SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN #225, story 1
"Swords of Sukhmet"
by Roy Thomas and John Buscema
Lt. Conan
Captain Makhis
Valeria of the Red Brotherhood/Merina II
Thebnu of Menfu
Zarallo
Conan's part of a mercenary troop going through Darfar swampland when they're attacked by a group of Dafari cannibals. Driving them away, they find a caravan, including Valeria of the Red Brotherhood; who's looking to join Zarallo's Free Companions, the group Conan is currently part of. (Conan has not seen her in "two years")
Conan recites a legend (illustrated, but no recognisable characters) that Zafari believe, that eating the flesh of their captives under the moonlight is symbolically "eating the moon" and makes them immune to weapons under its light. He doesn't believe it, but thinks that they believe it, which still makes them dangerous.
Valeria refuses to drink alone with Cpt. Mathis, and laments angrily that men won't just let her lead a man's life. Conan asks why she's there, away from the sea, and she tells him to answer first:
---
-FB (12:6) [appears to reference SAVCO 73 (4)]
Conan
He kept up the pirate life for a while, but plundered carelessly and ended up sunk by the Zingarians.
-FB (13:1-13:3)
Conan
Zarallo
He joined up with Zarallo, but has been regretting it
---
-FB (14-15)
Red Ortho
Valeria of the Red Brotherhood/Merina II
After becoming Red Ortho's first mate, Valeria was finally living her best life, looting ships, until Red Ortho's passes became too much to ignore and she literally jumped ship off Zabhela. She got a tip-off about the Free "Companies" and joined a caravan heading that way, leading to the attack at the start of the story.
----
Valeria doesn't take kindly to Conan's pass that follows, and heads off with an icy remark. Conan goes to sleep, and wakes up when the Dafari are already attacking. Shortly afterward, he finds the legend was actually true, and they're all captured.
Conan manages to stall things while Valeria's already being roasted alive over an open fire by daring that he can slay the moon, and she's taken down to witness it. He war-dances for a bit, then throws Valeria's smoke capsule up to cover it, and while they're confused spears the leader. With the moon covered, then set, he falls dead; and they proceed to rout the cannibals.
"Some days later", when they reach Sukhmet, Zarallo gives Valeria a trial on "Lt. Conan's" recommendation. She takes offence to needing to be vouched for, and avoids Conan for the next while, although he still talks her up behind her back; while she pulls guard duty a lot and has Cpt. Makhis stalk her.
A while later, Conan and Valeria both happen to be in the bar together. She tells him to sod off, but Makhis isn't so easily dissuaded, and she stabs him dead when he tries to rape her.
Zarallo and Makhis' brother Thebnu happen to come in right at that moment, unfortunately, and while a brief distraction lets her slip out - and Conan follows solo - a patrol follows shortly. Riding away, she turns south on an impulse back toward the swamp, and almost all her persuers miss her trail at that point except Thebnu and Conan. When the latter two meet, Conan kills him since he wants Valeria for himself, alive; and resumes the chase.
(See here for the Valeria backup, which joins RS2 and her first meeting with Conan in SAVSCO 196 for her
Notes:
This is still largely adapted from "Red Nails" - the major events of the story (except for the cannibal attack at the start) are described in a conversation between Conan & Valeria when they first meet in the prose story. (The parts of that conversation that are still in flashback here are basically repurposed for the campfire scene, including Valeria's angry question "Why won't men let me live a man's life?" (slightly rephrased as "...lead a man's life?"). It does notably, however, water down Conan's bald statement that "[He doesn't] like black women", replacing it with a note that "though, when it comes to women [he'd] made love happily to all the colors of the rainbow" and only notes his further complaints about their jewellery and filed teeth.
___________________________
STRANGE TALES #2, story 1
"Robert E. Howard's Red Nails, adapted with aplomb by Roy Thomas & Barry Smith"
Valeria of the Red Brotherhood/Merina II
Conan
Techotl
Chicmec
Burning Skull
Valeria stops to water her horse, then climbs a tall, rocky outcopping for a look around the silent forest. On the way up, she finds the skeleton of a man who did not die to violence, then at the top sees nothing but trees in the forest, but a walled city in the desert some way to the south. When she climbs down, she runs into Conan, whose pass is... less subtle and more insistent this time, shall we say. They're distracted by the sound of something eating their horses, which turns out to be a "dragon" (styled after a stegosaurus for some reason). They race back up the outcropping to dodge it, and are stuck until Conan has an idea involving making a makeshift spear out of some branches tied together and his sword ("poignard" in the prose version, incidentally. Since he doesn't appear to retrieve it even in the comic - he explicitly doesn't in the prose - yet has it later in this story, his use of his sole blade for this leads to an imminent continuity error...) dipped in the juice of poison apples and an impromptu tongue piercing.
