Conan the Barbarian - Rogues in the House

We follow Conan through “Rogues in the House” a plan for an assassination job turns into a trap filled nightmare. We talk pacing, pulp, horror, and why we enjoy Conan so much when he leans into his skills for improvised violence.

Transcript

Welcome Back And Today’s Story

Michael Kentris 0:06

Welcome back once again to Brothers Reading Books. I am one of your hosts, Will Kentras, and as always I am joined by my brother. And today we are continuing on our descent into the depths of the Conan bibliography or collection. Legendarium. Yes. And we'll be reading Rogues in the House today, or at least covering Rogues in the House. We already read it. Yes. Yes. Be ill-prepared if we had not previously read it. And I don't have the sufficient improv skills for something like that. No. Same. So I, you know, I know I say this almost every episode, but I really enjoyed this story. I did, yeah. Yeah. I I really this is kind of like more, you know, as the name would imply, Conan as a rogue, uh, in the traditional Dungeons and Dragons sense of things. And I think that that might be my favorite version of Conan is when he's kind of like a thief slash skulking around kind of character.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

Mm-hmm.

Michael Kentris 1:09

No, that's totally fair. I I think my favorite might be when he's a pirate, but I might just like the thematics of when he's when he's in the ships with the you know freebooters or swashbucklers, however you want to describe them, but yeah. Yes. Kind of harkens back to that uh Robert Lewis Stevenson kind of flavor. Nice. So I was thinking maybe we'll just start with kind of a quick overview and then do a little more in-depth. So we we have uh some kind of courtly intrigue, it sounds like we have uh right off the bat a couple of main characters, Nabonitus, the red priest, and a young aristocrat Marillo. And then we get Conan gets wrapped up in their affairs, he is basically hired to assassinate the Red Priest, and hijinks ensue. There is weird, supernatural-esque kind of things going on, backstabbery, and then escape from the city. And I think that's kind of, you know, that's that's the general outline of the story. But uh, but yeah, it makes it sound very superficial, but but there is a lot of like it's a really good kind of bare bones sink your teeth into kind of pulp fiction story. Right. No, I agree. I I think I enjoyed this one a little more than the past two that we've read. And like you said, it that the outline you provided is exactly what happens. And I I I do feel like it's just a little more engaging, perhaps, than than previous entries. Aaron Powell Yeah, it it doesn't seem like there was any lag in the action. Like I know we've had a couple of stories where they're like, you know, they're kind of spying things out, and so you have a little bit of a lull. I mean, granted, they're short stories, so it's not that much of a lull. But uh but this one felt like its pacing was very quick. So I just I think you felt that a little bit more when you're reading through this one. So it was a very quick tempo going throughout the whole thing. Aaron Powell So shall we dive in? Let's

Do We Sound Like One Person

Michael Kentris 3:15

dive. One thing. This is a quick aside for people who might be have been listening for a while. I thought you might find this story interesting. Well, so this is completely unrelated to the story we're covering today, but uh it just I just remembered and I have to share it before I forget again. So one of my work colleagues recently listened to a couple episodes of the podcast, and I was accused of basically recording this podcast by myself and just moving to other sides of the microphone. So people may notice, you know, Will and I have very similar sounding voices. And that's been something I remember even growing up answering the phone at home when we back when we had landlines, we would be asked who who is speaking, sometimes by our own parents. And uh yes, that that has been a thing for our entire lives, essentially. Right. Well, yeah, I remember in high school, like obviously you're older than me, and as we would have the exact same teachers, they'd be like, Whoa, that's kind of creepy. Right. So so anyway, I thought you would appreciate that story well that the uh the curse continues. So for anyone who's listening, there are in fact two people recording this podcast right now, and it is not just uh one person doing a very poor voice change. Right. No, you would hope that if it was just one person that they would put a little more effort into trying to make them sound different. This guy thinks he's pulling a fast one, but he is not doing a great job. So anyway, with that anecdote aside, yes, let's jump into the story.

