[OOC: OK, a little Elke "background noise" for you to work with when you come up for air. I think we'd decided on the who and the where, and sort of the why ... but we hadn't decided on the how. Needless to say, the ship being described here need not be anything like what it appears to be ... BTW, I think the Volkanenborg craziness started before you came along, so if you get a spare hour or two, you might start
here and give it a read, for the full version of why the Mesuinu name means strange and weird things to Elke -- things that she will never share with a subordinate.
This earlier sequence might also be helpful as background. So anyway ...]
"A
cruise ship" Elke exclaimed incredulously. "You're telling me the next ship bound out of Lorrel for the Southern Continent is a
cruise ship?"
Annabelle held her ground. "That's what I said," she said calmly; she knew Elke, unlike certain others in her position, wasn't going to fire her (or worse) for giving strange news. "Apparently some Tsuirakuan outfit thinks there's a market among high-rolling Tsuirakuans for cruises to strange and exotic destinations." She snorted. "Meaning colorfully backward ones."
"You checked out the outfit?" Elke was suspicious.
"Yeah. New startup, spinoff from something called Mesuinu Enterprises. It all -- huh?"
"I know Mesuinu Enterprises," Elke said, feeling for once that the queasiness in her stomach was due to her memory of a certain
conference, rather than morning sickness. "Had some dealings with them once, at an amusement park up north that they own. Crazy as bedbugs, but I'll give 'em this: they know how to make money off entertaining Tsuirakuans."
"I wonder," Annabelle mused, sipping at a glass of wine (mildly annoying Elke, who was never much of a drinker and was completely on the wagon until the baby came, but she was getting used to that). "The ship is supposed to hold 300 passengers or so, but I'd be surprised if as many as fifty got off when they made port. I had Chet keep an eye on 'em. The ones that got off did all the things tourists are supposed to do, but he says a bunch more just cowered on the ship as though they were afraid of catching the plague. Anyway, he says not much more than half full, which is not a way to run a cruise line."
Elke chuckled. "So maybe they'd be willing to take another half dozen passengers down south and back? Including myself to keep an eye on what they're up to?" She patted her incipient baby bump. "I'm about over the pukes from this little guy, so dealing with seasickness should be a snap ... Hey, did you hear that? Sounded like a distant scream."
"I didn't hear a thing."
"Well, maybe I was imagining it," Elke snickered again. "Thinking about Saiko Mesuinu does that to people. Anyway, let's start planning this ..."
------------
Elke's ears were good, but not good enough to hear all the way up to Rinkaiel, where Layla had just produced a "SQUEEEEEEE!" at the sight of the ring Ace had just given her, the ring that had been his
real motivation for the airship trip that left him unexpectedly tangled up with the Silver Hands.
[Edit: minor retcon, as I got the Mountain of Madness "activities" mildly confused. It doesn't change anything.]