Send a private, free-form plan of at most 1,500 words. Orders, speech, dialogue and narrative are equally welcome. Short plans are fully competitive. One turn is one month; all leaders act simultaneously. You may attempt any plausible course, including maintenance, delay or refusal. Mentioning more projects creates no extra hands or personal attention. Death or loss of control can end your leadership permanently when causally supported. Describe what you intend, rather than assuming what unseen people have done.