  Alexis the Hellhound, 1647 GUE Alexis: (art) |
Alexis was one of the tiniest poodles to ever tread the soil of Zork. In 1157 GUE, this mean and hungry-looking dog was the pet of Violet Voss of Festeron, who perhaps named her after Queen Alexis because of the librarian's interest in the Legend of Wishbringer. This poodle ferociously guarded her cottage with sharp little teeth. Those who even dared to pass the house on the main road were beset by yapping and the snapping of heels. Alexis could always been sedated by throwing her a bone or commanding the obedient dog by her name, "Alexis, heel." The poodle grew instantly happy and friendly to the one who spoke her name (but she mysterious was able to know if someone was merely guessing her name or actually knew it).
During the curse of Witchville, Alexis became a ravenous hellhound. Despite this terrible transformation, the beast was still obedient to her name. It is also known that Alexis was terribly afraid of total darkness.
Historians are still in a matter of confusion whether or not the dog of the same name owned by the Snoot family in the seventeenth century was in fact this same Alexis or coincidentally (or honorably) named after the Festeron dog. Those in support of this theory, make note of Snoot's poodle being a domesticated hellhound of the same name, which can be hardly coincidental. They also theorize that the curse of Witchville had lasting effects upon Voss’ dog even when the curse was cancelled (similar to the friendly wild mailbox), or that the Witchville curse, lasting until the mid-thirteenth century, was active while a nocturnal Great Diffusion was enacted, thus leaving Alexis in the hellhound state at the dispersal of magic.
Regardless if the two dogs were one in the same, the hellhound which Obediah Snoot IV owned, had the appearance of a poodle. Snoot collected everything he could get his hands on and that dog would guard it. In 1647, the unknown Sweepstakes Winner who would defeat Morphius, recorded the dog's ferocious bark with a Zony tape recorder, and while invisible, played it for a superstitious half-orc in the Citadel of Zork. Thus Alexis played and indirect role in the downfall of Morphius.
| SOURCE(S): Wishbringer, Return to Zork |