211

Yranai keeps an equal distance between the two mountains as his craft approaches the gap. But as it drifts nearer, you feel the air temperature beginning to fall rapidly as you get closer to the snowy peaks. Suddenly the basket is buffeted by rising air currents and you have to grip the handrail tightly with both hands to stay on your feet.

Your Magnakai tracking skills warn you that the balloon is in the grip of thermal air currents that are swirling between the peaks. These are being created by the coming together of dry air masses from the Bavari Hills and humid jungle air from the Dessian uplands. You warn Yranai but he seems unconcerned. ‘It may get a little rough,’ he says, as he struggles to keep his spectacles from being shaken off his nose, ‘but Simoom is built to take it. She’ll see us through!’

As if in defiance of his words, the basket lurches violently as the balloon is hit by a strong crosswind. Yranai is unable to reach the engine valves to compensate for this sudden change of direction and, to your mounting horror, you see the basket drifting towards a jagged outcrop of rock.

If you possess Elementalism and wish to use it, turn to 157.

If you possess Grand Nexus and wish to use it, turn to 283.

If you possess neither of these skills, or if you choose not to use them, turn to 87.