Conan the Barbarian #129 – “The Creation Quest” – J.M. DeMatteis/Gil Kane
This one continues from last issue, with Conan and Noyo confronting the Warriors of Eternity who guard the Sword of Strength. The Sword is one of four elemental artifacts that Noyo (a sorceress from Khitai) has to retrieve for the evil wizard Pau-Styss so he’ll release her husband from captivity. Since Noyo’s husband (Laynnen) is an old friend of Conan’s, the barbarian is helping her complete the quest. The Warriors are obviously magical, making them impervious to Conan’s blade. As he reviews recent events (and we get a recap of last issue), Noyo
tells him the Sword of Strength is the key to defeating its guardians, so Conan dives for the artifact and reaches it. The Sword is much too big for him to wield, but when he drags it from its massive sheath, the Sword shrinks to fit him perfectly and imbues him with godly power, allowing him to slaughter the Warriors. Meanwhile, Pau-Styss is pissed off because Noyo’s magic masks her and Conan from his sight. Laynnen warns Pau-Styss that using the artifacts will be dangerous, but Pau-Styss ignores the advice and transforms Laynnen into a songbird. Noyo teleports herself, Conan, and her son Dreeme (who she brought along on this adventure) to Iranistan, using spells to make them blend in with the locals. Noyo tells Conan the Crown of Wisdom is kept 
by an aged philosopher and warns him that force won’t work to win this particular artifact, only wits. Noyo challenges the sage to a game of chess (or something similar), but when she loses, Conan opts for the more direct approach. He sets fire to the sage’s books to distract him and grabs the Crown, but before they can escape, the sage seals them in the burning room and disappears. This is a pretty good issue, with Conan and Noyo getting closer to retrieving all the artifacts and freeing Laynnen. I was a bit disappointed at the encounter with the philosopher; I was kinda hoping Conan might outsmart the old sage, who would be sure to underestimate the barbarian’s intelligence.
Conan the Barbarian #130 – “The Quest Ends” – J.M. DeMatteis/Gil Kane
This one continues from the above issue, with Noyo teleporting herself, Conan, and Dreeme to safety in Khitai. The magical travel is taking its toll on her, as is having to hold the Crown of Wisdom in a stasis-field to keep it from trying to influence their minds. They make their way through the streets of a city in Khitai and find the guardian of the next artifact, the Mirror of Beauty. This guardian looks like some kind of ninja warrior and Conan attacks, fighting the warrior with the Sword of Strength (which transmutes into a staff to match the guardian’s weapon). Conan soon realizes his opponent is a stunningly beautiful woman and almost succumbs to the temptation to worship her beauty instead of
fighting her. But his will asserts itself and he defeats her, gaining the Mirror. The Mirror takes them to the last artifact, the White Rose of Peace. But neither Conan nor Noyo can pluck it, since it can only be acquired by someone with no taint of violence in their heart. Dreeme plucks the Rose and they’re transported back to Khitai, but Noyo is troubled at her inability to get the Rose, thinking that the quest has changed her from the peaceful person she once was. They travel to Pau-Styss’s stronghold but they’re wary of turning over artifacts that would give the evil wizard unlimited power. Noyo is too weak to fight him, so Conan uses the Sword of Strength, but can’t defeat the sorcerer’s power. Pau-Styss gets the artifacts but as soon as he tries to use them, their power 
overwhelms him and he turns to dust … something Laynnen expected to happen. Noyo realizes the truth, that Laynnen is a scion of the gods and was meant to be her mate so they could produce a child capable of wielding the artifacts properly. Conan is unimpressed that his old friend is actually a godling and takes off. This is a pretty good conclusion to the artifact story, although having Laynnen and Noyo as the parents of a “chosen one” seems a bit over the top. I’m not sure if it fits with Robert E. Howard’s worldview, although he’d probably agree with Conan’s sentiment about the world having too many gods already.