Chapter1: Solace Bay . . . Meet the Ocean
Solace bay Meet the Ocean
The last time we left Robert and James Wyant of the Solace Bay Co. they had just had a land deal stolen out from under them by the new official town of Lake Maureen. While this infuriated them and they are certainly scheming to find a way to repay Lake Maureen for this trick, something much more urgent has come to their attention.
Through the efforts of the Solace Bay Co. lumber division, over the past ten years, nearly all the trees surrounding the settlement* have been removed 
*(despite it's 8,000 workers, Solace Bay was never officially chartered and is legally not a town so I will call it a settlement for now).
And the stumps left in the ground have been rotting away as time moves on.
This wouldn't really matter to Robert and James, except that over the past year (1907-1908), in perhaps an attempt at payback for the slaughtering of the forests, the North Ocean has brutally eroded the shoreline of Solace bay . . .
At first the Inhabitants didn't really concern themselves with it, but after a recent storm several tons of the settlement's growing dump washed into the sea scattering the shorelines with all sorts of filth.
Also, the storm washed out a large section of beach near some worker's shacks and now two of them could be washed away with the next big storm.
In just one year the shore has eroded by 30m in the worst places, at this rate, in just two years, hundreds of homes, half of the power plant, and several factories will be gone. With the winter of 1908 approaching and certainly the worst storms of the year approaching, the whole town of Solace bay is uneasy as to what will happen. Normally, the Wyant brothers wouldn't concern themselves with environmental issues, but with the workers in a frenzy over this and large amounts of their property at risk they must act quickly.
Unfortunately, this has not happened because things are going badly between them. It seems that over the past few months a rift has separated Robert and James. It started as little disagreements over decisions on factory operations and property management. Robert wanted to focus on finishing the rail before expanding their local factories, and James wanted to build as much as possible regardless of how long the rail link would take to finish. Workers were upset about their working conditions. James thought force was the solution, and Robert thought big talk coupled with minimal action and investments was the solution. But, it all boiled over when Lake Maureen Chartered and stopped the sale of depreciated farms to the Solace Bay co. James was so furious that he wanted to bribe the Inakaye Government to force Lake Maureen to give them the land, but Robert disagreed. While he was angry as well, he wisely stated that Lake Maureen relies on Solace Bay a great deal for its livelihood, and that an opportunity would eventually arise that would allow the Solace Bay co. to get what it wanted. This difference in attitude between the brothers has infuriated James, who has a temper, and Robert who is perpetually levelheaded has failed to see the significance of James' rage, which just makes James even angrier. It has gotten to the point where the two of them hardly interact anymore save for board meetings where they often fight.
James spends many nights alone in their mansion
while Robert works all day and sleeps nights at the office.
In the author's opinion I feel that perhaps James feels neglected by his brother. They started this business together, and now that they have succeeded, Robert refuses to enjoy any of it with him and just wishes to keep working as hard as ever, often without even considering James' opinion on business matters. Robert on the other hand feels like James no longer devotes himself to the business and feels he has to pick up his brother's slack by working extra hard.
It is an ugly situation and it is placing a huge delay on making any sort of decision for this problem. But, after a small worker outburst in the neighborhood that is about to be swallowed by the ocean, Robert has called an emergency meeting of the board. It began this morning and is still going on right now at midnight. Of course, Robert and James have different opinions. James thinks that a seawall should be built.
Robert thinks that such a project is too expensive, especially with the costs they have incurred with the ongoing Iron Hills Rail Link, and the new factory construction that has already started despite his fervent disapproval. The addition of a huge seawall project may force the company to have to start mortgaging it's properties to pay for it. Robert suggests (almost ironically), that trees be planted to stop the erosion, they were what stopped erosion before and they can stop it again. He also thinks that It could perhaps help with the heavy air pollution of the area, thus serving as a double solution.
Another point that has been brought up during the meeting is that the Iron Hills Mine has excavated alot of large rocks, and that perhaps these rocks can be piled into a sort of rock-seawall.
The board meeting rages on, and of course in the end, Robert and James make the final call, but if you were on the board, what would you suggest?
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