From Howard's stories directly to your bad dreams!

* ''The Slithering Shadow''[=/=]''Literature/XuthalOfTheDusk'': Let us introduce you to Xuthal: a palace-City in the middle of an endless desert, inhabited by depraved Lotus eaters that tend to look dead most of the time. And what about its god, Thog? The child of a BlobMonster and an EldritchAbomination made of darkness, [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm so dazzling that it's impossible to look at properly]]. Oh, and he frequently wanders the corridors of the palace looking for prey. And judging by [[spoiler:Thalis' fate]], being captured by him is '''NOT''' pleasant.
** Thalis mentions that the only thing that gets the citizen out of their lotus eating phase is a youthful woman like her, doing things even their artificial dreams can't create in level of depravity. And she warns that this may be Natala's fate, if they are captured.
** After beating Thog so bad it retreats in a deep well Conan slowly walks back to free Natala, looking as good as someone that fought an EldritchAbomination can look. For a moment he keeps muttering about hearing the people of Xuthal coming but Natala realizes this is not Conan's SuperSenses at work, he is half-delirious from the beating he took.
* The room with the hidden GiantSpider in ''Literature/TheTowerOfTheElephant''.
** On a similar note, ''Conan and the Spider God'': a dungeon inhabited by a bull-sized Tarantula and her children.
* [[UnfortunateImplications Homophobia aside]], Tascela from ''Literature/RedNails'' is a disturbing character with heavy PsychoLesbian tendencies. Not that the city of Tlazitlan itself is better: a giant palace infested with murder-obsessed psychos, monsters and forbidden secrets...
* The monster summoned by Thoth-Amon against Ascalante in ''Literature/ThePhoenixOnTheSword'': Part mummy, part ape, and so monstrous that it can ''destroy the soul of a man'' just by gazing into his eyes, as happens to Ascalante and almost happens to Conan himself. Even Thoth-Amon doesn't look at it directly.
* The Gray Apes in general and similar monsters all have the bad habit of appearing with the most horrifying background in the stories. Especially Thak in ''Literature/RoguesInTheHouse'', who is smart enough to use deadly traps from his master
* The restless giant slug in ''The Hall of the Dead'' is quite jarring: it can't be killed by conventional means, never tires and spew acid.
* The wraiths in ''The Castle of Terror'' are quite pitiful at first... then they go OneWingedAngel and merge into a giant, monstrous multi-headed thing with claws and legs which proceeds to slaughter a group of Stygians in a Grand Guignol-esque fashion.
* The boar-like demon in ''The Snout in the Dark''.
* [[MadeOfIron Khosatral Khel]], the titular ''Literature/TheDevilInIron''. The whole part when Conan is in his palace and must rescue Octavia sounds like a written SurvivalHorror against an invincible enemy. One of Conan's few OhCrap moments.
--> ''The Cimmerian leapt back, quivering in every sinew... His fingers had brushed not flesh, but blasphemy: it was a body of'' living iron ''that opposed his.''
** Notably, a description of Khosatral Khel is the quote for the HumanoidAbomination page.
* The many horrors of ''Literature/TheScarletCitadel'', including a BlobMonster with tentacles and a toad-like head. Oh, and it cries and laughs like a mature woman.
** Tsotha-lanti, wizard and true power of Koth. Allegedly born from a a woman that was assaulted by a demon, Tsotha-lanti empowered his dark arts by offering women to Set, then he discovered the Scarlet Citadel and the hell in the dungeon to experiment and make horrible creatures in the well. He boasts that he's going to skin King Conan's concubines alive and turn their flesh into scrolls upon which he will document his triumphs.
** FridgeHorror: the toad-headed tentacled thing that cries and laughs like a woman? Given that Conan's world is part of the Literature/CthulhuMythos, it may be one of the nameless race known only as the Servitors of the Outer Gods; the daemon-pipers and flutists who perform music for Azathoth itself.
** The least horrifying thing Conan finds in the dungeon is a giant snake that he knows he stands no chance against. Only because at least he knows that it's certain death instead of whatever the blobs and ethereal things are. Even His cellmate Pelias makes him so uneasy that while thankful for the help he brought to save his kingdom, Conan never wants to see him again.
** Arpello's short rule of Aquilonia, first thing he does is ask heavy taxes just to enrich himself, when the merchants send representatives to negotiate they are beaheaded on the spot. Then his men starts raping and looting the kingdom like they are foreign army instead of the actual guards. When Tsotha-lanti and Strabonus are on their way Arpello doesn't even bother keeping that he isn't in their pocket secret he just laughs at the people's faces.
