Conan the Barbarian #169 – “Tomb of the Scarlet Mage” – Michael Fleisher/John Buscema/Bob Camp
This one starts with Conan being chased through a snowstorm by some scumbags who want to kill him. (A fairly common occurrence, but this time it’s because he discovered their brother trying to snatch his coin purse and strangled the would-be thief.) Conan’s horse goes down in the snow and his sword is broken, so he takes off. The apparition of a scarlet-robed mage appears and directs him to a tree that’s immediately struck by lightning, revealing a jewelled sword. Conan
uses it to fight off his pursuers, but the sword gives him a vision of being forged by the hand of a demon. I’m not sure why Conan doesn’t just get rid of the sword, given his hatred of sorcery, but it’s a good thing he holds onto it. He comes across some brigands about to tear a woman apart (by tying her to four horses) and rescues her, using the sword to waste the brigands. He has another vision of the old wizard holding the eldritch blade and he’s so distracted, the girl has to save him from getting stabbed in the back. They take off and naturally end up banging. Conan has a dream about the red-robed sorcerer running from someone who wants the sword. While he sleeps the girl (who claimed she only stole some bread from the brigands) steals the jewelled sword and 
sneaks off. The thieves Conan fought earlier are trying to sneak up on him and grab the girl. Her screams awaken Conan and she tosses him the sword, which he uses to dispatch the thieves. Realizing the girl tried to rob him, Conan puts her on the horse and sends her on her way. Conan’s visions guide him to a twisted tower which he starts to climb, followed closely by the girl. An avalanche forces her to reveal herself and Conan saves her, following the pull of the magic sword into a cave. There he’s beset by the thieves he slew, somehow resurrected and made almost invincible since they can’t be killed again by normal means. Conan finally uses fire to defeat the dark-spawned creatures and then uses
the sword to release the old wizard from his frozen crypt. The wizard says Conan has freed him just in time to stop a great evil that threatens the whole world. This is a pretty good issue, although the stakes seem a bit high for Conan, who doesn’t usually bother with world-threatening beings. The the girl is interesting and I assume she’ll play an important role in the next issue.
Conan the Barbarian #170 – “Dominion of the Dead” – Michael Fleisher/John Buscema/Bob Camp
This one continues from the above issue, with the newly-freed mage telling Conan they have to defeat Kx’ulthuum, the demon who forged the sword Conan carries and which the mage hid in the tree years ago. The mage quickly realizes the girl is a servant of Kx’ulthuum and blasts her, so I guess my prediction above was wrong. Conan has no interest in fighting a demon, not even for the vast treasure hoard the mage promises. But when the demon’s mark appears on Conan’s hand and is very touch kills his horse, Conan realizes he has no choice, since he’s now cursed by Kx’ulthuum’s death touch. The mage tells him they have to find the demon and plunge the sword into its heart, but he makes Conan wrap his hand to prevent accidentally touching anyone. In the nearest town, Conan sees
someone being pounded by a bunch of louts and jumps in to help when he realizes it’s Fafnir, who he’d thought dead. Fafnir is drunk, but does manage to let Conan know that it was he who started the fight. Meanwhile, Kx’ulthuum is determined to get the sword back so he can shove it into the bowels of the Earth and turn everyone on the planet into a mindless undead creature under his control. He sends some bat-demons to attack Conan and company and they fight them off, although Conan has to save Fafnir again. Conan’s ready to drop Fafnir (who punches his out for his temerity), but the mage insists Fafnir will have a pivotal role to play against the demon. In camp that night 
they’re attacked by the wraiths of the thieves Conan killed (twice!) last issue and the mage uses magnified moonlight to dissipate the shades. Fafnir gets a spear through his body, but thanks to being covered in the yolk from the immortality egg a couple issues back, he can’t die. That’s why he was so drunk and reckless lately, because he thinks a life devoid of risk is also devoid of meaning, at least for a warrior like him. They get to Kx’ulthuum’s lair and are attacked by some of his reptilian minions. Fafnir saves Conan’s ass for once and the mage leads them to the demon’s heart, which lies in a pool instead of inside the monster’s chest. Conan stabs the demon to distract it while the wizard gets the heart from the pool, but the demon starts feeding on Conan’s life-force. Fafnir jumps the demon and it decides to feed off him,
since his immortal life gives much more sustenance. Conan plunges the sword into Kx’ulthuum’s heart, destroying the demon. Unfortunately, it’s not in time to save Fafnir, whose immortality was apparently drained from him. This was a pretty good issue; I like how Fafnir managed to save Conan (and the entire planet) and rid himself of his immortality curse at the same time. I wonder if we’ll ever see the wizard again?