Conan the Barbarian #179 – “The End of All There Is” – Jim Owsley/John Buscema/Bob Camp
This one starts with Conan and Keiv washed ashore on the meadow coast of Shem, near the town of Becharadur. A thief called Jamal stumbles across them but doesn’t even attempt to rouse them since he has bigger things on his mind … like robbing the king’s Treasure Tower. He has help from a slave girl named Naomi, but Jamal was obviously just using her for her knowledge of the tower. When she asks to come with him,
he insults her and she draws a blade. Jamal kicks her through the window where she falls to her death among a crowd that’s gathered below to listen to an old man preaching about the end of the world and the imminent arrival of the dark god Imhotep. The guards burst in on Jamal, who flees out the window and hides among the crowd listening to the old man. But when they call the old prophet a blasphemer and try to stone him, Jamal stands up for him, chasing the mob away. The old man rewards him with an amulet of Ishtar that he says will protect Jamal when Imhotep comes. The guards chase Jamal again and he heads back to the shore where he stumbles over Conan and Keiv again. 
When the guards catch up, Jamal claims to have found the salvation the old man was preaching about: a man of steel with blazing eyes and a wild mane, which definitely does sound like Conan. The guards believe Jamal’s bullshit story and take Conan to the palace to honour him. When he wakes up, Conan forces Jamal to tell him what’s going on and is uncomfortable with the obeisance shown by the villagers, who believe he will save them from Ishtar’s wrath. Conan goes to the shore to find Keiv riddled with arrows, but luckily the valiant monster is still alive. The king decides to let the people adore Conan, thinking they’ll soon turn their fancies to someone else. For his part, Conan takes Jamal’s advice and figures he may as well enjoy the perks of his new celebrity The old man warns Conan to leave the town, saying his destiny lies elsewhere,
but Conan’s having too much fun to leave right now. Meanwhile, Jamal is stealing some maps to the castle’s treasure rooms and overhears the guard captain (Ahmet) plotting to let the crowds riot so he can overthrow the king under cover of the chaos. Jamal is spotted and takes a crossbow bolt in the back, crawling to Conan’s chamber to warn him about Ahmet but only managing to scratch the outside of the door. Keiv gets bored with the revelry (especially since he can no longer get drunk) and when he sees the rioting crowd hang the old prophet and an unearthly horde approaching, he figures it’s time to get out of town. Keiv busts into Conan’s room to wake the barbarian, letting him know about the prophet and that Jamal lies dead outside his door. Keiv gives Conan Jamal’s 
amulet but they have to fight their way through Ahmet and his guards, who now believe the prophecy and want Conan to save them. The castle rocks to its very foundations as Imhotep and his demons arrive. Conan and Keiv make it out alive, but they’re the only ones who do, the rest of the town being levelled completely. The old man’s body is still hanging in the tree and they speculate that he fit the words of his own prophecy, but it’s too late to worry about it now. This is a pretty good issue, although I’m not sure about all the prophecy stuff. We know Conan’s destiny is to be a king someday, but this world-saving stuff seems a bit beyond his purview.
Conan the Barbarian #180 – “Witches’ Keep” – Jim Owsley/John Buscema/Bob Camp
This one starts with Imhotep pondering his exile on this plane of existence and what it might take to end it. Conan and Keiv are in a thick forest trying to find their way to El Shah Maddoc when Keiv vanishes and Conan is attacked by Kothian soldiers, who think he serves someone called Ren. He pounds some of the soldiers before the captain recognizes his outfit as Shemitish and takes him to see his general, a young man named Soto. The general tells Conan he and his men are from El Shah Maddoc and are seeking the witch-queen Ren, whose power is at a low ebb because of the equinox. Conan warns him about
Imhotep and goes back to the forest to look for Keiv, who Soto thinks was taken by Ren. Conan runs into one of Ren’s followers and he forces her to bring to the witch-queen’s hideout deep in the forest. Ren tells Conan she’s not really powerless but she is worried about Imhotep’s power. She plans on letting him devour Soto and his men while she and her daughters hide in the swamps. Conan doesn’t really care about Soto but he does want to get Keiv back, so he agrees to kill Soto for the witch-queen (and also bangs her). Conan goes back to warn Soto again (since his dislike of Ren is stronger than his disdain for Soto) and takes back a bloodied mace-head to perpetrate a ruse on the witch. He asks 
to see Keiv before showing her Soto’s head and she complies, pulling a huge monolith out of the swamp that has Keiv (and various other unfortunates) attached to it. When Ren discovers Conan’s ruse she reverts to her wood-demon form and tries to kill him, but he ends up beheading her instead. Soto and his men arrive and attack Ren’s daughters despite Conan’s warnings about Imhotep. Soto and his men are killed and Conan finds Keiv, the amulet once again protecting them from Imhotep’s power. But we find out the amulet is what Imhotep wants since it can take him back to his own dimension, but he’s cursed to be deathly afraid of the amulet’s touch, so he’s forced to retreat again. Tetra shows up to collect Ren’s still-living head and to take
command of her daughters, telling them they have business in El Shah Maddoc. She leaves Conan and Keiv to awaken in the ruins of the forest. This is a pretty good issue, with Conan beating the witch-queen through sheer strength (and stubbornness) and the amulet saving him from Imhotep again. The fact that Imhotep needs the amulet to return home is interesting, as is Tetra proclaiming herself the new witch-queen, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens with both.