Appearing in "The Hour of the Griffin!"
Featured Characters:
- Conan (Also appears in a vision flashforward as Amra, the Lion)
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Kharam-Akkad (Only in flashback)
- Unnamed rodent-like creature (First appearance)
Other Characters:
- Kharam-Akkad (Corpse, skeleton or other remains)
- Tarim (Death)
- Turanian Army
- Prince Yezdigerd
- Sea-hawks
- King Eannatum (Death)
- Queen Melissandra
- Gods of the Frozen North (Invoked)
- Crom (Invoked)
- Mitra (Invoked)
- Sulimar
- Dark Erlik (Invoked)
- Yildiz (Mentioned)
Races and Species:
- Humans
- Lions (Vision or hallucination)
- Eagles (Vision or hallucination)
- Serpents (Vision or hallucination)
- Gods (Mentioned)
Realities:
Locations:
Items:
- Mirrors of Tuzun Thune (Destruction)
- Amulet (Mentioned)
Events:
Synopsis for "The Hour of the Griffin!"
Conan stands in front of the the mirror of Tuzun Thune that shows him killing Kharam-Akkad as the forces of Yezdigerd raid the city of Makkalet. The prince and his advisor, Sulimar, discover a cave that directly leads into the Temple of Tarim. They send a ship to seek the cave, while inside the city King Eannatum tries to comfort his wife Melissandra. The king decides that only Kharam-Akkad can save his wife, and sends her to the wizard-priest. Conan, however, stands over Kharam's body and smashes the mirrors. He helps Chumballa Bey, who had been stabbed by Kharam, and then tries to decide how to flee the city. Meanwhile, the Turanians have come through the caves and descended through a trap door in the griffin statue in the courtyard, and quickly slaughter the defending soldiers of Makkalet, capturing Melissandra. Conan manages to fight off a number of Turanians, and escapes with the queen and Chumballa deeper into the temple. Conan finds himself in the room with the Living Tarim and discovers the god incarnate that all have been fighting for is in fact a diseased, inbred imbecile. The soldiers of Turan accidentally kill the Tarim with arrows, and Conan flees the chamber. The king is finally tracked down and killed, and, after a battle with a giant rat and occasional run-ins with the Turanians, Conan, Melissandra, and Chumballa reach the coast. The Cimmerian rides south while the others travel towards Melissandra's father. Yezdigerd celebrates his victory with a parade, marching the robed figure of the Tarim through the city, while only he and Sulimar know underneath the robes a skeleton is all that remains.
Notes
- Cover art: layout by Romita.
- Synopsis by YardIHS.
Trivia
The way the first turanian soldiers enter the city, through the belly of the statue of a horse, is the most important of the allusions to the myth of the Trojan War. In this and the previous issues there are others:
- that the cause of the war is seemingly an abduction of someone important, while a trade rivalry is hinted to be the underlying motive
- that there was a woman commander of auxiliary forces - in the saga of the trojan war it was the queen of amazons, Penthesilea, in this series it is Red Sonja
- that the mystical death of a high priest precedes the fall of the city
- that members of the royal family can flee the slaughter
See