* Akivasha and her [[NothingIsScarier unseen]] cohort of night horrors in ''Literature/TheHourOfTheDragon''.
** And then BigBad Xaltotun himself, a preternaturally handsome EvilSorceror trying to rebuild TheEmpire [[ReligionOfEvil of Acheron]],[[spoiler: he was supposedly [[BackFromTheDead fully resurrected]] using the [[MacGuffin Heart of Ahriman]], [[CameBackWrong in truth the Heart never restored his body]] [[BodyHorror from his mummified state]], [[MassHypnosis but created the illusion of life to everyone]], [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness even to himself]].]]
** The way the nemedians and Valerius in particular treated the kingdom of Aquilonia, [[RapePillageAndBurn despoiling, raping, enslaving, torturing and mutilating its people]], [[VillainWithGoodPublicity all the more horrible as the Aquilonians originally supported Valerius]] as [[AristocratsAreEvil a legitime heir to their kingdom]] after Conan's apparent demise.
** From the same novel, the Ghouls in the forest and the four Khitans with their [[TouchOfDeath deadly staves]].
* Conan's encounter with a [[KrakenAndLeviathan Kraken]] in ''Conan of the Isles'' is of the worst kind, but then enters [[ThreateningShark a giant shark]].
* The finale of ''The Dagger of Flame'', where [[spoiler: a horde of ghouls rise from the depths and take over the citadel, forcing everyone to flee]].
* ''Literature/TheBlackStranger''. Thoth-Amon must have taken lessons in NightmareFuel, seen how he [[KickTheDog psychologically tortures Count Valenso]].
** There's also the harrowing scene where Valenso has his niece's protegee, the young girl Tina, savagely whipped because he thinks she is lying about the Black Man.
* Thugra Khotan in ''Literature/BlackColossus'': the darkest and most twisted example of a nightmarish stalker out there. Kotan is a long dead sorcerous overlord that found a way to cheat death and come back as a mummy. The one thing that he wants more than destroy Koth and rule Stygia back with an iron fist is to force Yasmela as his bride. Being a sorceror he uses his magic to come at Yasmela in her dreams to say just want he intends to do with her.
* The ''people'' who brutally tortured and killed a demigod in ''Literature/IronShadowsInTheMoon''. The fact that they awaken to murder intruders when hit by the moonlight only adds fuel to the fire.
* The women-things of the titular ''Literature/TheValeOfLostWomen'', and the demon they worship. . . or serve. . . or are enslaved by (it's vague). Conan's explanation for how he was able to [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu sword the thing to death]] ironically doesn't help: he states that "Demons of the Outer Dark" have to obey at least some physical laws if they want to visit our world, so they have physical bodies that can be injured or even killed. But that doesn't mean the thing itself is capable of being killed, and may just retreat back to the Outer Dark for a time before coming back. . .
* ''Literature/ThePeopleOfTheBlackCircle'': including the four inhuman sorcerers and the Master. [[MindRape Dear]] [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath God]] [[ScaledUp the Master]]. Like Thugra Khotan the Master still has enough human cravings in him to find pleasure in breaking a woman into a SexSlave, but he gets more time with his captive to mentally torture her by making her experience the rape and labor pain of her ancestor before Conan arrives. Then he magically pulls out the heart of one of his opponent and in his last moment try to kill his prisoner as a snake just to rob Conan of his victory.
** The Black Circle of Ysma main power is hypnotism, where even their acolyte has enough power to order someone to kill themselves. Two of the inhuman sorcerors can mass hypnotize Conan's group so they advance to willingly get their head chopped by the sorcerers.
* The creature from the "Literature/TheGodInTheBowl". Even more scary because it's not fully described, allowing you to imagine its appearance...
** [[spoiler: It's heavily implied its a giant snake with a human head though ]]
* The ferocious tribe that like to fossilize their enemies alive using ''The Pool of the Black Ones'' is unsettling. Then it turns out that the ''bottomless pool'' is the real adversary. It's alive... and mobile... and ''immense.'' Conan and company aren't safe until they're aboard ship, and even then they can see the mass questing along the beach, looking for them... Conan notices that the trees fall in the green water as if their stem were cut but they aren't floating back to the surface.
* The creature Yag-kosha in ''The Tower of the Elephant'' was written before 'evil things from space' became the Conan tradition, and in his case it turns out HumansAreTheRealMonsters. The 'monster' has been tortured for decades, forced to teach black magic to Yara, the despicably evil human master of the Tower. Such was Yara's utter cruelty that Yag-kosha was not even allowed to die to escape his torment.

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