Conan the Barbarian #49 – “Wolf-Woman” – Roy Thomas/John Buscema/Dick Giordano
Last issue, Conan was captured by a bandit lord named Torkal Moh and staked out for some rats to devour. He manages to cut himself free by breaking the ceramic bowl of water Torkal Moh left to taunt him, and he rips the stakes out of the round, scaring the rats away. Conan follows Torkal Moh’s trail and finds water, but he’s beset by wolves. As he’s fighting them, a wild woman named Lupalina shows up and calls off the wolves, who are her pets. Conan has heard legends of the Wolf-Woman
and she apparently knows something of his encounter with Torkal Moh. (She’s also familiar with Themas Herklar, the man to whom Conan was supposed to deliver a protective amulet … before Torkal Moh stole it.) Lupalina takes Conan to her place to rest and he dreams of Ursla, the bear priestess he banged in his youth. When he tells Lupalina about the dream, she admits that she and Ursla are both animal priestesses and tells him how she was once a sorceress in Phalkar. She says two wizards (Thalkalides and Elviriom) would like to kill her for what she knows of them, which is why she lives out in the middle of nowhere. (Thalkalides and Elviriom are the two wizards from whom the amulet is supposed to protect Themas Herklar, the regent of Phalkar.) 
Lupalina figures Conan can help her against the two wizards, but he insists on taking care of Torkal Moh first, not just to get the amulet back, but to rescue Stefanya … who Lupalina takes a special interest in. They ambush some of Torkal Moh’s soldiers and free their captives, talking them into perpetrating a ruse to get inside Ravensgard castle. Conan and some of the captives pretend to be the guards leading the others to the castle dungeon, but they attack the castle guards and between Conan, Lupalina and her wolves, and the angry peasants, they make short work of the guards. Conan finds Torkal Moh and slices his hamstrings, forcing him to give up the location of Stefanya and the amulet. Conan grabs a serving wench (Gwineer) to use as a guide and she takes him to Stefanya’s dungeon. After rescuing her, Conan makes Gwineer lead him to the Gifting Tree, a tree surrounded by treasure in a garden full of carnivorous plants. Conan cuts down some of the plants and
finds the amulet on the Gifting Tree. Unfortunately, the treasure is there as an offering to Pthassiass, a C’thulhu-esque horror that lives in the pool beside the tree. This issue continues the adaptation of Gardner Fox’s novel Kothar and the Conjurer’s Curse, finally getting back on schedule after a couple of months of delays. It’s interesting to meet Lupalina, the spiritual sister of Ursla who we saw in a flashback last issue; I think Roy threw that flashback in just so he could connect the two, even having Ursla say that Conan would meet others of her kind someday. This story follows Fox’s novel pretty closely, which is why there are so many weird names to remember. We’ll get more of the story (and more on the connection between Stefanya and Lupalina) next issue.
Conan the Barbarian #50 – “The Dweller in the Pool” – Roy Thomas/John Buscema/Dick Giordano
Continuing right from the above issue, Conan tries to fight the gigantic monster, but it seems impossible for him to hurt it. It kills Gwineer and Conan keeps slicing away until the creature falls into the carnivorous forest, which quickly strips it down to the bone. Conan takes Stefanya out of the deadly garden, but when Lupalina sees Stefanya she addresses her as Chrysala. After locating the birthmark on Stefanya’s hip, Lupalina declares her to be the daughter of Chrysala, and apparently a very good likeness. They go back to Lupalina’s place where she tells them her story. She once lived in Phalkar, when it was ruled by Thormond and his wife, Chrysala (to whom Lupalina
was a lady-in-waiting). But Thormond and Chrysala neglected their duties, allowing a general (Themas Herklar) to grow his influence. Themas offered gold to the two wizards (Thalkalides and Elviriom) to get rid of Thormond, and the wizards paid the sorceress Lupalina to help them. After Thormond and Chrysala were killed in a rockslide, Elviriom brought their baby to Lupalina to get rid of, but she instead gave the girl to the wizard Zoqquanor, paying him well to raise her as his own. Obviously, that girl grew up to be Stefanya, making her the daughter of the dead regents of Phalkar. Conan still wants to deliver the amulet to Themas Herklar, to protect him against the evil wizards’ influence, but Lupalina suggests they do some magical 
reconnaissance first. She uses a crystal ball and finds that the wizards have already “deposed” Themas Herklar and installed a guy named Unos in his place, a much more evil ruler than Herklar ever was. They watch in horror as Unos demonstrates his evil power by firing magical beams from his eyes and turning a peasant to ash. Lupalina scries out Herklar, now a prisoner in his own dungeons and uses her magic to send Conan straight there. After pounding a guard, Conan finds Herklar’s cell empty and crawls down a passageway to find the usurper near death. Herklar tells Conan the wizards grew Unos with magic from a vat and tells him to keep the amulet to protect himself from their evil
sorceries. Conan is beset by demons who try to drag him down a pit, but Lupalina’s spells pull him out of their clutches and back to her place. Conan tells her about Unos’s unnatural origins and she agrees to help him try to kill the fiend and end the reign of the evil wizards. We’ll have to wait until next issue to see that, which will conclude this Gardner Fox adaptation.