Barbarians of Provo: Session 10: Rolling on the River

Session 10 begins with Sylph and the Shah’s advisor Marduk undertaking the less than enviable task of trying to teach Shangor how to act like a prince. Although Shangor proves to be a decent dancer with a surprisingly good singing voice, his attempts at poetry drive Marduk to drink and opium. One of the royal barbers nearly committed suicide after washing and trimming Shangor’s hair. In the morning, the whole group boards the Blue Arrow, an Amazon Hawk ship and they begin their journey to Teluk’Ammar.

During the course of the first two days of the trip, Sylph and Marduk continue their work with Shangor while everyone else attempts to play the roles assigned them. Shangor does make some progress as at one point, he sings a song so well, the entire crew stops what they are doing to listen. However, his performance of Shah Ulesir’s poetry would send even the most powerful of demons running back to Hell.

On the evening of the second day of the trip, Shangor retires to his chambers after a very long day of training. He longs for his iron battle axes and wishes at least one of the Amazons on the ship would be joining him in his chambers. As he begins to get into bed, he notices that there is a soaking wet man in his chambers, definitely not what he was hoping for. The man looks to be a bald Jademan with a stone amulet in his right hand. Before Shangor can reach for his hidden battle axe, the mysterious visitor chants and the stone amulet in his right hand begins to glow. Shangor is paralyzed! The Jademan closes in…..

Meanwhile, Sylph and Sul’khaz have “retired” to the cabin that they are sharing. Hawk and Katrina are on the deck of the ship when they notice a Amazon sentry watching out over the river. Hawk senses that there is something amiss and checks on the sentry only to discover that Amazon is dead; her neck broken. Hawk discovers a trail of wet foot prints and sets off to follow while Katrina raises the alarm. The trail leads to Shangor’s cabin.

Hawk attempts to break down the door without much success until Katrina arrives with three amazons that quickly hack the door down. What they find is a tied up Shangor over the shoulder of the mysterious Jademan. He is almost to the cabin window when by the time they get through the door.

He's got Shangor!

Slaughtered Evil Monk

The Jademan drops Shangor on the floor and moves to attack with his bare hands. The fight is every short as one Amazon disembowels the Jademan and a second cleaves her short sword deep into his chest.

Now freed from the foul sorcery of the amulet, Shangor is enraged. He attacks the corpse of his would be assassin, in VERY non prince like manner and rubs the blood of the assassin on his chest. Having never seen the Ulesir behave in such a manner, the Amazons stare at their employer, some of them seeing him in an entirely new light. Hawk quickly declares that the he is still under the influence of foul sorcery and she and the newly arrived Marduk ushers the Amazon’s out of Shangor’s cabin.

Katrina retrieves Sylph and Sul’khaz while Marduk examines the body. He finds a stylized black flame on the dead man’s neck. Marduk recognizes the tattoo which marks the dead man as a Keeper of the Black Flame, an order of evil monks that rule the clans of the Iron Mountains. “We suspected that they secretly supported Korras and this only confirms our suspicions.” Marduk identifies the amulet as a Prison Stone, a magical device that is typically used to trap demons, not human souls. One thing that Marduk is surprised by is that the assassin could have easily dispatched Shangor while he was under the power of the amulet. He doesn’t understand why the assassin seemed intent on kidnapping Shangor rather than killing him considering that Korras wants his stepbrother the Shah dead. Eventually everyone retires for the evening with a pair of Amazons guarding the now ruined door of Shangor’s cabin. Shangor’s cradles his iron battle axe as he sleeps in his bed.

On the third day of the trip, the Blue Arrow approaches a narrow gorge when suddenly, a rain of boulders and rocks comes tumbling down upon the ship. The Amazon helmswoman avoids a very big boulder but is struck upon the head and collapses. Cassandra, the Amazon leader cries out “The Helm.” Hawk immediately grabs the helm and attempts to steer the ship through the rain of deadly rocks and boulders. With the support of the crew, (including Shangor who forgets his role of Prince and grabs an oar and begins to row), Hawk manages to navigate the Blue Arrow through the gorge. However, once the ship is clear of the boulders, there is another surprise waiting for the ship: Four large war canoes from the tribes from the Iron Mountains are waiting for them.

Four war canoes!

With glee, Katrina mans the catapult and immediately attacks the canoes. Due to her skill, only one of the canoes actually makes it to the Blue Arrow for boarding. One war canoe was sunk and the other two lost control due to damage.

Only one war canoe made the trip

The Blue Arrow!

The tribesmen board the Blue Arrow even before the hulls of their canoes touch the Blue Arrow. One of them, a large man wearing a cape of gray fur, shouts: “Go on! Kill them all, but save the Shah for Korras’ knife! And let the others die in the Black Flame!” Cassandra and her Amazons draw their blades as one and move in to attack with a number of them making a wall to protect Shangor who they believe is the Shah. Hawk claims the man wearing the cape of grey fur as her own and moves to cut her way through to him. Sul’khaz summons a wolf on the war canoes that still holds about half of the tribesmen. Katrina continues to fire the catapult at the damaged war canoes as they try to join the battle and Shangor longs for his battle axe as the Battle of the Gorge reaches its climax…..