Conan interrupts a trio of assassins plying their trade on a black-cloaked woman. Conan and the woman fight them off, but Conan is shocked to discover the woman has the plague. Conan is told to get out of the city by the authorities. The woman taunts Conan with knowledge of mysterious people he has encounterd, all searching for amulet fragments. She leads Conan to her hovel and shows him a small doll with his visage. Suspicious, Conan tears off the woman's cloak and sees her body covered in tattoos and crawling with imp-like demons. Conan goes to retrieve a small chest that she claims will rid her of her curse, but that chest contains another impish demon guarding the antidote, and it attaches itself to Conan. Conan gives the chest to the woman, Welyn, and races back to the city hoping the