Conan the Barbarian 149

Major Characters

 * Conan (Previous appearance in CB-148; next appearance in CB-150).

Minor Characters

 * Captain Pendak (First and only appearance to date); dies in this issue.
 * Carth (First and only appearance to date); dies in this issue.
 * Sim (First and only appearance to date).
 * Bolar (First and only appearance to date); dies in this issue.
 * Lilane (First and only appearance to date).

Locations

 * Cimmeria
 * Travania

Time Frame

 * Two days

Synopsis
While riding through a Cimmerian forest, Conan hears a cry and comes across a dead man with his arm chopped off lying against a tree. He spots a figure riding away and gives chase, but when he catches the figure discovers it is the man's terrified child. He escorts the boy to his father's friend's home in Travania, but when they arrive they discover the friend also dead and missing an arm. The villagers suspect Conan of the deed and Conan and the boy off. The child tells Conan he and his father's friend served in the same regiment and were meeting up to head to a reunion in the north. Conan takes him to the reuinion site where he sees several men attacked by Picts. Conan helps drive the Picts off and introduces himself to the Captain, Pendak, and tells him the men in his old regiment are being killed. They are interrupted by two more men, Carth and Sim, who arrive and say they were ambushed and the others with them were slain. One of the men thinks it's the work of a man named Bolar, and Pendak explains that years ago on a raid, they pillaged a town and found a treasure map. The men had part of the map tattooed on their arms, but Bolar objected to their taking a young girl. When he attacked Pendak, the others tied him to a stake and burned him alive, killing all in the village in he flames. Eventually Pendak and the others turned a new leaf, regretting their actions. Pendark had lost his arm in battle years ago, but he kept it, and Bolar's, preserved. It seems whoever is killing the men wants to recreate the map, and it soon kills everyone but Pendak and Sim, although Sim is gravely injured when his arm is torn off. Conan decides to lay a trap and takes the remaining arms with him, travelling to the dry lake bed where the treasure is allegedly hidden. At camp that night, they are attacked by a hideously deformed man, and during the battle someone steals away Pendak and Bolar's arms. When they follow the creature to his lair, they are confronted by Lilane, the young woman who was almost raped by the soldiers. She saved Bolar and nursed him back to life, although his mind is gone, and used him as a weapon of vengeance. Bolar attacks and kills Pendak, but Conan manages to stab him through the head. Her vengeance done, Lilane takes the now orphaned boy under her wing while Conan watches stoically.

Reprinted

 * The Chronicles of Conan 19 - Deathmark and Other Stories