Scarlet Citadel

Backstory V

The Scarlet Citadel

Responding to a call for help from Almarus, King of Ophir, Conan and his Aquilonian knights find themselves facing the wrath of two armies: Koth's under the command of King Strabonus and Ophir's, under the command of Almarus himself.

Conan's vastly outnumbered forces are quickly decimated and he finds himself prisoner to Tsotha-Lanti, the power behind both crowns. Tsotha-Lanti is the half-human son of a demon and a dancer. It is said that he performs sorcerous experiments on his captives and delights in their misery.

Tsotha offers Conan his life and the throne of Aquilonia in exchange for his fealty, when Conan balks he is imprisoned in a dark dungeon to further contemplate Tsotha's offer.

Conan is bound to a great pillar in Shukeli the Torturer's dark domain and is tormented by hellish visions and a giant serpent. One of Shukeli's Kushite guards, whose family suffered during one of Conan's piratical adventures, also torments him.

The guard's taunts attract the giant serpent and the survivor of the long-ago raid on Abombi is eaten by the gargantuan Son of Set. Fortunately his keys land near Conan and Aquilonia's monarch is able to escape.

His underground march towards freedom leads him to confrontations with Shukeli, several of Tsotha-Lanti's mutated victims and a demon guardian. He also frees Pelias, a rival sorcerer, whose essence has been feeding a vampiric plant for ten years.

Pelias shows Conan what is transpiring in Aquilonia: In Tarantia Arpello of Pellia sits on Coan's throne. And Shamar is besieged by the Ophirian and Kothian armies, led by Tsotha-Lanti and his puppet kings. Pelias provides Conan with a flying mount from primordial times and promises to meet him in Shamar.

Conan slays Arpello, gathers his forces and marches upon Shamar. The battle is brutal and decisive. A Poitanian archer slays Almarus, King Conan himself kills Strabonus and decapitates Tsotha-Lanti.

Before Tsotha's head can hit the ground an eagle sent by Pelias grabs hold of it and flies away. Tsotha-Lanti's body chases the fast-disappearing bird.

Demoralized, the armies of Ophir and Koth, also left headless, flee the battlefield and return home, there to await Conan's judgement.

Conan #40 Dark Horse: The Tale of the Head

Conan and his loyalists have won the day. Aquilonia's king gives a rousing speech on the battlefield outside Shamar and rewards Athemedes, the young scholar who roused his people against Strabonus of Koth, with an apprenticeship to the mage Pelias (here called Pelius). Conan declares the he himself will deliver the young hero to his new Mentor.

Meanwhile: the eagle carrying Tsotha-Lanti's head, having long out-distanced his grasping body, alights atop a ruined tower. This is the lair of Thoth Amon, exiled Stygian sorcerer and former Lord of the Black Ring. He has regained his link to Set and exacted his revenge on his Aquilonian captors, but has not yet returned to his native land to reclaim his birthright.

Thoth Amon strikes a bargain with Tsotha-Lanti: if Tsotha helps Thoth enter Stygia undetected, Thoth will use his talisman to make Tsotha whole again. Tsotha, having no other choice, agrees.

Conan, Athemedes and their Aquilonian escort are beset by Thoth Amon's forces near a ruined bridge. The Stygian mage captures the king and his charge and all seems lost.

Fate intervenes in the form of Tsotha-Lanti's body, now sporting a borrowed head. Thoth Amon's spell is broken and the Stygian sorcerer finds himself toppling off a cliff with Tsotha's greedily grasping carcass. Tsotha's head, courtesy of King Conan, soon joins them.

As Conan and Athemedes continue their journey to Pelias, Thoth-Amon harnesses the tireless yearning of Tsotha's headless body and the sorcerous knowledge inside his bodiless head to make his way back to Stygia in comfort.

Many years before Conan's kingship:

Conan the Barbarian #45:

The Last Ballad of Laza-Lanti

Fresh from yet another misadventure with Red Sonja and four years after Conan left Zamora far behind he finds himself back in Shadizar the Wicked. He befriends Laza-Lanti the minstrel after they've shared in a bar-fight, some jail time and a prison breakout.

Laza wishes to return to the Dark Valley in Koth, where he was born, to solve the riddle of his strange origins and his mysterious connection to Dagoth Hill. Conan, now footloose and free from obligation, accompanies him.

The cattle-herders who inhabit the valley flee from Laza. Conan manages to bully enough information out of one so that the companions can proceed toward Dagoth Hill.

They find a scantily clad and nubile young woman offering cattle to a Cthuloid monstrosity, who devours them. Thinking to rescue the woman, they attack and ultimately slay the creature, only to discover that the woman, a former dancer, was the monster's lover and Laza's mother. She prefers to join her husband in death rather than remain a rapidly aging crone alone on earth. Laza also decides to surrender his life and join his parents rather than live on with his dark legacy.

Conan goes his way, a slim pouch of coins and the knowledge that Laza had a twin brother named Tsotha his only treasure.

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