A couple of things need to be addressed here. The first of which, this is a tiny village with just a few families who have lived there for generations. I can be fine with your insistence that somewhere back in the day his family was foreign. But I think we have crossed wires somewhere about the economies of such villages and the role of such a merchant. Long merchant travels to distant cities and foreign lands are beyond the means of a small village merchant. Such trips are expensive to start with and there is no market for the goods he'd acquire that way in Adishi. Certainly there are people in the time who do this, but not in this tiny mountain village. For start there are few coins to be had in the village, most exchanges are done by barter and trade, this is why the tax collectors rarely bother making the trek up. The role that Stanislav filled was that several times a year he would take the surplus goods his neighbors had accrued down to the small town at the foot of the mountain and exchange them for luxury goods like sugar, candles, etc. His services were paid for with goods and more services and perhaps a cut of the take. He traded their stuff for the things they couldn't make easily up on the mountain. The mountain provides all that they need, what they get are simple luxuries, not things like silk and china and spices from far off lands, those things were dear and few in Adishi could afford them. 

Something everyone should note (if they didn't bother reading the above) the road to the village is hard and treacherous. Things, ideas etc, have a difficult time getting up there, [b]for reasons[/b]. It is almost as if something were making it hard. Something besides a contrary GM [img]http://www.sympato.ch/smileys/EG.gif[/img]

You all will get out of Adishi, I promise you this. But you will get out as sheltered villagers for whom the wide world is a large and unknown place full of wonders both beautiful and terrible. 

Another thing I want so say is I put things in my posts that are subtle foreshadowing of things to come. Look for them. If you miss it, it won't ruin things for you, but it you catch it, such fun. It amuses me to put such things in even though they often get overlooked. In the OOC I mentioned the village Grandmothers and what the remember twice. They are connected, it was deliberate. Will it ruin things if you don't figure it out? Nope. Will it give you insight if you do? Yep.