Marillo’s Warning And The Hit

Michael Kentris 4:53

So, as you said before, we get immediately introduced to our two uh main characters, two of our main characters, uh Nebonidus the Red Priest and Marilla the young aristocrat. And it's kind of ambiguous about kind of what the relationship is between the two of them, only that Marillo receives this sort of auspicious, suspicious signal from Nebonidus that inauspicious even. Yes, yes. Had a very distinct like godfather flair. Right. Because he receives the ear of a missing clerk, it turns out, and he's able to recognize it by a scar on the ear. Right. So yes, you know, this is yeah, as you said, kind of like the fish in the newspaper kind of thing. It's like uh this is a warning. And it uh it's weird, right? This is like it doesn't say exactly where they are, but it sounds like they're in in public when uh when this happens. It's just like here you go, here's here's this box with a human ear in it. So yeah, it's uh definitely got that flavor. And so we we get a little description of Marillo here. You know, he's got scented black curls, appears foppish, but he is not a weakling. And so, you know, he's he's your typical kind of aristocrat with some degree of competence, it seems that they're they're attributing to him here. And so he, as they say here, is not one to bend the neck. So that was that was kind of the thing. Like, is this a warning? Is this like that he needs to leave the city? Essentially the answer is yes, this is a warning, as as the astute reader will notice. But he has his own plans, and he knows that there is a tool that fate has delivered to him from amongst the brothels of the squalid quarters of the city. And uh, we get a little backstory as to how this tool came into his grasp. So I kind of like that there's this there's this long exposition about a priest of Anu, who ultimately does not matter. But the point is that he plays both sides. He's an informant to the police and also a fence for the criminal element in the city. And so we find out there are two, let's just call them mercenaries here, a gunderman and a Sumerian, hint hint, who have been working with him, and we find out the the Gunderman was arrested and hanged, and the Sumerian fled and basically returned in the night and cut off the priest's head. So after that, uh the basically the Sumerian was betrayed, and the captain of the guard and his squad found him, and they find Conan drunk. But despite being drunk, blackout drunk, when he is awoken, he wakes up, disembowels the captain, bursts through, and would have escaped, except he was so drunk and half blind, he cracks his head into the wall so hard he knocks himself out again. Very relatable. Right, and so that is how Conan, obviously, ends up shackled in jail, and uh this is how Marillo finds the tool for his plan. Mm-hmm. Right. So yeah, obviously Marillo is going to recruit Conan to act as an assassin for the Red Priest in this capacity. So he visits him in the dungeon. What was that? His mighty body and thick muscled limbs combine the strength of a grizzly with the quickness of a panther. Again, you always have to have the cat-like descriptions to show his dexterity, his prowess. Yes, I think there's probably a research paper to be written about the the use of animal descriptors in pulp fiction stories, right? Uh the ones that come to mind, as we said, big cats top of the list, of course, particularly panthers, probably lions for a distant second. But we get bull, bear, and uh we've had wolves and timber wolves several times. So yes, we're we're not getting like a teacup poodle or anything like that in these descriptors. No. And then basically Marillo makes the deal. It's like, hey, if you want to live, I can arrange your escape, but you gotta kill somebody for me. And he's like, Navernitis, the king's priest. And more or less Conan's like, yeah, sure, whatever. I could do that. He does not care. He doesn't care. He showed no sign of surprise or perturb perturbation. And yeah, so they they give a little outline of the plan here. There's a guard, he's been bribed, and so once once you escape, right, you'll tie him up with some torn strips of cloth so it looks like he wasn't in on it, and then you'll go to the house of the Red Priest and kill him. Then there's a a that sounds like a tavern, the rat's den, uh, where you'll meet someone, get a pouch of gold and a horse, and then flee the city in the country. And Conan's like, sure, but take these chains off now and bring me some food, by Krom. So this kind of factors in a little bit. We'll get a little flashback as we go forward in time here, but uh but this will factor in significantly as our story progresses

The Break In Goes Sideways

Michael Kentris 10:15

here. So basically, they make the deal, Morillo goes back to his chambers, right? He wants to make sure that people see him returning to his home so that he has an alibi for what is about to go down. And so, like he just said, he goes back to his chambers, back to his home. And it's kind of, you know, finally a little at peace, full control of his fears, since he knows that the Sumerian is of physical great physical prowess and will handle the Red Priest before he outs them to the king for what we don't know yet. But uh we do learn that apparently is not the first time that the Red Priest has had an assassination attempt put upon him, and they've always died in hideous and nameless ways. But they had been products of the cities of men, lacking the wolfish instincts of the barbaria. There goes our bingo card. And unfortunately, while he's kind of, you know, uh taking a little respite here, doing a little drinking, he learns from one of his spies that the prison guard, Athicus, who he had arranged to free Conan, had been arrested and thrown into prison in the meantime, and the Sumerian, it would sound like, has not escaped. Right. So, again, not being a shrinking violet, he straps on his sword and leaves his house and is about to, you know, determined to take matters into his own hands, right? So he's not he's not giving up, even though his plan A has failed. So he heads over to Nabonidus' house, and we start learning about the defenses that uh that are in place here. So obviously we have the basic large stone walls, and we know that inside of them, at the very minimum, there is a large, savage dog, and there is also a servant, a tall, silent man called Joka. Jokka. And then there's also someone, presumably a slave, moving about in the recesses of the house, but this person no one had ever seen. And as he climbs the wall, he ends up discovering that the aforementioned large dog is dead. Right. He stump he stumbles over in the dark, he bends down to inspect it, and its neck was broken, and it bore but seem to be marks of great fangs. And again, Rayleigh felt that no human being had done this. So little ominous omen right there. Right. So here's our first hint of again something unnatural going on. So he stalks towards the house, and you know, he's he's stealing into one of the rooms, and essentially they uh they come to a lighted room, and there is these velvet curtains were drawn, and they find a grisly occupant. It was the body of a man, the form lay on its belly, but the head was twisted about so that the chin rested behind his shoulder. So we find that this is one of the servants, Jokka, who has basically had his head wrenched around almost the entire way. So, you know, again, he is uncertain, but he remembers the headsman's block and the steel axe, or I should say the axe which stealed him. So he continues on. He continues right, he's stalking through the house, comes to a chamber furnished as if for a king, and they find a figure, a great chair with a broad back towards him, and he saw a figure like this, whose habiliments, i.e., clothing, we're familiar. So there's a red sleeve resting on the arm of the chair, head clad in the familiar scarlet hood of the gown, bent forward as if in meditation. And so, you know, he thinks this must be Nabonidus. And so as he steals up here, suddenly he rises and turns to face him, and the blood, you know, rushes out of his face, and he you know screams and faints. Basically, he faints. Yeah, he totally uh just faints. Which, you know, with we'll learn why here in a little bit, but it seems to be sort of the default reaction to this figure. Right. This might be our first male character fainting, if I remember correctly. Not sure. Due to fright, essentially. Sure. I mean, other than getting you know like smack on the head, which is uh a different etiology, let's say. So so yeah, now we flash back back to Conan in the jail cell.