This gives them a chance to escape - the maddened, blinded "dragon" "dashes out the brains from its misshapen skull" on a tree as Conan slashes at it futily with that sword he doesn't have(!) - and by nightfall they're approaching the city, which Conan notes has no apparent source of food. After camping the night in a ring of cactus, they reach the city in the morning, with Conan further noting the lack of signs of active life, combined with long-dried up irrigation ditches. [Why this is included is not clear - the adaptation drops the explanation of how the inhabitants feed themselves]
Inside, they find rooms walled with jade, but no still no apparent inhabitants. Conan continues on, while Valeria takes a nap on a bench until the faint sound of a footstep wakes her. Heading to a nearby balcony, she sees a strange man a floor down, holding a sword out in front as he heads down the corridor, apparently terrified. Heading through a door, she hears him scream, and when she enters that room via the upper level, sees him dead on the floor. Another man like the first comes in and finds his comrade dead, before an apparent skeleton walks in.
Valeria jumps down and slashes his throat, showing the "Burning Skull" to be a man in body paint and a horned skull. Demanding answers from the live man, he tells her he's Techotl of Tecuhltli, "the place by the Western Gate". The Burning Skull was from their mortal enemies the Xotalanc, "they who dwell by the Eastern Gate." He's still terrified of further ambushes and wants to go, but she's nearly hypnotised by the sorcerous skull, and smashes it.
They head off to find Conan.
___________________________
STRANGE TALES #3, story 1
"The Lurker from the Catacombs"
Adapted from the story "Red Nails" by Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan
Writer: Roy Thomas; Artist: Barry Smith
Conan
Valeria of the Red Brotherhood/Merina II
Techotl
Prince Olmec
Princess Tascela
Yasala
Xatmec
Yanath
Topal
-FB (9:1-9:4, 9:6, 10:1-10:6)
Tolkemec
Tecuhltli
Xotalanc
Princess Tascela
Conan had a fruitless search, but hears Valeria & Techotl fighting Xotalanc and rushes to join in. Valeria's fighting two, and he splits the skull of one, giving her the chance to lop the head off the other. Techotl is overjoyed, as Valeria fills Conan in. They agree to follow him to Tecuhltli, and descend through an unlit corridor to avoid the sounds of fighting. As they run through they're chased by something non-human, which Conan slashes at before they get out and lock the door behind them, which Techotl calls "The Crawler".
Entering Tecuhltli, after the inhabitants open the door with some reluctance, Techotl takes them to his leaders, Prince Olmec and Princess Tascela. After introductions, Olmec starts to explain how their ancestors came to the walled city.
___
-FB (9:1-9:4, 9:6, 10:1-10:6)
A rebel tribe fled Stygia, and came across Xuchotl, the walled city, and were kept out by the inhabitants. A slave named Tolkemec slipped out and bargained with them, letting them in to slaughter the inhabitants, "all save a hundred or so, who were given over to the torture racks of vengeful Tolkemec". For five years, led by the brothers Tecuhltli and Xotalanc, the tribe stayed whole, until Xotalanc married Tascela, who the other two wanted. Tolkemec helped Tecuhltli kidnap her, and the war was on. Tolkemec played both sides, until the Tecuhltli captured him, tortured him and threw him "half-alive" into the catacombs. Both Tecuhltli & Xotalanc died soon after, but the war goes on, even with no children being born.
___
Conan & Valeria are inclined to go, but Olmec hires them to help slaughter the remaining Xotalanc. Meanwhile, Tascela keeps shooting glances at Valeria, and Conan is told that this Tascela is the same Tascela who the war was started over, a "witch [who] knows the secret of perpetual youth, a secret too grisly even for Xuchotl to repeat"
Valeria falls asleep, but is woken when Tascela's maid tries to drug her. Tying the maid down, she flogs her until she seems to break, but when she begs for wine, she throws it in Valeria's face and flees to the catacombs, where Valeria decides not to follow.
Shortly afterward, Techotl yells for them, for the Xotalancas are attacking! It's a final, kamakaze attack; and soon they're all dead - along with all but a "few remaining" Tecuhltlis. Conan's barely injured, but Valeria has a stab wound in her leg. Olmec sends Conan and a couple of the remaining men to scout Xotalanc to be sure, while he takes Conan's absence as a chance to knock out Valeria and take her with him. Techotl sees this, and is knocked out and stabbed in the back for his objections.
