Ironhand had a nice story. Conan learns to read. It starts that in order to access a treasure conan needs to read a map. The scholar teaches him to read zamorian. I imagine that overtime Conan goes somewhere new someone teaches him the language and how to read. Conan, being a naturally first learner, picks it up and develops his skills.
Here's the story. So far, only in outline form.
TREATMENT: HOW CONAN LEARNED TO READ
Stephen Block
copyright May 31, 2003
This occurs after "Tower of the Elephant", while Conan is still in Arenjun. Conan has become
friendly with Thimmo, a grizzled old former thief (having been caught once and lost a hand for his
sins) turned part-time, but not very successful, fence (most thieves shun him, because he is
"unlucky"). But Conan takes his "business" to Thimmo, and in return, is allowed to pick the
latter's brains for tips and tricks of urban thievery. One evening, Thimmo comes into Conan’s
currently favorite tavern, plunks himself down at Conan’s table, and tells him that together, they
can acquire such a huge fortune that they won't even mind splitting it with each other.
There is a rich merchant in town who is rumored to possess a hidden treasure trove of gold,
jewelry, artifacts, etc. This merchant, Morvino, is not a nice fellow: he abuses his slaves and his
wives. One of his slaves has run away, but before escaping, he wrote down a set of instructions
detailing the location of the treasure horde, and describing the means to circumvent the
safeguards protecting the treasure, which are severely dangerous. He then sold the instruction
scroll to Thimmo, in return for a grubstake to use on his travels. Disabled old Thimmo, who can
read, proposes to pass the instructions on to Conan, who will execute the heist, and the two will
share the proceeds.
Unfortunately, Thimmo is overheard in the tavern by Kordo, another thief, who hurriedly recruits a
half dozen helpful thugs; this latter group leave the taven while Conan and Thimmo are still
talking and drinking. Conan and Thimmo leave the tavern a little later, and are ambushed. In a
brief but furious fight, Conan kills all the thugs, but Kordo escapes while Conan kills the last thug,
who has mortally wounded Thimmo. The dying Thimmo pulls the scroll out of his tunic, and gives
it to Conan before he expires. Conan is now in possession of the precious scroll, which he
cannot read, and a mortal grudge, which he can defer while he deals with more important
matters, like who can he trust to help him decipher the scroll?
Conan has taken to frequenting a different tavern, in order to avoid having to deal with Kordo,
who is now always surrounded by a large group of thugs. At his new watering hole, Conan
encounters a Nemedian poet named Aelios, who tries to make a living by reading his poetry in
taverns in exchange for occasional free meals and thrown coins. As a minstrel, Aelios is not very
successful, but as a starving poet, he is a classic example. Conan gets to know Aelios, who is
fluent, and literate, in several languages, then proposes to pay him to teach Conan to read
Zamoran. This is to be done very discreetly, in Aelios' quarters (Conan is learning. He does not
reveal his reasons for wanting to learn to read. Aelios the poet naively assumes that the
barbarian has developed a love of learning.)
During the course of Conan’s education, he is ambushed by a group of 20 thugs; kills half of
them, including Kordo, and escapes. Although Kordo is dead, gossip and rumors are spreading
the word about the scroll, and Conan is forced to leave a trail of dead thugs and thieves behind
him as he travels about the Mall. The authorities of course couldn't care less. This all flies miles
above Aelios' head, as he entertains romantic notions of himself bringing the benefits of learning
and literacy to benighted barbarians.
Every night, after his lessons, Conan hauls out the scroll in privacy to see if he can read it yet. It
gradually begins to make more and more sense to him. Meanwhile, the attacks on Conan are
tapering off, as most of the bolder thugs are dead, and Conan is getting a reputation for being
lethally dangerous in a fight.
Finally, the night comes when Conan is able to read the scroll in its entirety. Understand, he has
been pouring over this scroll every night for weeks.
Next evening, he enters a tavern frequented by the type of thugs and thieves who have been
ambushing him every few days. He sits down uninvited at a table with a group of th&th's. They
are all very nervous because of Conan’s rep; some of them are actual survivors of failed
ambushes. Conan offers to sell them the scroll; it has brought him nothing but grief, he has to
fight off assassins every other night, and he CAN'T EVEN READ THE ACCURSED THING! The
th&th's hastily pool their resources and fork over a hefty pile of silver for the scroll. Conan tells
them they are welcome to the curst treasure, and he hopes they all murder each other, and
strides out of the tavern. He goes to the tavern where Aelios works, gives him half the silver as
final payment for the reading lessons, then heads for Morvino's mansion.
If this were a screenplay I would here write a series of rapid cuts alternating between some barely
literate thugs clustered around the scroll in a squalid, candle-lit room [have you seen the movie
theater ad showing a bunch of college students clustered around a computer trying to order
movie tickets online?] arguing over the meaning of this and that pictogram, etc., and Conan
threading his way through the corridors of the mansion as he whispers memorized instructions to
himself under his breath, clubbing the watchman unconscious, circumventing traps [here might be
an opportunity to introduce some magic and monsters], and finally finding the treasure and
stuffing it into some bags.
Next day, the thugs decide to walk by Morvino's mansion to case the joint. They discover a
circus: frantic slaves running around like chickens with their heads cut off, and an enraged
Morvino bellowing at a squad of city guardsmen, some of whom are interrogating bystanders, as
more bystanders gather to watch the entertainment. The thugs look at each other: "We've been
had! (growl) CONAAAAN!!!"
EPILOG. A happy Conan jogging down a country road with a big knapsack on his back. He
pauses on a hilltop to look back on the now-distant city of Arenjun as he swigs from a waterbag.
ALTERNATE EPILOG. Aelios is sitting in a dive, listening to some thugs at a neighboring table as
they complain about how Conan bilked them. Aelios, having finally put 2 & 2 together, chuckles
to himself as he takes notes.