Conan’s Jailbreak With A Beef Bone

Michael Kentris 14:40

Right. So we get a little more context about what was actually happening over there because originally Morillo thought it was Nebonidis' influence that caused Athicus to be arrested. Discovered. Right. And you're like, can he read mines? The answer is no. No, we can't. It it turns out that the easily bribed Athacus has been caught for his various misdeeds, and it just happened to be very ill-timed in this case. You're saying that the bribable guard has committed other crimes for which he is now being arrested. Correct. But before that, right, before before that happened, though, he did bring a platter of food, which included, among other things, a huge joint of beef and a tankard of ale, the joint of beef being relevant in this case. And always relevant. So Cowdin's gorging himself because again he's only been subsisting on moldy bread and water for the past day or so. A whole day. Whole day. That's a long time. Weak with famine. The squad of guardsmen come in, place him under arrest, and a different jailer comes in to take his place. A stolid, dependable creature whom no amount of bribery could have shaken from his duty. He was unimaginative, but he had an exalted idea of the importance of his job. So very boring, self-important character. Yes. Boring enough that he doesn't even get a name. So it's true. So yeah, right, he's making his rounds in the jail, and he sees Conan, you know, eating his eating his beef, drinking his ale, not chained to the wall, and he's basically like overcome with righteous indignation, and uh in his haste enters the cell with Conan without any other guards present, which is his undoing, unfortunately. Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah. He brought nobody else with him, and so Conan immediately just braids him with the beef bone, which is, I believe, at least the second time that he's done something like that. Yeah. Yeah. He's used food to kill or knock unconscious several people, uh, I believe. So yeah, he takes his sword, he takes his keys, and makes a leisurely departure. Right. As very barbarian. Right. And because as Morillet said, there's only the one guard on duty, so he didn't really have to do any sort of sneaky, dexterous, you know, in the dead of night escape. And I like this. As he leaves, he's kind of debating with himself, like, do I really owe this guy to like keep up my bargain? He didn't really let me out, so I had to do it on my own. But eventually he decides, well, if I hadn't been brought the food, then I wouldn't have been released. So he's like, Yeah, I suppose I'm indebted. So he makes good on his promise, but he has some personal business to attend to first. That's right. Conan holds grudges, as we learned earlier. Somebody had betrayed him earlier, who, you know, while he was blackout drunk, uh, more or less told him, Hey, he's sleeping over here. So he makes his way to the maze, which is a labyrinth in sort of underbelly of the city, it seems.

Revenge In The Maze And A Cesspool

Michael Kentris 17:51

The bad part of town. Right. And uh eventually we learn that he's making his way to a young woman, presumably I would think a lover of his. Perhaps. I think it's important to note that as they're describing the maze, there are no paving streets, mud and filth mingled in an unsavory mess, sewers were unknown, refuse was dumped into the alleys to form reeking heaps and puddles. Uh, you can also stumble across corpses not infrequently, and so he's making his way through this area naked except for a loincloth. So quite a picture they're painting here. Uh you know, he's got basically his his knife and his loincloth, and he's just hustling through this filthy these Mm-hmm. So yeah, he finds uh the place where the girl who had sold him to the police was taking leave of her new lover in a chamber, one flight up. And I felt a little bad for the young thug who coded sets upon him and slays him immediately, rips a keen blade right through his belly, and just I assume, yeah, bleeds out. Did not stand a chance. No. I like this. They describe him briefly as he's going down the stairs, intent on his own meditations, which, like those of most of the denizens of the maze, had to do with the unlawful acquirement of property. So just like a daydreaming about stealing, basically. Alright, stealing things. Yeah. So so yeah, he is uh he is cut down in short order, and then makes his way up the rest of the stairs and faces this girl who had betrayed him. Right? And so obviously she recognizes him. She turns white, and basically Conan just grabs her and starts walking out onto the sort of exterior window ledge, it sounds like a sort of little little band that they can navigate. And, you know, she's kicking, she's screaming, she's trying to, you know, get away. And uh he ends up dropping her with great accuracy, it is noted, into a cesspool. Right. So as we just learned, this is probably made up of human refuse and or dead bodies. So pretty nasty stuff. Alright, but again, they're only like one flight up, so she seems like she's gonna be fine, more or less. Well, yeah, she's not injured. Uh yes, she because she is uh kicking and floundering and swearing. And as it says here, Conan allowed himself a low rumble of laughter. Then he decided it was time for him to kill Nabonitis. So I like that. Again, a very practical person, Conan.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

Mm-hmm.

