For the folks in my Sky Galleons game in the afternoon, here is the teaser (I'll read over this part again at the start of the game so don't feel like you have to commit it to memory or anything.) :
Each member of the group (Lizzie excepted) has been contacted and asked to attend a meeting in the Library at the Governor’s Palace. As boon companions of adventures past they begin catching up on each other’s recent activities when into the Library comes Lord Sir Robert Jameson, Provisional Governor of the Crown Colony of Syrtis Lapis, accompanied by a portly man with glasses. Captain Umbridge recognizes him as Allan Carstairs, head of the Royal Astronomical Society on Mars. Governor Jameson has a grave look about him.
“Greetings gentlemen, madam. Thank you all for coming today. I’ll get straight away to the point. I’m sure you’ve all read the papers and have heard about the pair of Ether ships, one German and one American, which have vanished over Venus over the last couple of months. I’ve just gotten word that two others have gone missing and we have a confirmation that one of them was, in fact, destroyed entirely.
It appears that a beam of some kind emanated from the surface of the planet and struck one of these ships causing it damage that ultimately proved catastrophic. Their boiler was seen to have exploded causing massive hull damage and the loss of all hands on the ship. The vessel in question was a German ship by the name Königin Luise. Its destruction was sighted by a British research vessel and relayed to an outbound supply ship carrying rubber here to Mars. The British research vessel never made it to our outpost on Venus. That ship was the Challenger.”
Budrajah gasped, “But sir…”
“Yes,” replied the Governor, “my son was on that ship.”