Conan the Barbarian #163 – “Cavern of the Vines of Doom” – Michael Fleisher/John Buscema/Charles Vess
This one starts with Conan and his Vanirman friend Fafnir riding into a village in the Border Kingdoms. They see a young woman about to be burnt at the stake and Fafnir jumps in to save her. He and Conan ride away with the girl (Krylxxa), who assures them the villagers’ accusations about her being a witch aren’t true. But when they stop at a stream, Conan notices the water level decline when Krylxxa crosses the water. She disappears into the woods and ends up screaming for help minutes later. Fafnir goes to rescue her and finds a huge bear about to kill her. Fafnir
gets slapped down by the bear, so Conan take care of it, killing the beast with his bare hands (see what I did there?). Despite Conan’s heroics, Krylxxa is more enamoured of Fafnir, but when she kisses him he has a sudden dizzy spell. The next day, they swing by a smithy that Fafnir knows so he can get a new horseshoe, but the smith doesn’t recognize Fafnir at all. Fafnir soon realizes out why when he finds the bodies of the (real) smith and his two sons stuffed into a box. The false smith and his two cronies attack and Conan soon figures out there’s something uncanny about them, since they bleed water when cut instead of blood. Conan wonders if Krylxxa knows more about the strange 
water-beings than she’s telling, but Fafnir will hear no accusations against her. Krylxxa leads them to a cave where she says her people live, but they’re jumped by weird fungus creatures and captured. The fungus creatures know Krylxxa and they recount their story for Conan and Fafnir. The fungus creatures evolved ages ag and survived the cataclysm that killed the dinosaurs by retreating into caves. They were buried for millennia but a recent earthquake opened the caves up again. Unfortunately, the fungoids can’t survive in sunlight unless they take over the body of a human (which explains the water-bleeding blacksmiths). Krylxxa killed a serving girl for her body (which is why the villagers were burning her), but she was so bothered by it that she vowed to die in the caves rather than kill again. Krylxxa’s confession doesn’t dampen Fafnir’s love for her, but unfortunately she (like all of her kind) gives off
spores that are deadly to humans. Conan and Fafnir take off before the fungoids decide what to do with them and Krylxxa comes along, wanting to spend her last days with Fafnir. When her stolen body degrades, Fafnir offers his own but Krylxxa refuses and she dies. This is a pretty good story, a rather unconventional love story that probably wouldn’t have worked with Conan as the leading man. (He warned Fafnir about Krylxxa and her people more than once.) I’m not sure if it’s something Robert E. Howard would’ve written (it seems more like Lovecraft or Smith to me), but it’s a pretty good fantasy tale.
Conan the Barbarian #164 – “The Jeweled Sword of Tem”– Larry Yakata/Gary Kwapisz
This one starts with Conan getting jumped by a boy (Veden Kamal) who wants revenge because Conan killed his brothers in battle. Conan slaps him around a bit and tells him that deaths in battle are normal and are no cause for vengeance. Veden hints that he might wish to become Conan’s apprentice as a warrior, then tempts him with the tale of the Sword of Tem, supposed to be covered in priceless jewels. Veden leads Conan to a wizard called Maheeva, who claims he’s magically bound to his tower and wants the magic sword to free himself from that bondage, offering to let Conan keep the gems. Following Maheeva’s
directions, Conan and Veden head north and run into some wolves, which Conan dispatches quite easily. Conan does teach Veden some woodscraft and even shares some battle wisdom with him. They run into some carnivorous snow apes which Conan kills after Veden lures them into ambush. They’re forced to abandon the horses when they get beyond the tundra but they eventually make it to their destination … the Tomb of Dark Angels. They find a couple of beautiful women frozen in ice on the altar, but Conan is more concerned with the jewelled sword. He breaks it free but Veden quickly grabs it and attacks him, taunting the barbarian for not seeing through his innocent act. The 
two fight and Veden holds his own thanks to the magical sword. The fight is interrupted when the two women (sorcerers of course) awaken and blast Veden so they can claim the sword. Conan grabs it first and uses it to take down the two women. He knows the sword is too powerful to give to Maheeva (or to just leave lying around a cave), so he starts a fire to burn the two women and tosses the sword in too. Veden (who’s half-dead from his burns) begs Conan to kill him, but Conan leaves the treacherous kid to his slow, painful death. This is a pretty good issue, with a real sword and sorcery flavour to it. The quest to find the sword has a real D&D vibe and I like how Conan leaves Veden to his fate at the end … very much in character for the barbarian. I don’t have a
problem with Conan wasting the two beauties, as I always thought his code against killing women was kinda stupid (especially if they’re trying to kill him), plus I’m not sure these women are even human anyway. This is obviously a filler issue, since it’s by a different creative team and Fafnir is nowhere to be seen. I like Gary Kwapisz’s art, although he sometimes puts goofy expressions on Conan’s face. He does scenery really well and certainly knows how to draw beautiful women.