A night in MessantiaScript by Roy Thomas
Art by John Buscema and Ernie Chan
The least that can be said is that a lot of things happen in this story! That’s due to its double nature : Roy uses it to further the characterization of the large supporting cast (Conan, Zarono, Strombanni, Valeria, Galacus, Zingelito), make continuity references (Publio, the temple of a thousand gods, Omm the spider god) as well as adapt a non-Conan story by Robert E. Howard,
the dragon of Kao Tsu, which is already rife with characters and unexpected developments!
Howard published that story in the magazine
Spicy-adventures in 1936, under the pseudonym of Sam Walser.
Why a pseudonym? Well, perhaps because
Spicy-adventures was more into spice than adventure
per se, if you catch my meaning (wink-wink-nudge-nudge). Nothing that would raise an eyebrow today, but the ladies in that mag usually ended up in various states of nudity, and innuendo reigned supreme. Anyway, Howard had to try different markets to make ends meet, and for this one he created the character Wild Bill Clanton, sailor on
The Saucy Wench and great pursuer of exotic treasures and more exotic ladies. (The
Saucy Wench is also the name Conan gave to his ship in the “
Road of kings” series that Roy Thomas wrote for Dark Horse). I read in the NeO edition of the adventures of Wild Bill Clanton that Sam Walser was the name of one of Howard’s ancestors. (Here's the cover of that book; NeO really did a great job with Howard's work in the '80s.)
Now I am a big fan of Howard’s writing, and stories like
Pigeons from Hell,
Worms of the Earth or
Red Nails are truly masterpieces. However, writing at a breakneck pace and constantly in need of money, Howard did write many duds.
Entertaining duds, of course, the way even a bad Neal Adams comic would still look good; masters can disappoint but even their “bad” is better than many other artists’ “best”. That’s the case with many of Howard’s mystery or detective stories, where the plot seems to be made up as the writer goes along, and where the fun is mostly in the dialog and description of exotic places. Let us not cast stones if this story does not compare to “The tower of the elephant”.
The story goes like this :
Conan, second mate aboard the
Red Hand under the captaincy of the Barachan pirate Strombanni, gets into a fight with Black Zarono, a Zingaran buccaneer and Strombanni’s competitor in the quest for the treasure of Tranicos. Zarono just wants to infuriate Strombanni, on whose ship he is currently a guest, but Conan’s ability surprises him. Strombanni eventually calls a halt to the duel.
Apart from starting the tale with a bit of action, this scene underscores Zarono’s vaunted expertise with the sword, and may explain why Conan spent a lot of money on fencing lessons when he later became a Zingaran buccaneer himself (as seen in SSoC #40).
The
Red Hand is on its way to Messantia, capital and main port of the country of Argos. There Strombanni and Zarono mean to meet an old miser who may have a map showing the position of the treasure of Tranicos. At the same time, the pirate charges Conan to meet the well-known fence Publio, who might arrange for a ransom note to reach Lord Hambria, the husband of the Lady Morganis who was taken hostage last issue.
Publio has been seen before; first in CtB#57, in which he sold Conan as a galley slave, and next in CtB#66, in which he was fencing goods for Bêlit and her crew. He would be seen again much later, when Conan had become king, as seen in
Giant-size Conan #4 (adapting
The hour of the dragon, Howard’s only novel featuring Conan).
Accompanying Conan will be Morganis herself and the young Valeria, the newest addition to the Red Hand’s crew. As the trio walks the dark streets of Messantia, Conan points to the temple of a thousand gods, a religious buildings honouring all gods under one roof. He mentions having been there when he sailed with Bêlit, which prompts Valeria to suspect that Conan might be the famous pirate Amra.
Publio hasn’t changed in the past years -I mean, he hasn’t even changed clothes!
Morganis surprises all present by offering to pay for her ransom herself; she claims to know the location of a priceless statue, the dragon of Kao Tsu, worshipped by a Vendhyan cult. The dragon was stolen and smuggled out of Vendhya years before, but Morganis claims that it came in the possession of her husband, who in turn sold it to a certain Kothian collector named Ahmak who happens to live in Messantia.
Complicating the plot is a copy of the dragon, another statue meant as a decoy for thieves. Morganis recommends to steal both statues, just to be on the safe side. Publio accepts the deal and sends his trusted man Ram Lal, himself a Vendhyan, to steal the dragons.
Meanwhile, Strombanni and Zarono, with their respective first mates Galacus and Zingelito, pay a visit to the old man who’s supposed to have the map to Tranicos’s treasure. The man is a shrewd negociator; however, before any deal is struck, someone abruptly knocks the room’ sole candle aside and plunges the place into darkness. When light comes back, the old man is dead!
