Conan the Barbarian #117 – “The Corridor of Mullah-Kajar” – Larry Hama/John Buscema/Ernie Chan
This one starts in Zamboula, which has recently been taken over by Mullah-Kajar, a priest of Hanuman, who has sent the Turanian satrap fleeing into exile. The Ziggurat of Hanuman is warded by a labyrinthine approach that’s full of conjured guardians, but the sentries inside are still nervous. The guards know Mullah-Kajar has taken the Turanian ambassador and his wife hostage, hoping to exchange them for the satrap who fled to Turan, but
they worry the satrap may have died before reaching safety and the Turanians might send a force to get the hostages back. They open the gate to check the maze and get a nasty surprise when Conan bursts in and kills them. Conan came with a score of Turanians to rescue the hostages, but he’s the only one who made it through the deadly labyrinth. Conan finds an acolyte who turns out to be a sorceress. She uses her hypnotic gaze to take him on a journey through his own soul, where he has to deal with the darker side of his nature, as well as a twisted version of his own mother. Conan breaks the spell by grabbing the witch and blindfolds her to stop her from enchanting him again. She 
promises to take him to the hostages, but instead leads him to a couple of C’thulhuesque monsters. Conan kills the creatures, but is shocked to find out they were another illusion and he’s just killed the hostages he was meant to rescue. Since he won’t be earning the reward for bringing the ambassador back, Conan figures he can get some money for Mullah-Kajar’s head. But when he tries to find the sorcerer, it turns out he had him all along … yeah, the “hot priestess” is Mullah-Kajar in disguise. Kajar immediately sends Conan to a corridor full of doors, behind which lurk many monsters. As he’s fighting the horde of creatures, Conan realizes this is another illusion and that Mullah-Kajar is trying to distract him so he can stab him. Conan turns the dagger back on Kajar, thus fulfilling the prophecy that Mullah-Kajar (being
immortal) can’t be killed by mortal hands. As Mullah-Kajar dies, he transforms into various people Conan has known, leaving the barbarian to wonder if the sorcerer’s memory will haunt him forever. This is a pretty good story, although not as good as Roy Thomas’s stuff. I like Larry Hama as a writer, but this is obviously filler material, with a story that gets a little too esoteric at times. From here on, the writers of the comic don’t follow the official Conan chronology that Roy was using, so stories will be set wherever and whenever the writer feels like placing them. I kinda wish they’d kept to the timeline, but Roy will take up where he left off when he returns in a few years.
Conan the Barbarian #118 – “Valley of Forever Night” – J.M. DeMatteis/John Buscema/Ernie Chan
This one starts with Conan riding through Shem when he happens upon a lone Shemite trying to kill a cloaked figure. Conan figures the twisted thing in the cloak is some sort of demon, so he doesn’t interfere …until it pleads for mercy. Conan stops the Shemite, who says the creature comes from a nearby valley and must be killed. When Conan refuses, the Shemite kills himself instead, leaving Conan to take the pitiful creature on his horse after it passes out. Conan reaches a village where the people throw garbage at him when they see who he bears. He soon realizes that he has
contracted a form of leprosy from the person he rescued and that’s why everyone wants them dead. Conan gets a shock when he finds out the leper he saved is Jenna, his ex-lover (who we last saw being tossed in a cesspool in issue 11). He takes Jenna to a valley filled with other lepers, who are singing a strange song together. One of them is seized by some kind of rapture and runs off into the mountains to give himself to someone called Myya L’rrasleff. Jenna tells Conan how she was sold into slavery by a jealous lover and ended up in the valley after killing her new master. She explains that Myya is not just a wizard, 
he’s almost like a god, sending the plague to infect people who are then drawn to the valley and eventually go up to Myya’s castle to mystically join with him. Conan thinks he can kill Myya and cure the lepers, but when none of them are willing to help he heads for the castle alone. Jenna soon follows, since the other lepers are pissed off at her for bringing a shit-stirrer like Conan to the valley. On the way to the castle, they’re attacked by some kind of Rock statue or earth elemental (which kinda reminds me of Paul Chadwick’s Concrete). Conan smashes the rock elemental and then has to fend off some kind of harpy that attacks him. He kills the harpy and he and Jenna reach the castle
and make their way inside, where they find Myya holding court over all the leprous people he’s “converted” to his will. Jenna seems to fall under his spell too and Myya orders his horde of minions to kill Conan while he takes Jenna to see the truth of his origins. Myya is from another planet and came here to raise up the lowly denizens of the planet (as he sees them) and convert them into more perfect souls. Myya soon realizes Jenna was faking her conversion, but Conan shows up before he can harm her. They fight and Conan kills the twisted creature before realizing that he needed him alive to cure the plague. Jenna points 
out the black jewel Myya brought from space and Conan tries to smash it but can’t get through its protective aura. He throws Myya’s body through the aura and shatters the jewel, which immediately cures him and Jenna and destroys the castle. This story is okay, with slight “Tower of the Elephant” vibes, but it’s bit too weird for a Conan tale. It is nice to see Jenna again, although I don’t know how long she’ll be sticking around. Knowing her, she’ll end up betraying Conan like she always does.