Trapped Below The Red Priest’s House

Michael Kentris 20:32

So we get a flash sideways at this point, back to Marillo. And as we, you know, will recall, he had fainted previously. And now he's waking up in a prison of some sort. The pits, as we will learn that they reference it as here. And he dropped his sword. He does not have his sword on hand, which, you know, is never a good sign when you're trying to assassinate somebody. And uh yeah, basically, almost immediately, Conan discovers that. Right. So yeah, we're we're kind of traveling along from Marillo's perspective for a second, and he's he's moving through the blackness, and he has like some sixth sense that uh something dangerous is in front of him, and that dangerous thing is Conan. Uh basically he he's Conan says, Good thing I recognized you. I was about to stick you like a fattened pig. Right. Uh yeah. He's like, Oh yeah, I knew it was you because of how you smell. If you got, you know, those scented black locks, yeah. Your perfume. And so he like kind of just like sniffs his hair for a second. It's like, huh. Doesn't smell that straight. Right. It's these uh his barbarian senses. Right. So we find out Conan had basically like leaped into the sewers that lead toward this area, and the gate had clanged shut behind him. He tried to open it, but even for his mighty fuse, it was too heavy. So they are in. In effect, trapped in this area because Marillo had also been awoken by a clang, which he presumed was also some sort of locking grate sort of thing. Mm-hmm. So Conan's like, hey, what are you doing here? And Marillo's like, Well, I heard that the guard got arrested, so I thought you weren't gonna do it, so I came to do it.

unknown 22:19

Right.

Michael Kentris 22:20

And then I uh found a hairy devil out of hell. Yeah, he describes like how the scene that he came upon, you know, the dead dog, the dead servant Joker, uh, and then he saw who he presumes to be an Abenitus in a seat. It was no man that stood before me in body and posture, it was not unlike a man, but from the scarlet hood of the priest grind a face of madness and nightmare. And we get a description here. It's got black hair, pig-like eyes, flat nose, great flaring nostrils. Basically the description of like an ape. Right. Which I find it interesting that you know several times we've had these kind of ape-like creatures uh that have have been kind of one of our main antagonists in the stories. It's just an interesting thing. I wonder it makes you wonder if maybe you know Howard saw some like at a zoo or something and it was like, those look pretty dangerous. Right. No, that's it's a very good point. Uh did you have some sort of beef with apes? He was like, I don't trust them. They look too human to me. Maybe that that's what passed for the Uncanny Valley, you know, 100 years ago. 100 years ago. Right. Nowadays he would just be like, oh, it's a robot. Yeah, if he was a sci-fi writer, who knows? And basically, yeah. Uh I was overcome with horror, my senses left me, and I swooned. Right. Now it's it's interesting here that his initial impression is that this was Nabonidus and that he was some sort of were monster, a were thing, as they say here, and that uh he takes on a different aspect at night. And Codin's like, that's evident. Everyone knows there are men who take the form of wolves at will, but why did he kill his servants? Uh basically they they're just working under that impression that that was Nabonidus. But they continue on through the pits, and you know, they're kind of saying, again, what we said earlier, that there's no way out back the way they came, and so they continue searching, and eventually they find the body of a man half naked, lying limply in the

Thak Revealed And The Secret Mirror

Michael Kentris 24:26

corridor. And in fact, what they find is this is Nabonidus. So, and he's like, who, what, why, where? No. And Conan's like, Great, let's kill. Let's kill that's what we're here for. So and uh Marillo's like, wait, wait, there's a mystery here, even darker than I thought. I must have words with this priest before we kill him. And uh so Nabonitus wakes up and he like quickly comes to his senses. And I like this here. You honor my poor house, young sir. You have brought a Bravo, I see. Was your sword not sufficient to sever the life of my humble self? And uh yeah, so they have this little tete tete about like, you know, how'd you wind up here? How long have you been here? And he's like, I don't know, I was knocked unconscious. Right. And uh we learned that the person that was masquerading as him up above, wearing his robes, was Thak? Thak? T-H-A-K. Yeah, I mean it seems reasonable to me. And but yeah, like Moral asked, then who is it that masquerades on your own gown in the house above? It's like that will be Thak. Yes, that will be Thak. And in my gown, the dog. I think that's the only dog we get. Another one for the bingo card there. Right. So we do learn through the course of this conversation that yes, Nabonidus had intended this to be a warning for him to leave the city, a Marillo, that is. And we find out why. That essentially that Marillo is a thief of state secrets, so he's been I like this. Are you not ashamed of yourself, Marillo, you white-handed thief? And he says, I have no more cause for shame than you, you vulture hearted plunderer. So they don't like each other, obviously. And ultimately, uh neither of them are great, and I like this. Uh you're a greater thief than I am. This Sumerian is the most honest man of the three of us because he steals and murders openly. I like this. Well then, we are all rogues together. Dun dot. There's your uh eponymous rogues. So these are the rogues in the house.

SPEAKER_02 26:27

Right.

Michael Kentris 26:28

So we we learn the plan that Nabonitis had, which was to tell a jest about you in the morning, and Marlo's like, a jest that would have cost me my head. And so we learn that this has not yet happened, and they make a deal to leave together from this, and he he swears an oath by Mitra to not uh what is it, to forget all your shifty dealings.

