The Devil in Iron

"The Devil in Iron" is a Conan the Barbarian story by Robert E. Howard. First published in August, 1934.

Tropes included

 * Action Prologue: The fisherman breaking into the temple
 * The Bait: Octavia
 * Barbarian Tribe: Conan is leading them
 * Blue Blood: Octavia
 * Cold-Blooded Torture: Octavia is threatened with this to make her act as the bait.
 * Curiosity Is a Crapshoot: The fisherman rouses the evil by his curiosity
 * Deadly Decadent Court: the city that appears; what Octavia fled
 * Distressed Damsel: Octavia
 * Faux Death: He finds people rousing from it.
 * Femme Fatale: Octavia was ordered into it.
 * Human Sacrifice: In the back story
 * Intro-Only Point of View: the fisherman dies and so exits the story
 * Made a Slave: Octavia's Backstory
 * Necromancer: Who roused the city
 * Rescue Sex: Conan is surprised that Octavia rejects this and has to seduce her.
 * Sealed Evil in a Can: The Necromancer
 * Temple of Doom: Where the trouble was unleashed
 * This Was His True Form
 * Thunderbolt Iron: Enabled a slave revolt
 * Wait Here: Conan tries this on Octavia