Conan the Barbarian #147 – “Tower of Mitra” – Bruce Jones/John Buscema/Ernie Chan
This one starts with Conan reminiscing about Pelija Lon, the woman he met in issue 134 and last saw in issue 139. Coincidentally, a vision of Pelija Lon appears in front of him, begging him to help her. Unfortunately, the vision doesn’t give a location, so Conan heads for D’eim (city of the High Priestess of Mitra), where he knows Pelija was headed. When Conan reaches D’eim, he finds the citizens building a tower that stretches high into the sky. They claim the Oracle Priestess told them to
build the tower to honour Mitra, but the current Oracle appears at the temple and says she’s resigning. She turns things over to the new Oracle and I’m sure you can guess who it is. Yeah, it’s Pelija Lon, but when Conan tries to talk to her, she claims not to know him. Conan gets pissed off and leaves town and we see the old Oracle (C’harona) leading Pelija beneath the temple. We also see that Pelija is in some kind of trance and is obviously being controlled by C’harona, who says she won’t need to use Pelija as her mouthpiece for much longer. As he’s riding away, Conan gets another vision from Pelija asking for help, this time telling him to go to the tower. He sneaks back into D’eim and climbs the 
tower, only to find slaves turning a gigantic drill inside the tower. He steals a guard uniform and mingles with the other guards, gaining entry to the temple. He follows C’harona beneath the temple to where Pelija is being held and overhears Pelija warning C’harona not to trifle with Mitra’s wrath. When C’harona leaves, Conan reveals himself to Pelija, who tells him C’harona serves Set and is trying to drill into the earth to release vile demons. She also tells him that C’harona has been drugging her and Conan starts thinking of a way to thwart the evil Priestess. When the guards come to drug Pelija and take her up for another audience with the villagers, Conan jumps them and Pelija uses the drug to control them. She pretends to be drugged so she can reveal the truth to the people of D’eim. The guards attack, but Conan wastes them and the villagers rise to
defend their god. C’harona grabs Pelija and takes off, releasing some rat-demons to stop pursuit. Conan makes short work of them, but C’harona transforms into a harpy and tries to take off with Pelija. Conan throws his sword at her wings and she drops Pelija. Conan saves her and grapples with the harpy, finally smashing it into the ground. The villagers honour Mitra by pulling down the tower. This is a pretty good issue that has (like many of Bruce Jones’s Conan tales) a D&D feel to it. I like the harpy fight and it was cool to see Pelija using her head instead of just sitting around waiting to be rescued.
Conan the Barbarian #148 – “The Plague of Forlek” – Bruce Jones/John Buscema/Ernie Chan
This one starts in Rutonia, with Conan travelling through a storm and running low on food. (There’s no mention of Pelija, so I guess she took off after last issue’s conclusion.) Conan finds a soldiers’ camp and stops to look for food. He’s attacked by some soldiers whose flesh is covered in some strange growth, but he kills some and chases the rest of them away. He interrogates a survivor (Kalefan), who tells him he serves King Selt, whose son (Pelen) fell in love with Alitari, daughter of Selt’s rival, King Lamerak. Selt decided to make peace, but Lamerak murdered Pelen and declared all-out war, using his wizard (Forlek) to bring a plague down on Selt’s men. Selt and his cohort disappeared after the first battle, so Kalefan came to look for
him. He promises Conan great wealth if he’ll take a message to King Lamerak, asking him to remove the plague in exchange for the surrender of Selt’s men. Conan is still hungry but Kalefan’s men brought no provisions, so he tells Conan to eat the fruit in the forest on his way to deliver the message. He also tells Conan to take a monkey named Beri, who’s something of a mascot to Selt’s men. After feasting on the fruit (which the monkey refuses to touch), Conan approaches Lamerak’s castle, where he’s ambushed and knocked out. Conan revives and finds that Lamerak and his men are also afflicted with the plague, and 
Lamerak blames Selt for murdering his daughter and starting the war, not the other way around. Lamerak also accuses Conan of being a wizard and starting the plague, and when Conan mentions Forlek, the wizard expresses an interest in talking to the barbarian. After wasting some of Lamerak’s men, Conan locks Lamerak and the rest of his guard up and goes to talk with the wizard. Forleksays he has no idea what caused the plague (which Conan has now contracted), and claims he saw Alitari murdered by the Rutonian guard and Pelen impale himself on the weapon that killed her moments later. Forlek says Lamerak’s army vanished but some scouts brought back the same fruit Conan ate earlier in the forest. The monkey again refuses the fruit, even biting Forlek when he offers Conan some, which causes the wizard to lock the monkey in a box. Forlek sends
Conan back to Kalefan, but Conan finds him and all his men transformed into trees. With his last breath, Kalefan warns Conan that the fruit is enchanted somehow, so Conan heads back to the castle. He finds Lamerak and his men turned into trees and goes to confront Forlek. The wizard is absent, so Conan uses his crystal ball to see what really happened to Alitari and Pelen. Apparently Forlek, craving more power, turned Alitari into a tree and Pelen into a monkey, telling Lamerak the Rutonians killed his daughter so he’d conquer their kingdom. But Forlek hadn’t counted on the plague and has now taken the monkey (who’s really Pelen) to find the tree that was once Alitari so he can reverse the plague by killing 
the tree. Conan gets there in time to stop him but has to fight some conjured demons. Both Conan and Forlek start turning ito trees, so Conan urges Pelen to throw a torch at Forlek. The monkey obeys and when Forlek burns to death, he curse is reversed and everyone turns back to normal … including Pelen and Alitari. This was a pretty good story, although it was weird to see Conan using a crystal ball, considering his distrust of magic. Forlek’s scheme seems a little convoluted too, and I’m not sure why killing tree-Alitari would end the plague, but whatever.