Conan the Barbarian #14 – “A Sword Called Stormbringer” – Roy Thomas/Barry Windsor Smith/Sal Buscema
This story guest stars Elric of Melniboné, hero (or anti-hero maybe) of a series of books by Michael Moorcock. (Moorcock plotted this tale, along with James Cawthorn.) It starts in Koth, with Conan rescuing a maiden from some hooded and cloaked abductors. Conan soon realizes his foes aren’t quite human and is felled by the merest scratch of their blades. But some white eagles descend and chase off the weird attackers, leaving Conan to marvel as the bodies of those he killed turn to dust. Conan recognizes the woman he just saved as Zephra, the were-tigress he met back in issue 5. Zephra says her father Zukala sent her to find Conan
because they need his help. Conan is still mistrustful of sorcery in general—and Zukala in particular—but agrees to talk to him. Zukala admits that he lost most of his magic after his last encounter with Conan, as well as his immortality. But he holds no grudge, needing Conan’s help to stop a Stygian wizard named Kulan-Gath, a rival of Thoth-Amon who seeks power and is willing to go to any lengths to get it. Zukala tells Conan about Terhali, a sorceress who lived in the extra-dimensional world of Melniboné, where she was defeated and entombed by her foes. She was shut up in a golden city called Yagala, which 
was projected across dimensions into Hyboria, where now lies at the bottom of a lake. Conan agrees to accompany Zephra to the lake (mostly tempted by the gold in Yagala) and Zukala imbues his sword with some sorcery by getting his own blood on it. Apparently, Zukala serves the Law Lord Arkyn in his eternal battle against Xiombarg the Chaos Queen, but Conan doesn’t know that … and probably wouldn’t care much anyway. Zukala spies on Xiombarg as she prepares to send her minion (Prince Gaynor) to stop Conan, but Xiombarg detects the old wizard’s scrying and disrupts it. On the way to the lake, Zephra tries to fill Conan in on the Law/Chaos war, but it’s too much for him to take in.
They’re interrupted when Elric appears out of nowhere and rides towards them. Naturally, there’s misunderstanding fight (this is a Marvel comic, after all), but Conan and Elric soon stop fighting and start talking. Elric says he came to this dimension to find Terhali’s tomb, since it holds sorcerous lore that he wants (and Terhali is an ancestor of his). Prince Gaynor suddenly appears, leading a squadron of Chaos demons, so Conan and Elric have to stand together against them. They do pretty well, but are vastly outnumbered. Zephra prays to her father and the rain goddess and summons a cleansing rain that washes away all the evil soldiers (except Gaynor, who flees). Elric suggests they travel to the lake together and Conan reluctantly agrees. This story is concluded next issue, so I’ll save my remarks about it until then.
Conan the Barbarian #15 – “The Green Empress of Melniboné” – Roy Thomas/Barry Windsor Smith/Sal Buscema
This continues right from the above story, with Conan, Elric, and Zephra having to fight their way through hordes of demons on the way to the lake containing Terhali’s tomb. Elsewhere, Xiombarg chafes at Prince Gaynor’s failure to stop Conan and Elric, but Gaynor assures her that Kulan-Gath will reach the sunken city first and awaken Terhali. After finishing off the demons, Conan notices that Elric’s sword (Stormbringer) is draining the souls of the vanquished and transmitting their power to Elric. That disturbs Conan but before he can complain too much, Zephra
points out that they’ve reached the lake. They cross it on a skeleton boat and find Kulan-Gath trying to resurrect Terhali. Elric stops him, warning that Terhali serves Xiombarg, the Queen of Chaos. But Kulan-Gath has never heard of Xiombarg, so he assumes Elric and Conan serve his Stygian rival, Thoth-Amon. Prince Gaynor arrives with his hellish horde and a fight breaks out. Gaynor manages to keep Conan and Elric busy until Kulan-Gath finishes his ritual, summoning Terhali back from the dead. Elric cuts Gaynor down (although he’s just banished, not killed) and Kulan-Gath tries to command Terhali, since he’s the one who awakened her. But Terhali blows him away and when Conan 
and Elric use their enchanted blades against her, they’re both knocked out. Terhali thinks she’s won until Zephra is bathed in heavenly light, sent by Arkyn to imbue her with his Lawful power. Zephra accepts the holy power and attacks Terhali, killing her after a titanic struggle. Unfortunately, Zephra’s mortal body dies too, leaving Conan rather pissed off at the whole mess, something he takes out on Elric. The albino heads back to his own dimension, not telling Conan the reason he wanted Terhali’s power … to awaken his beloved Cymoril from a magical sleep. Conan takes Zephra’s body back to her father, chastising him for not doing more to save his daughter. Conan returns the enchanted sword and leaves Zukala to grieve his loss. I’ve never really been
a big Elric fan; I’m not sure why, but I just can’t seem to get into the character, or Moorcock’s writing. So these two issues don’t mean much to me, although it was nice to see Zephra again. Too bad she was doomed. Apparently, Roy and Barry followed Moorcock and Cawthorn’s plot pretty closely, just amping up Conan’s role in the story to smooth things out. They even came up with Kulan-Gath, whose name would be used again in other Marvel titles, but for a different sorcerous character.