Conan the Barbarian #127 – “The Snow-Haired Woman of the Wastes” – J.M. DeMatteis/Gil Kane
This one starts with Conan back in Cimmeria, wandering through the snowy hills. He sees a beautiful white-haired Vanir woman (rather scantily-dressed for the climate) being menaced by a bear, so he attacks the beast. After a long struggle, Conan manages to kill the bear, but he passes out from his wounds. The woman (whose touch is said to be eerily cold) drags Conan to a cave to tend his wounds. He has strange dreams involving the mysterious woman,
but when he wakes she’s gone and all his wounds are healed. He heads down a valley and sees a Cimmerian village being torched by Vanirmen. Conan attacks, killing several before being overwhelmed by sheer numbers. He’s tied to some stakes and the Vanir chief (Grendel) is ready to torture him when the shaman (Potarr) reminds him that they’re looking for someone and she is probably getting further away as they speak. The Vanir leave and Conan breaks free, but before he can figure out what to do the mystery woman shows up again. Obviously, she’s who the Vanir are searching for and Conan 
wonders if it has something to do with the shackles and slave collar she wears. The woman (Xean) is even less talkative than Conan, but promises she’ll tell him everything in time. They spend time in the wilderness, growing closer until Conan presses Xean for her story. She tells him how she has no memory of anything other than being chained up in the Vanir village and worshipped by Potarr. She was only allowed free every winter to dance in the snow, but she managed to escape and now the Vanir are after her. She and Conan bang, but when they wake up later, the Vanir have found them. Conan fights the whole war band, killing them in a frenzy. During the fight, he accidentally breaks Xean’s shackles, which causes the collar on her neck to fall free as well.
Unfortunately, that spells her end, as she melts away in Conan’s arms and Potarr explains that he created her from ice and snow to serve as an elemental guardian of the Vanir village. The chains were the anchor that kept her from returning to her original state, but in making her human he gave her emotions and desires, which ultimately led to her end. This is a pretty good story, although DeMatteis once again uses magic as the catalyst. But it was interesting that the Vanir weren’t technically bad, they were just trying to get their lucky charm back (although they did destroy the Cimmerian village without any remorse).
Conan the Barbarian #128 – “And Life Sprang Forth From These” – J.M. DeMatteis/Gil Kane
This one starts with Conan caught in a Cimmerian blizzard. He finds a cabin in the woods and forces his way inside before passing out. When he wakes he’s glad to find he’s stumbled on the home of an childhood friend named Laynnen. Apparently, Laynnen was a foundling that the other boys tormented, but Conan defended him because Laynnen sang songs of far-off lands that captivated Conan. But Conan is curious how Laynnen ended up here with a Khitaian wife and half-breed child, so naturally Laynnen recounts his history in song.
Apparently, his wife (Noyo) was a Khitaian princess cursed by a wizard because she didn’t love him. He forced her to wander the world as a living wind, but when she met Laynnen, she fell in love and settled with him. They hear a noise outside and Conan goes to check it out, finding a flock of bird-men. He fights them but they grab Laynnen and take off, leaving Conan to conclude they must work for the wizard who cursed Noyo. His speculation is confirmed when the wizard (Pau-Styss) sends a vision telling Noyo to get him what he wants or Laynnen will die. In Pau-Styss’s castle, he tells Laynnen that Noyo lied to 
him; she wasn’t cursed, she took the whirlwind form herself to escape. Pau-Styss wants four sacred objects which embody the four primal elements and only Noyo knows where they are, since she’s the priestess of the gods entrusted with such knowledge. Pau-Styss tried to force the knowledge from Noyo’s mind, but she changed to wind form and disappeared … until she became human again and married Laynnen. Meanwhile, Noyo has told Conan the same story and he convinces her they have to find the artifacts to save Laynnen. She uses her powers to zap the to the Black Kingdoms, where the Sword of Strength lies. But before Conan can grab it, the Sword’s guardians—the Warriors of Eternity
—burst from the ground to block his path. This is a pretty good issue that seems to be setting up a multi-part quest for Conan. Of course, if they really do turn the artifacts over to Pau-Styss, it could spell the end of the world, so I’m assuming they’ll find some way to stop the mad wizard before that happens.