The hole

Location: The Hole

The old man shrugged and looked into his cup. "Cannae do much, lad. Them mines, ia theirs..." He said explaining to the young merchant the situation in Aquilo. The drunk took another gulp and looked at the young man. "Wat abou' ya? Wat ya doin' up 'ere?"

Wim smiled at him.
"Name is Wim Riese," The young noble said sticking out his hand.
"I was sent to see if the mine is going to succeed and if there are opportunities for other businesses to be brought in," Wim said in a pleasant tone.

His brief assessment was he was sitting on the powder keg that he had warned Master Sadir about.

The man looks at and nods and returns to nursing his drink.

Wim pressed in, "What did they find in the mine?"

The man shrugged again. "Sum chamber. 'Ard to talk to them." He explained. " Summit or another 'bout forbidden..." He drained the last of his drink

Wim raised an eyebrow at that. It sounded like something that needed to be investigated.
"Wiv them soldiers 'ere now, am sure Markus will..." he replied and you felt you were loosing his attention.

Wim nodded realizing this was about as far as this was going to go.

Wim leaned his chair back and started writing in his book again. Thinking to himself, What did this place need to be successful? People first and foremost, the natives working the mine were not reliable or more likely his people had not tried to understand what was going on. He needed a quick end to the tribal fighting or he needed to get into the middle, supplying both sides could get him the resources he need. He would need horses to haul things. He needed food, he needed lumber for building, he needed wagons, wheelwrights, blacksmiths, carpenters… He needed people to come and want to settle in Aqillo. That would be something he would need to negotiate with the Duke.

Two things came to his mind for this to work. He needed to build shelters for people to sleep in. Tents would work for a season maybe two. They need dorms for the men to sleep in by fall and he needed a store to sell goods. The second thing was a passable road. A big flat stone cut by the stonemason could be dragged behind a team of horses back and forth making a smoother surface for a wagon and the horses. The road would speed up the travel and reduce the damage to the wagons at least till it rained.