The pirates accuse each other of the crime, and more importantly of having stolen the map. They all have to run when the night watch arrives, alerted by the old man’s death scream; we readers are shown that it is Galacus who has the map, unbeknownst to his captain. (This plot point will resurface in the adaptation of The treasure of Tranicos, in SSoC #47-48).
The entire scene is adapted from this passage in The Black Stranger/the treasure of Tranicos :
The tale shifts back to the quest for the dragon a Kao Tsu. Ram Lal succeeds in absconding with the statues, but during his escape he topples a vase and alerts the mansion’s guards. He still manages to outrun them and make his way to Publio's house.
A little later, Publio is furious : displaying one of the dragons, he says that Ram Lal cheated him by giving him the fake before getting away with the real one. Conan takes an interested look at the fake, and then accepts to hunt down Ram Lal with Valeria. He brings the “accursed fakery” with him, as Publio doesn’t want to look at it anymore.
Naturally Conan and Valeria end up neck-deep in trouble and have to face the night watch in a dynamic battle across the city’s rooftops.
Finding Ram Lal’s hiding spot in Messantia’s harbour, the two pirates also find out that the man is very dead, his throat slit from one side to the other. A band of assassins then set upon the pair, who put out the only torch to try and make the fight a little more equal. Getting out of Ram Lal’s hovel, the two pirates throw the fake dragon behind to distract their opponents, who all abandon the pursuit to lay their hands on it.
As all this is happening, Morganis has left Publio’s house to follow Conan and Valeria. Eventually reaching the now-deserted home of Ram lal, she is surprised by Ahmak, the Kothian collector to whom her husband sold the dragons. Ahmak is not happy with her, suspecting her of having come to Messantia to steal back the statues on the orders of her husband. He now wants his stuff back!
When Morganis denies the charges, he proceeds to beat her… until a well-placed kick by a returned Conan sends him sprawling.
Valeria and Conan next have to fight Ahmak’s own guards, and the trio runs all the way to the temple of a thousand gods. (Why there? Er... Because the plot dictates it!)
The temple proves no safe harbour, for with Ahmak is a man named Tureem who has some mystical abilities; once he has touched someone (as when he fought Conan in Ram Lal’s house), he can follow him anywhere. What’s more, Tureem comes from the city of Yezud, whose god Omm (a giant spider) Conan killed in CtB #13. According to Ahmak, Tureem holds a grudge against the Cimmerian for that deicide; it is odd that he doesn’t mention how the city of Yezud was razed during the same adventure, surely a better reason to remember Conan with less than affection.
Tureem reveals that long ago he stole a certain amulet in Yezud; he now sets said amulet on the forehead of the statue of Omm that is found in the temple, along with countless statues of other gods.
Back in CtB#66, Bêlit mentioned how ugly the statue of Omm was. At least back then it didn't jump to attack anyone… but this time it
does!!!
The animated statue starts by killing Ahmak, who must have been an unpleasant boss to Tureem. Conan remembers that during his last visit in this temple in CtB#66, the animated statues he had to face were nothing more than hypnotically-induced illusions. Supposing that the same thing might be happening now, he sends his knife flying into Tureem’s throat, hoping to dissipate any hypnotic hold that the man might have over them. No luck, the monstrous arachnid is
really moving!
After escaping death a few times, Conan finally climbs on the statue of Dagon that he has previously seen in this temple (He and Bêlit had to fight that very statue and that of his mate, the goddess Derketa, in the hypnotic episode we just mentioned).
The statue of Dagon is thankfully made of detachable parts, and Conan uses its massive sword to impale the spider. The creature ceases moving after a while, perhaps because the spell that animated it was of short duration.
Reflecting that it would be wise to leave the temple before offending any more gods, the trio goes back to the docks. There they find the fake dragon, which was dropped by the assassins when they realized that it wasn’t the authentic statue. Conan picks it up and, revealing that he knew it to be hollow, opens it to recover from its innards a small piece of paper. Morganis becomes very agitated; the list turns out to be the names of the men with whom Morganis has slept, having been “careless of her marriage vows”. For some convoluted reason, a jealous ex-lover of Hambria had it written up and hidden in the fake dragon just before it was sold to Ahmak, and Morganis was more interested in recovering the list than she was in getting a ransom for herself. (That was actually the reason Morganis was on a ship last issue; she was on her way to try and steal the fake dragon back).
When everyone meets again, they all share in the bad news : the map to the treasure is either lost, of stolen by one of their numbers; the real dragon was stolen from Ram Lal and is now lost… all in all, the night was far more eventful than profitable (except perhaps for one person).
The story's plot made little sense, I must confess... but its setting up of
The treasure of Tranicos was interesting, and the dialog between Valeria and Conan is very amusing and the high point of the issue.