SPEAKER_02 26:53

Mm-hmm.

Michael Kentris 26:55

Wording is very important here. Right? A tentative truce. Yes, so they they continue on from here. And we learn from Erlil that there's only one way out of these pits. Obviously, you can't go back the way that we came, and so there's a control lever in the chamber above the tunnel, and that is the only way. They make their way forward down the corridor. There's what appears to be a distant silver disc that's illuminating everything in there, yeah, there's not like torches or anything in these pits. It's all very sort of non-specific lighting. And we learn that the silver plate was in reality a great mirror set in the wall with a very confusing set of tubes and apparati that more or less allow them to see into the room above them. So there's a door with a stairwell that leads up above. And so it sounds like the Red Priest had used this room previously kind of like as a panic room or safe room, whatever you want to call it, uh, because as we learned before, not the first time that he's been set upon by assassins. Right. And so, yeah, we get this backstory that Thak is from a tribe of, you know, not quite apes, not quite men. They have some intelligence, and what does he say here? That if they are not exterminated in a hundred thousand years, perhaps they will become like more like men. And we learn that he took Thac when he was a cub, he was able to learn things, and it seems that he has begun to hate and resent Nabonditis. Mm-hmm. So so yeah. Very suddenly, apparently, like last night. Right. So he yes, he enacted his plan. And yeah, we learned that yes, it was him who killed the dog, and you know, he struck me down, and he must have killed Joker, who was who you saw lying dead in my house. And Joker apparently had always hated Thak as well. So And so in the mirror, they can now see Thak up above. And so they give a description of him, which as we said before, is very just ape-like in description. He's wearing that red scarlet gown still. One of the most things too worth noting here is that he does have like fangs, these tusks that will play a pivotal point here in the near future.

Nationalists Walk Into The Trap

Michael Kentris 29:20

Yeah. And I I have this little thing, right? Because they talk about how it looks like Thak is staring straight at them in the mirror.

SPEAKER_02 29:28

Mm-hmm.

Michael Kentris 29:29

And uh I like this thing from Conan. Surely he sees us, muttered Conan. Why does he not charge us? He could break this window with ease. Morello realized that Conan supposed the mirror to be a window through which they were looking. Uh I wrote down a note here. Conan doesn't understand mirrors. But I mean, so yeah, he just basically chalks it up to magic, uh more or less. But I kind of think of like a like a like those periscopes you would make in grade school where you have like a cardboard tube and a couple mirrors put at angles to one another. It's kind of the idea here. And Marillo's like, this is like uh some fancy technology that we're we're dealing with. Uh because Marilla gives this, or the priest gives this long explanation. An arrangement of mirrors, they transmit the reflection, dot dot dot. Uh but Conan put it down to witchcraft and troubled his head no more about it. So to kind of continue the uh Dungeons and Dragons analogy, Conan's dump step might be intelligence. For sure. Yeah. Not that he's not like he has a canniness, right? But he's he's not the wisdom, though. That's wisdom. That's right. There you go. So, you know, it is what it is. So anyhow. So yes, but yeah. Yeah, they they kind of like, why is he like just watching the door? And uh the red priest mentioned it's like, oh, he must have heard the great falling, and he knows that we will eventually come up here. And apparently this house is just, you know, filled with traps of all sorts. And so Wow Thak is indeed like very strong, has the strength of a true gorilla, could easily tear us to pieces. There's apparently a rope near the door that, if he pulls on it, will blast them into eternity. Right. So yes, a lot of a lot of traps here. We get a little bit of a development here. So they're kind of pondering what what can they do from that position? Not much. But uh a face appears with glittering, menacing eyes, and we find this character's name is Petrius and another rogue in the house. Yes. Mitra, what a gathering of vultures this knight is. So kind of the same way as Marillo did, he's looking at Thax back as he's wearing Nabonidus' robe, and presumes that it is in fact him. And so we learn Petrius and his ardent young nationalists are here to also assassinate uh Nabonitas. So Nabonidus says, They have fallen into your error. It should be amusing to watch their expressions when they are disillusioned. Which is like the understatement of the century. For sure. And so they try and like do this. I I envision it almost like cartoonish. He's like, kind of Scooby-Doo with like the exaggerated like tiptoeing. Yes. And so they all go out there, and the thack is not moving, and he's just like staring again at the door with their back to him. And it's funny, there's like a little back-handed comment here, and it's like, oh, they had the same idea you had, Nabonidus was muttering. Only their reasons were patriotic rather than selfish. It's like, oh, what a chance to rid myself of their menace once and for all. And he mentions like, oh, if only he pulled the rope, and then Thak turns. They all freak out for the unexpected horror of his appearance, where they had thought to behold the hated but familiar countenance of Nabonidus that wrought havoc with their nerves as the same spectacle had wrought upon Marillo. And so they freak out, Thak pulls a rope, and they become contained within like a panel of glass like glass panels. Yeah, like they call 'em glass crystal.

SPEAKER_02 33:16

Mm-hmm.

