Conan the Barbarian 171

Major Characters

 * Conan (Previous appearance in SS-171; next appearance in CB-172).

Minor Characters

 * Tasmara (First and only appearance to date). Goddess
 * Baron Gerdeg (First and only appearance to date; dies in this issue).

Locations

 * Nemedia
 * Numalia

Time Frame

 * A couple of days

Synopsis
Back to work as a mercenary for the Nemedian army, Conan leads the forces to victory at the Aquilonian border. He declines a commission from the king and as he travels across the country comes across members of the Brotherhood of the Falcon assaulting a young woman. The girl, Tasmara, had been targeted by a Baron Gerdeg because she had been visited by the gods and given a magical jewel that can bestow visions of possible futures. Conan himself sees his own death, attended by the king of Nemedia himself, in the jewel's facets. When Conan reaches the town of Numalia, he is accosted by the Brotherhood, who have forced a tavern dancing girl to utilize a falcon in her show with talons of poison that put Conan in a death-like trance. He is removed by the town guard and placed in a stone sarcophagus. When he wakes up, he easily pushes off the lid and bends the iron bars to escape into the graveyard, knowing that Tasmara was likely abducted by Baron Gerdig. He makes his way to Gerdeg's domicile, guarded by members of the Brotherhood of the Falcon, but makes swift work of them and confronts the Baron, killing him. As he escapes with Tasmara, her father, an actual god, appears to discipline his daughter, who enjoys going to earth to play with the mortals. Tasmara apologizes to Conan and her father and goes with him, leaving an astonished Conan behind to just mutter, "Crom."

Reprinted

 * The Chronicles of Conan 22 - Reavers in the Borderland and Other Stories