Conan the Barbarian #161 – “House of Skulls” – Michael Fleisher/John Buscema
This one starts with Conan wandering the alleys of Belglat in the Border Kingdoms. He’s jumped by some street punks who think him an easy mark, but before he can waste them all, he’s felled by a lucky kick. The punks are ready to kill him when a cloaked figure shows up and wastes three of them, allowing the others to run away. Conan’s saviour turns out to be Fafnir, his Vanirman friend who supposedly died in the siege of Makkalet. Fafnir explains how (after being tossed
overboard by Yezdigerd) he managed to cling to a corpse and float near shore, where a peasant girl rescued him. Now he’s here looking to replace the arm he lost in Makkalet, in an eerie shack known as the House of Skulls. After getting grabbed by some trees outside, they meet the occupant of the shack, an old woman who already knows why Fafnir has sought her out. She takes them inside and digs through a trunk full of spare arms, finding a big hairy one she says belonged to a demon. Fafnir doesn’t seem too bothered by that, so she grafts the arm onto his body and he leaves with Conan. We see some scumbags hiding in the old woman’s back room and it seems like they were the ones who 
wanted Fafnir to have the demon arm, even threatening her to make sure it happened. Later, Conan and Fafnir happen upon some slavers trying to abduct a couple of women. They make short work of the slavers but Fafnir’s arm ends up acting on its own, strangling the last slaver even though he’d already surrendered. Fafnir is upset until Conan points out that the last guy was stealthily drawing a dagger, so if the arm hadn’t killed him, Fafnir would be dead now. Conan and Fafnir get to know the ladies they rescued a bit better, but they’re unaware the old witch and the ruffians are watching through a crystal ball and that it was the witch who was controlling Fafnir’s arm earlier. Apparently Conan is the ultimate target, but the witch wants to
have another test so she makes the arm strangle the woman Fafnir is dallying with. Conan stops him but it’s too late and Fafnir is ready to cut the arm off rather than not have control of it. The witch makes him attack Conan, but the barbarian holds his own, so the witch and the brigands teleport to the battle site. She increases the arm’s power but before Fafnir can kill Conan, the Cimmerian smashes the old woman’s ring, causing her and Fafnir’s new arm to vanish. The brigands attack and Conan takes them out, with a little help from the surviving woman. This is a pretty good issue, although Fafnir must be pretty stupid not to guess that a demon arm was going to be trouble.
Conan the Barbarian #162 – “Destroyer in the Flame” – Michael Fleisher/John Buscema
This one starts with Conan and Fafnir arriving at a town in the mood for some women and wine. Far away, a sect who worships a falcon god are executing one of their members (by having him torn apart by falcons) because he failed to kill Conan, who they have a grudge against. They’re contacted by Jergal Zadh, a demon who has his own grudge against Conan (for what happened in issue 152). Jergal still wants Conan’s soul, so he sends the Falconmen after him. Conan and Fafnir kill quite a few but have to flee from overwhelming numbers. The Falconmen chase them out into the wild where they end up at the edge of a
precipice. They almost fall into some fire Jergal has conjured, but Conan drags himself and Fafnir back up the cliff inch by inch. They hide in some tall grass until Jergal shows to transform it into snakes. Conan and Fafnir slice up the serpents and take off, but end up boxed into a canyon. They climb the cliffs again and the Falconmen send falcons with razor-spurs to attack them. Conan drives the birds off with fire and drags Fafnir to the top of the cliff. They find a ruined temple and go inside to avoid their pursuers but Conan realizes too late the temple is dedicated to Jergal Zadh. They’re trapped inside and Jergal pounds 
Fafnir down so he can take over Conan’s body. But Conan tricks the demon into inhabiting his image in a mirror, which Conan quickly smashes. That brings the temple down and Conan and Fafnir get out just in time. This was a pretty good issue and it was interesting to see Jergal again, though I doubt if we’ve seen the last of him. The Falconmen appeared in a couple of Savage Sword stories, so I guess that’s where they got their hatred of Conan.