Michael Kentris 33:17

As Nabonitis says, this glass is unbreakable, a man with a mallet could not shatter it. So we learn that these panels releases a cloud of doom, the dust of the grey lotus from the swamps of the dead beyond the land of Kitai. So yeah, terrible things start happening to these people. Instantly the scene changed from one of hysteria to one of madness and horror. The trapped men began to stagger, they ran in drunken circles, froth dripped from their lips which twisted as an awful laughter. Raging they fell upon one another with daggers and teeth, slashing, tearing, slain in a holocaust of madness. So yeah, they go they go insane and start just cutting each other down. Right. No, it was a grey lotus this time, not black. How many lotuses lotuses? It must be. No, unfortunately. So yeah, they Nebuchadnezzar is kind of like laughing at them as they are all falling upon themselves. He's like, ah, good stroke, Petrius, that fairly disemboweled him. And now for you, my duh uh my patriotic friend. Basically, like they start like tearing at each other with their teeth, just like you said, turn into like this madness, m yeah, madness, berserk state where they basically just all kill themselves. Right. Yeah, like Marillo and Conan are like, you know, horrified, as like Nabonitis is like laughing at uh the destruction. So kind of little character, uh character display there. So once they're all dead, back has to go ahead and clean up the mess. So there's uh another little thing that he pulls, another rope he pulls on that opens up a side panel to get all the wash out right, wash out the gray lotus mist. And apparently there are some acid, convenient acid pits to throw the bodies into. Right? You know, you don't want to have to take your bodies, you know, off-site to get to the acid pits, so better just to have your own built into your uh facility. There's usually a long wait to use any acid pits. Right. It's just good planning. Yeah. We we're definitely just through the things that are built into this house, getting a character portrait of Nabonitis, and he is he is not a nice guy. This keeps getting kind of worse. Right, yeah. He becomes progressively worse through the story.

Conan Fights Thak To The Death

Michael Kentris 35:48

So as Thak is going to take care of the bodies, Nabones exclaims, This is our chance. If he leaves, we can dash up the stairs, and that is what they do. So they they burst into the broad chamber, Thak is nowhere to be seen, and they're okay, well, I mean, you could call it a plan, I suppose, but essentially, uh Morolus is going to be bait, and Conan is going to stab him in the back when he runs past. So that is the plan. Right? Because yeah, apparently there was some sort of weapon that could handle him in his like bedchamber, but Thak, using his human-like intelligence, has locked all the doors. So Right. Like you said, this is this is the only plan of action available to him at this point. Right. So he's like, yeah, I like this. That beast has me in a panic. If you had seen him tear a man as I have seen. But uh, yes. So basically that that is the plan, right? As Thak comes back, Marillo makes himself seen, and even though Marillo is apparently a pretty quick guy, uh, Thak is on him, you know, or nearly on him almost instantly, and Conan drives his ponyard into the brutish back, and we get another one of these knockdown, drag out fights with with Conan and uh basically like a kind of superhumanly strong creature. Right. It's very reminiscent of that one fight with the with the ape creature and the islands. Yes. So, yeah, right, he's like just stabbing Thak over and over again, and basically he's like he's losing despite this. His giant strength was swiftly prevailing. His ponyard had sunk again and again into his torso shoulders and bull-like neck, streaming blood from a score of wounds. But unless unless the blade quickly reached some absolutely vital spot, Thacks inhuman vitality would survive to finish through Sumerian, and after him, Conan's companions. Right. So yeah, we get a kind of a description of their brawl here. So we do know that Conan's got him kind of in like a brawl style grip. Uh, and like you said, he's just like stabbing him over and over without having any sort of impact. And Morillo actually helps tip the scales in Conan's favor. He's like looking for an open, open chance. And he has a chair and just fucking just slams it into him. WWE style. Right. Here comes the chair. Right. This this would have been enough to brain a human. For Thak, it stuns him momentarily, and that's enough. So Conan's able to sink his ponyard to the hilt in the ape man's heart. And I think we they had said earlier this was about nineteen inches long. So Conan's been stabbing with this nineteen and this guy just like shrugging it off, which you know, my chest is not nineteen inches deep myself. No. So so yes. And I like this. Uh Marilla goes to to help Conan, and uh the barbarian shook him off impatiently. When I cannot stand alone, it will be time to die, he mumbled through mashed lips, but I'd like a flagon of wine in true Conan fashion. True Conan fashion. And then Conan does kind of like give a nod and salute to Thak. It was like, I have slain a man tonight, not a beast. I'll count him among the chiefs whose souls I've sent into the dark, and my women will sing of him. Which I don't know how many women Conan has back home, but there you have it. There you have it. They they go, and you know, the Red Priest took a vessel of wine, filled crystal beakers.