In Xotalanc, Conan and co find a wall filled with trophy heads, and Yanath - one of his Tecuhltli companions - apparently goes mad on seeing his brother's head amongst them. He grabs it, and then "protecting" it stabs Topal, the other one, and is killed by Conan. When Conan kneels over Topal to ask if he has any last words, however, Topal tries to stab him. Catching the arm, Conan is told that Olmec ordered it before Topal dies.
Valeria's not having a great time, as Olmec states his plans for her. Tascela comes in and reminds him she wanted Valeria for herself, and uses her sorcerous hold over him to force him to drink drugged wine. When Valeria tries to take the chance to escape, she's blocked by Tascela, who takes her best hit, then overpowers and ties her up, promising to use Valeria's youth to restore her own again...
___________________________
STRANGE TALES #3, story 3
"He Comes From The Dark"
Part 3 of "Red Nails"
Story: Robert E. Howard; Script: Roy Thomas; Art: Barry Smith
Conan
Techotl
Prince Olmec
Princess Tascela
Valeria of the Red Brotherhood/Merina II
Tolkemec
Returning to Tecuhltli, Conan finds the dying Techotl, who tells him that Olmec has taken Valeria before expiring. Which means he's surprised when he finds Olmec strapped in a torture rack. When Olmec tells him that Tascela has Valeria, aiming to use her as a human sacrifice, he reluctantly frees him to guide him to the secret entrance.
Once they're in, however, they hear Valeria scream and Olmec takes the distraction as a chance to attack Conan. They tumble down the stairs, but only Conan stands up afterward, finding a ceremony with Tascela on her throne, Valeria on a sacrificial table and the remaining Tecuhltli either helping or kneeling before them. Running for them, Conan stands on a man-trap, and his ankle is almost crushed by iron jaws, leaving him stuck.
As Tascela is about to sink the knife into Valeria though, a bony figure appears - Tolkemec lives! Carrying an electric wand, he starts slaughtering the Tecuhltli, and when Valeria manages to slip out and Tascela is the only one left, she frees Conan in a desperate big to save herself.
Conan eventually kills him with a thrown knife, and when Tascala goes for the wand, she finds herself punctured from behind by Valeria ("I had to do that much, for my own self-respect!") and the last of the inhabitants drops dead.
Conan and Valeria embrace, and rather than grab any of the "haunted jewels", wander off together in search of "clean" plunder.
___________________________
Chronologies:
CONAN
[...]
[SAVSCO 73 (1-4:4)]
SAVSCO 225 (12:6)-FB
[SAVSCO 73 (4:5-49:5)]
SAVSCO 225 (13:1-13:3)-FB
SAVSCO 225
SAVT 2
SAVT 3
SAVT 3/3
[SAVSCO 211]
[...]
VALERIA OF THE RED BROTHERHOOD/MERINA II
[...]
SAVSCO 225/2
[SAVSCO 196]
[SAVSCO 197]
[SAVSCO 198]
[SAVSCO 199-BTS]
SAVSCO 225-FB
SAVSCO 225
SAVT 2
SAVT 3
SAVT 3/3
[SAVSCO 211]
[...]
RED ORTHO
[...]
[SAVSCO 198]
[SAVSCO 199-BTS]
SAVSCO 225-FB
MAKHIS, CPT.
SAVSCO 225
TEBNU
SAVSCO 225
ZARALLO
SAVSCO 225-FB
SAVSCO 225
TECHOTL
SAVT 2
SAVT 3
SAVT 3/3
PRINCESS TASCELA
SAVT 3-FB-BTS
SAVT 3
SAVT 3/3
PRINCE OLMEC
SAVT 3
SAVT 3/3
TOLKEMEC
SAVT 3 (9:1-9:4)-FB
SAVT 3 (9:6)-FB
SAVT 3 (10:1-10:6)-FB
SAVT 3/3
TECUHLTLI
SAVT 3 (9:1-9:4)-FB
SAVT 3 (10:1-10:6)-FB
XOTALANC
SAVT 3 (9:1-9:4)-FB
SAVT 3 (10:1-10:6)-FB
BURNING SKULL
SAVT 2
CHICMEC
SAVT 2
XATMEC
SAVT 3
YANATH
SAVT 3
YASALA
SAVT 3
TOPAL
SAVT 3
Red Nails (Savage Sword of Conan #225, Savage Tales #2-3)
Moderators: Col_Fury, michel, Arthur, Somebody, StrayLamb