 Cerberus guarding Tomb of Twelve Flatheads (948 GUE) Bivotar and Juranda give Cerberus meat (early 10th century) |
Cerberus, also known as the Hound of Hell, is a three-headed dog the size of an elephant, but with the strength of ten. The furious wagging of the dog's tail is able to knock small rocks around, and creates a mighty wind with force enough to nearly blow over the most stalwart of adventurers. The lick of the creature is roughly like experiencing a sandpaper washcloth.
This vicious-looking dog could easily be tamed with a bone (giant-sized). But those who failed to do so found themselves instantly rent into little doggy biscuits by its three fang-crammed mouths. It is known that Cerberus was like a little puppy with Hermes. Mirakles and the hound also had a wonderful relationship, as his father Thrag sent many customers down to Hades.
Originally Ceberus had been stationed to guard the gates of Hades, but sometime before the tenth century Herakles took him away. Bivotar and Juranda later stumbled into the hound chained within a tunnel near the base of the Aragain Falls in the early tenth century. Their entrance disturbed Cerberus, who in turn disturbed the foundations of the tunnel with his resonating barking, resulting in a cave-in. To sedate the beast, the two adventurers tossed him a giant bone of meat. Once it was devoured, the happy dog broke free of his chains while trying to thank them with a happy slobber.
Boris Flathead chained the fierce guard dog outside the Tomb of the Twelve Flatheads in the Dungeon of Zork as its guardian. Cerberus remained there at least through 948 GUE, where the beast's appetite was satisfied by one dragon carcass daily. On this date, the Second Dungeon Master was able to befriend the hound by slinging Cerberus' missing collar around its neck. Boris Flathead, finding that his fierce guard dog had been reduced to a friendly slobbering puppy, tried to sell the beast by running an add in the New Zork Times. Whatever were the results of Boris Flathead's attempts, Herakles returned cerberus to Hades soon afterward, where the dog once again guarded its gates.
Before the fall of magic in 966 GUE, Glorian of the Knowledge, seeking to enter Hades to recover the fallen shade of Mirakles of the Elastic Tendon was required to pass by the beast. Upon request, Hermes again kenneled the Hound of Hell at the Tomb of the Twelve Flatheads. Later, when Mirakles, Glorian and the remainder of the party wished to enter the Tomb, they had no fear, for Cerberus loved Mirakles.
While the current employment or whereabouts of the three-headed dog is unknown, in 1067 GUE, Cerberus was not present at Hades, thus requiring the Two-Headed Hades Beast to be hired as a temp to punch the clock in his absence.
| SOURCE(S): Zork II, Zork: Conquest at Quendor, The Zork Chronicles, The New Zork Times 3.1 |