The Red Priest’s Betrayal And Payback

Michael Kentris 39:20

Basically says, What a night. It is nearly dawn now. What of you, my friends? Marilla's like, you know, give me some bandages, I'll dress Conan's wounds. He nods and moves toward the door that let into the corridor. Something about his bowed head caused Marillo to watch him sharply. At the door, the red priest wheeled suddenly. His face had undergone a transformation. His eyes gleamed with his old fire, his lips laughed soundlessly. Rogues together, his voice rang with its accustomed mockery, but not fools together. You are the fool Marillo. What do you mean? I know. It's like well that's like kind of a dumb thing. Right. And Merrill's like, What treachery is this? You swore. It's like I swore I would not tell the king a jest concerning you. I did not swear not to take matters into my own hands if I could. And he's like You will go into the acid vats along with Thaken the Nationalist fools, and none will be the wiser. What a night this has been for me. He's just kind of like, yeah, doing his like m villain monologue here, just yes, you know, blah blah blah blah. And so Marillo, foolish you are. And as we've learned in previous stories, nobody ever expects a long-range attack from Conan. So he catches up a stool and just hurls it straight at his face and it crunches it against his head, the red piece sways and falls face down in a slowly winding pool of dark crimson. And we may have skipped over this before, but Conan, when the Marillo and he first encountered the unconscious Nabonitis, was like, I've heard that his heart is black, so his blood must be black. And it's like, no, wait. That's that's just a turn of phrase. Right. And here, Conan's like, his blood was red after all.

unknown 41:02

Right.

Michael Kentris 41:03

It's a good one-liner. Right. So so yeah, the this is definitely like the the villain monologue, and then uh yeah, Codan just like thwacks him down. Which again, to continue our Dungeons and Dragons analogy, thrown thrown improvised weapons is a strength modifier. So anyway. So yeah, uh, I like this. Uh he's traveled the road, all rogues must walk at last. I'd like to loot the house, but I suppose we'd best go. Right. Right, because like they they know this place is like booby-trapped up the wazoo, so they're gonna get the heck out of there. And so yes, Marillo's like, my road is clear in the city. What have you? And Conan's like, I'm tired of this city anyway. You mentioned a horse waiting at the rat's den. I'm curious to see how fast that horse can carry me into another kingdom. There's many a highway I want to travel before I walk the road Navanitis walked this night. Fade to black. That's right. Scene. End scene. So yeah, uh a nice punchy little action

Final Thoughts On Rogues In The House

Michael Kentris 42:02

adventure. Not a very long story, definitely shorter than some of the recent ones. But uh I thought it was it was fun. We got kind of our over-the-top villains, some you know, twists and turns. For a Conan story, it's not like it's uh right. But it was fun. It was a fun story, and uh yeah, you had, I think, the usual things. The only thing that was, I think, lacking from the usual Conan Milieu is there there wasn't a beautiful woman trying to seduce Conan. Although there was the woman from the maze whom he dropped into a cesspool. So if you want to count that, I guess you could, but right. Kind of. It it like at the very least gives the hint that that happened. Right. It's not the usual trope where there's some damsel in distress. So, yeah, what are your what are your final thoughts on this one? I enjoyed it a lot. I think one of the things I particularly enjoyed about it is that there weren't necessarily too many characters, so it was kind of like a tighter cast, and I felt like that helped with the flow of things a little more, a little more neatly. So it's like, okay, we got Marillo, and then we got Conan, and then Marillo, and then we're back to Kona. So it was very much the pace, the pace was very tight. Yeah. But yeah, I enjoy I I I think I enjoy this one a lot more than more of the recent one we've read lately. Yeah. I would say so. So yeah, we also enjoyed how cartoonishly evil the Red Priest was, especially at the end of the day. It did get ridiculous. The monologue was great. Yeah. You definitely should read it in full if you haven't. It I can just imagine it being like some cartoon animation. It's like, you fools. Right. Fool. So good. Uh always makes me think of the Incredibles when the villain on that one's like, You got me monologuing. Like 'cause it's like, yeah, I want to take the advantage of that sort of delay to do something to to stop. Yes. There's a reason why it became a trope.

SPEAKER_02 43:58

Yeah.

Michael Kentris 43:58

Uh but yeah. So You know, we're we're nearly done with our time and conan. I've been saying that for like two weeks now, but uh but it's true. We've got two more stories, and uh we will continue on. So we'll finish out this and then possibly do one final wrap-up episode talking about maybe our like the because there's a little appendix here with some stuff about Hyboria and the history of the world, so maybe we'll do a little bit of a talk about that and kind of our what has Conan left us with after

Recent Reads And What’s Next

Michael Kentris 44:30

that. So I think that might be fun. So moving into our final segment, Will, have you been reading anything recently? Not too much this week. I started a new job, so I've been a little busy with that, but I did have the intent to start reading, I think it's called like Isles of the Ember Black or something like that. It's it's one of those secret projects that Brandon Sanderson put out last year, and I think it ties into one of his short stories from uh his like Arcanium Unbound.

SPEAKER_02 45:03

Okay.

Michael Kentris 45:04

Yeah. I I don't have any more information for it beyond that, other than the copy that I ordered looks very cool. It's got like a black leather, and it's got the kind of like it's like black coloration on the edges of the pages as well. That's very is it black? Just solid black, or it's got like an illustration there too? It's just solid black, yeah. Yeah. I did something with a like a combined Lord of the Rings edition where it's got like the you know the the Mordor scripts in red and white around the edges of the pages. So yeah, it's uh it's a nice little you know, sometimes you want something a little fancy. Right. Yeah, absolutely. But so I have picked up a another book recently. So I'd been reading some some lit RPG books recently, and you know, sometimes it's one of those things where you you know you eat too much candy and you get a tummy ache, and I I needed something, let's just say, heartier fair. And this is something I'd been kicking around for a long time, and I've seen too many people recommend it to ignore it. I I've been holding off because I thought we might do it on our show, and we probably will. But uh you know, the the author is Gene Wolfe. I don't know if you're familiar with with this guy.

