"The Snout in the Dark" by Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp & Lin Carter (1969) Originally appeared in Conan of Cimmeria, 1969. Plot: Conan saves Queen Tananda, despot of Meroe from a crowd of angry citizens and gets promoted to Cpatian of the Guard. The queen's enemy, Tuthmes, have been using a demon conjured by Muuru the wizard to kill political prisoners and then blamed it on the queen. Tuthmes sends a blond Nemedian slabed named Diana to the queen as a present. Tananda whips her to find out whay she was sent but Conan takes the girl away to his private home to try sodfter methods. Muuru sends the demon to kill Diana and Conan during the execution of an important prisoner. Conan has a strong feeling he should go home and does. He battles with the demon before it can kill Diana. The wounded creature runs to its masters. The crowd goes wild when they see who is behind the deaths and a rebellion takes place. Conan and Diana wisely leave Muuru. Monsters: The Demon of Muuru - a dark beast with a pig-shaped snout that does the dirty work for the wizard muuru and his master History: This tale was originally begun by Howard. De Camp and Carter wrote the entire thing from Howard's unfinished outline. The pig-like head of the demon was inspired by William Hope Hodgson's famous pig monsters in The House on the Borderland and "The Hog'.
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