The Predictions Desk

The forecasting counter on the promenade deck. Every dawn the river hands the boat a reading, and the Desk takes your calls on tomorrow's today. Three desks, one call per desk per day — and the Desk's oldest rule underneath them all: your stake is never the price of being wrong.

The Desk's rule, printed on the counter: when you make a call, the Desk holds your stake — 5, 10, or 25 Dough — until dawn. At the reading, your stake comes back in full, no matter how the call lands. Call it right and the Café pays a prize on top, printed at each desk. Call it wrong and the resolution is just your stake, home again. There is no outcome at this counter where you end with less than you staked. The Desk plays the Non-Event Dividend: the reading may not go your way, but the Dough was never the reading's to take.

The river readings

Every day has a river gauge — a whole number from 0 to 199 — fixed by a recipe printed below, with the Desk's salt in plain sight: . Tomorrow's number exists already, but the Desk shows you only its seal today: a short hash of the date and the number together. At dawn the number is revealed, the seal is checked in front of you, and every open call settles. The seal's job is simple — it proves the number was fixed before you called it, and that the Desk hasn't moved it since.

Today's gauge — revealed at dawn

—

Tomorrow's gauge — sealed

#————————

The Predictions Desk

The river readings

Settled at the Desk