SPEAKER_02 46:23

Mm-hmm.

Michael Kentris 46:24

And it's uh it's definitely something, right, people say, like, oh, if you want like the person who maybe inspired George R.R. Martin and who I believe Ursula Le Guin said, you know, with respect to like sci-fi fantasy, R. Melville, it's Gene Wolfe. So I started kind of his his Magnum Opus thing, uh, which is the Book of the New Sun, and I'm about a quarter of the way through book one of that series, uh, which is The Shadow of the Torturer. And it is dense, is it is which I know is like uh there's another podcast out there that I want to listen to, but it's it's like us a very spoilerful podcast. So I have not yet, but they it's called Rereading Gene Wolf, uh, because the the phrase is you don't read Gene Wolf, you only reread Gene Wolf. But uh but he's kind of notorious for the unreliable narrator and the the kind of science fiction where they do not hold your hand at all. I'm very glad that I'm reading it on Kindle because uh there are so many words that I do not recognize. 100%. Yeah. I don't know. Have you have you come across this book at all, Will? So I I came across it. I am interested in reading it. I know at the time I probably didn't give it the attention it deserved because I I got one or two chapters into it, and my issue was like you were saying just now, like it was impossible to tell what were real words and what were invented because most of them were real. It was just like, I have no, I've never heard this before. Like I I think there was the phrase an L. It was an L in length, referring to a sword. And you know, it's like, is that a real unit of measurement? So I I searched it up, and yes, it is an archaic form of measurement, approximately, I think it was like 46 or 48 inches uh in length. And you know, it's like all of these references to terms from like the like the 14th through 16th centuries. Like there was there were two sentences where he he had walked into a store to buy a cloak. And you get all of these complicated terms for very specific styles of fabric, like uh like the kind of silk garments where there's kind of like a uh almost like a bas relief, like that raised embroidery kind of into it in a pattern. That has a name. I do not remember the name at this point in time, but these are the kinds of words. So it's it's definitely pushing me uh a little bit. And this is the second time I'd I'd pick the book up. I had read the first few chapters, and I was like, oh, this is this is more of a cognitive load than I have the bandwidth for. So but I picked it up again a couple of weeks ago, and I've really been enjoying it. So I've gotten further down the road this time. I'm I'm looking forward to seeing. I'm trying to like pay attention as I read it to see if where the twists and turns. And so far I have not picked up on that, which probably means I'm missing something, unless there's like some big denouement later on, which from what I understand is probably not the case. So it's one of those ones where probably I'll read it and then have to read it again. But but I'm very much enjoying it so far. It's it's definitely got a an atmosphere to it. It's very, very dark and moody and has a kind of somber tone. I mean, right, it's the main character is a torturer from the torturer's guild. So not exactly the most lighthearted setting to start with. But uh, but yeah, it's been very interesting so far. You know, he he gives you just enough to to kind of put the pieces together there, but it's it's very much where the the author expects the reader to do some work in terms of learning things. And I I respect that. So yeah, it's it's been a lot of fun so far. And yeah, there's been some dark stuff. It is definitely not uh not for you know the kids, but it's it's been an interesting read so far. So if you're looking for something a little heavier, a little more challenging in the sci-fi genre, I would say it seems it seems like a solid choice. And I mean, decades of people would also say that that is the case.

Remembering Dan Simmons

Michael Kentris 50:53

And another aside, so I know a week or two ago we had talked about Dan Simmons, and I don't know if you saw it in the news. So we're recording this on February 28th. I know we're releasing things on a several-month lag, but Dan Simmons passed away this week at uh the age of 77. And I thought that was that was very sad because I remember reading those books as a middle schooler and high schooler, and some of those were, I think, very formative to to my my science fiction literary growth. You know, I think you and I both have read the the Hyperion series or the what do they call them? The Endymion Cantos. Hyperion Cantos, that's it, yeah. So Hyperion, Endymion, and I forget the last title. Do you remember the third one? No, fan, no. Something like Song of Endymion, I don't remember. But so yeah, uh it it gets it gets weird. I think that was the thing, was that it was perhaps one of my first experiences with kind of that mind-bending, weird science fiction where you have all these literary elements integrated into it. Uh so you know, Dan Simmons, amazing author, uh definitely a loss for for the writing community. So I just wanted to uh take note of that. Yeah. No, I I read Hyperia not too long ago, a few years ago. And yeah, uh it's fantastic. It was such a good book. And fairly short, too. So maybe we'll have to hit that one up in the near, not too distant future as well.

Where To Find Us And Sign Off

Michael Kentris 52:19

But uh, yes, so uh thank you everyone for listening. And as always, you can find us on X at Brothers Reading. You can email us at brothersreadingbooks at gmail.com, and you can find our website, brothersreadingbooks.com. So thank you again, and we will see you next week for more Conan and other more recent book recommendations as well. So thank you all. Talk to you next week.