Conan the Barbarian 39

Major Characters

 * Conan (Previous appearance in CB-38; next appearance in first story of SSOC-207).

Minor Characters

 * A bandit gang (First and only appearance to date; all die in this issue).
 * Ben-Hussal (First and only appearance to date). Lord of Vilayet Sea.
 * Rachalla (First and only appearance to date). Ben-Husal's neice).
 * Ghul-Azalel (First appearance; dies in this issue). Mad priest of Erlik.

Location

 * Northwest of Aghrapur and in the village of Keshaan on the Vilayet Sea.

Time Frame

 * Several days.

Synopsis
Conan is waylaid by a group of bandits, and though he kills them all, his horse breaks its leg and Conan is bitten by a viper. He collapses but is rescued by a young woman and her uncle, who happens to be the lord of the small village Keshaan, and had been run out by the mad priest Ghul-Azalel. Ghul-Azalel had convinced Ben-Hussal to begin sacrificing virgins to a sea dragon to end a curse of death that had infected the town over the past year. When the sacrifices were unsuccesful and when Ghul-Azalel demanded the sacrifice of Ben-Hussal's neice Rachalla, the two fled the town leaving it to Ghul-Azalel. However, they have had word that the priest had died and it was safe to return. The two ask for Conan's assistance in returning, and Conan agrees, only to find themselves captured when they enter the village; it was a trap. The two men are tied to stakes and Rachalla is chained to a rock in the sea as sacrifice for the sea dragon. Conan rips his stake from the ground, slips from the ropes, and makes his way to Rachalla as a giant crocodile emerges from the ocean.Conan stabs it and lures it to the shore and towards Ghul-Azalel. The creature devours several men, but is eventually stabbed deep by Conan using a wooden post. Severely wounded, the creature heads back out to sea, but not before Conan throws the dark priest at the creature where he gets tangled and stuck in netting. As the creature heads out to sea to die, the priest drowns. Rachalla reveals the reason Ghul-Azalel was mad and why Ben-Hussal fled rather than confront him - the mad priest was Ben-Hussal's brother, Rachalla's father.

Reprinted

 * Conan Saga #77
 * The Chronicles of Conan Volume Six: The Curse of the Golden Skull and Other Stories