Appearing in "The Temptress in the Tower of Flame!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Death
- Seven Wizards of Wan Tengri (Death)
- Green Wizard (Death) (First time named)
- Black Wizard (First appearance; dies)
- Golden Wizard (Death) (First time named)
- Red Wizard (Death) (First time named)
- Violet Wizard (First appearance; dies) (Unnamed)
- Blue Wizard (Death) (Unnamed)
- Guards of the Seven (Death)
- Champions of the Seven (Corpse, skeleton or other remains) (Only in recap)
- Seemingly human-faced lion (First appearance; dies)
- Shamaash the Terrible (First appearance; dies)
Other Characters:
- Tentacled thing (Only in recap)
- Crom (Invoked)
- Kassar (Corpse, skeleton or other remains)
- Tsien Hui (Mentioned)
- Brotherhood of Thieves (Mentioned)
- Ishtar (Invoked)
- Princess of Wan Tengri (First appearance)
- Chien Su (First appearance)
- Yun (Invoked)
- King Yildiz (Mentioned)
- Mitra (Invoked)
Races and Species:
- Humans
- Lions
- Manticores (Mentioned)
- Wolves (Mentioned)
- Snow-Caribou (Mentioned)
Locations:
Items:
- "The Machine"
Events:
Synopsis for "The Temptress in the Tower of Flame!"
Conan, facing Death herself in the arena, tries to hold her back. Unfortunately, when he grabs her hand he immediately begins aging. With his last breaths, as he grows weak and frail, his hair greying, he asks how one man may rule Wan Tengri, knowing that the answer would be enough to topple the precarious government rules by the seven wizards. Death, impressed with his refusal to simply give in, gives him back his life, and whispers in his ear the key to defeating the wizards. Then Death vanishes, leaving Conan holding the body of Kassar, the man who he had come to rescue. The guards of the wizards leap forward to claim the barbarian's knowledge, each wizard ready to pay any sum. Conan plays them against each other and the wizards begin attacking amongst themselves, hoping to gain the upper hand. Conan manages to sneak away, led to freedom by Bourtai. The two of them crawl through the underground catacombs and emerge underneath the Flame Tower. Conan kills a lion and guard on his way through the tower, and ultimately finds the princess that Death told him to search for. The girl is chained to her throne, and Conan releases her. He, the Princess, and Bourtai run through the tower, and Conan discovers the machine that creates the flame winds that surround the sky of the city. Whoever controls the flame, controls the city, and down below all out war has broken out between the seven wizards and their soldiers, soon joined by the city folk, desperate for any chance to topple the wizards. Conan decides that the only way to truly end the threat of the wizards is to destroy the flame winds, and he topples the coal that feeds the wind. Their power truly destroyed, the wizards are set upon and killed by the citizens. The Princess rewards Conan with a galley and boxes full of treasure, which Conan is happy to accept. However, as he and Bourtrai sail away, the Princess reignites the flames, and magically transports her treasure back to her and transforms the galley into a leaking rowboat, leaving Conan and his companion adrift on the lake.
Notes
- Freely adapted from the Flame Winds novel by Norvell W. Page, by permission of Conde Nast, copyright holders.