Conan the Barbarian #17 – “The Gods of Bal-Sagoth” – Roy Thomas/Gil Kane/Ralph Reese
This one starts with Conan as a captive aboard a Turanian galley sailing the Vilayet Sea. The ship is attacked by pirates, led by Fafnir, the redheaded rogue Conan tangled with in Shadizar (in issue 6). The galley is taken and Conan wakes up tied to the mast of the pirate ship. Fafnir spared him because he needs a strong arm to help steer his ship through a storm, but when Conan realizes Fafnir is from Vanaheim, he refuses to help. The ship encounters a strange white mist that terrifies the hardened pirates (including Fafnir) and when the ship starts sinking, Fafnir cuts Conan loose before diving overboard. Conan swims through the rough sea and encounters a shark, killing it and saving Fafnir from being eaten. They wash
up on the shore of an uncharted island in the middle of the white mist and Conan is ready to finish their battle right then and there, so strong is his hatred of Vanirmen. But after a brief skirmish, he decides Fafnir is all right and stops fighting. They’re surprised when a beautiful woman appears on the beach, chased by a weird dinosaur-type creature. Conan and Fafnir slay the beast and the woman (who’s rather haughty to the people who just saved her life) tells them they’re on the Isle of Gods, known as Bal-Sagoth. The woman (Kyrie) turns out to be from Vanaheim, daughter of an old friend of Fafnir’s whose ship plied the Inland Sea but ran afoul of the white mist. Kyrie was venerated by 
the natives of Bal-Sagoth because her red hair matched that of their sea-goddess, Aala. Kyrie tells them how the people worshipped her, except for Gothan, priest of another, darker god. Gothan murdered her followers and sent her to be devoured by the dinosaur, not daring to kill her openly for fear of rousing the people against him (which is why she never tried to kill Gothan either). Kyrie leads them to Bal-Sagoth and makes a grand entrance to the temple, challenging Gothan and his puppet king, Ska (although Gothan is the one wearing the jade necklace of kingship openly). Kyrie mentions a prophecy that tells of two men who will emerge from the sea to overthrow the king. Ska is ready to fight for his crown, but Gothan points out that the king can appoint a champion to fight in his stead. A hulking man in armour (Vertorix) appears
and Conan says he’ll take care of him. But Vertorix is tireless and incredibly strong, wearing Conan down bit by bit. It’s only when Conan swipes his head off that the truth comes out … Vertorix is an enchanted suit of armour with no one inside it. Kyrie realizes Gothan is controlling the armour mentally, so she reflects sunlight in his eyes, making the armour crumple into pieces. Gothan and Ska take off with their followers, while Conan, Fafnir, and Kyrie celebrate their victory. This story (and the conclusion) are based on a non-Conan story by Robert E. Howard about a Celt named Turlogh O’Brien (or Black Turlogh). Roy stuck pretty close to the original story, but threw in the enchanted suit 
of armour because he thought the tale needed some sorcery injected into it. In the original story, Black Turlogh’s companion was a Viking called Athelstane, but Roy decided to use Fafnir, the Fafhrd analogue who made a cameo appearance in issue 6. This is Gil Kane’s first issue as penciler and you can definitely notice the difference between his work and Barry Windsor Smith’s. This story takes place on the Vilayet Sea, a huge inland body of water east of Turan. There’s no explanation as to why Conan headed east instead of west (as he said he was going to do last issue), nor how he ended up as a captive on a Turanian galley.
Conan the Barbarian #18 – “The Thing in the Temple” – Roy Thomas/Gil Kane/Dan Adkins
After last issue’s triumph, Kyrie wastes no time in establishing herself as ruler of Bal-Sagoth, with Conan and Fafnir as her bodyguards. But her position quickly goes to her head and she insists everyone address her as Aala, the sea-goddess. She’s worried about Gothan and Ska being on the loose, especially since Gothan still has the amulet of rulership. Conan and Fafnir stand guard outside Kyrie’s chamber, but they soon find themselves falling asleep. Conan retains enough wit to realize something has entered the chamber and rouses
himself in time to fight a strange beast-man, finally tossing it into the fire. He wakes Fafnir and they kill someone hiding behind a tapestry, a priest who obviously cast them into an enchanted sleep. They hear a noise from Kyrie’s chamber and burst in to find her being abducted by a bat-fiend. Fafnir tackles the monster and wounds it, chasing it down into the tunnels beneath the palace. Kyrie tells Conan to forget about Fafnir and stay with her, but he leaves to look for the Vanirman. That really pisses Kyrie off and she calls the guards, ordering them to 
find Conan and Fafnir and kill them. Conan locates Fafnir and the bat-demon in the forbidden temple of the dark god, Gol-Goroth. Gothan’s lifeless body is there too, slain by the very fiend he conjured. Fafnir drops the bat-thing into a volcanic pit, which makes the lava boil up. Kyrie and the guards arrive and when she sees Gothan’s body, she really goes power-mad, ordering the guards to kill her erstwhile protectors. Before they can comply, the lava pit erupts and Kyrie freaks out, recalling the prophecy that the city would fall when two men emerged from the sea. Kyrie is killed by falling rubble and Conan and Fafnir take off, running into Ska on the way out. Ska has been driven insane at the
thought of being the true king that he doesn’t care his kingdom is falling down around him. After Fafnir kills Ska, he and Conan fight their way through crazed citizens to get off the island. As they float away on a raft, the entire island is blown to hell by a volcano erupting from underneath. Conan and Fafnir are picked up by a Turanian ship captained by Prince Yezdigerd of Turan, who is on his way east to attack some rebellious city-state. He gives Conan and Fafnir the choice of joining him or swimming back to the molten island … naturally, they choose the former. Conan shows Fafnir the jade necklace of kingship he took from Gothan’s body, but tosses it into the sea since Bal-
Sagoth no longer exists. This is a pretty good conclusion to the story and follows the original pretty closely. Conan is still searching for a kingdom to rule, since he once had a dream that he’d be a king some day. It’s a bit strange for him to throw away a valuable jade necklace out of spite, but maybe he didn’t want to keep anything with the taint of Bal-Sagoth on it … or was afraid Yezdigerd would take it from him. We only get a quick look at him here, but Yezdigerd will be a very important character in future issues.