 Tomb of the Twelve Flatheads (948 GUE) Tomb of the Twelve Flatheads (948 GUE) Boris Flathead cleaning the skulls (early 900s) |
The Crypt of Death, also known as the Tomb of the Twelve Flatheads, is located in the Cavern of Doom region as well as the middle level of the Dungeon of Zork. This stone crypt is almost an exact replica of the Crypt of the Implementors in Hades. It was here that the First Dungeon Master placed the bodies of the twelve Flatheads. Although they are dead, the Flatheads themselves foresaw that some cretin might tamper with their remains. Therefore, they took steps to punish trespassers with a curse that would place the violator's head upon a like pole.
The crypt's anteroom is large and empty with marble bas reliefs depicting the stirring times and ocasionally afterlifes of the Flatheads (the latter a bit optimistically). A huge marble door with cryptic inscroption "Feel Free" above it, divided the anteroom from the crypt itself. Surrounding the entrance are twelve somewhat flat skulls mounted securely on poles, almost seeming to grin.
The interior of the crypt contained the earthly remains of the mighty Flatheads, in twelve stone coffins lining its interior walls. The room is barren save some carved writing:
HERE
LIE THE FINAL REMAINS OF THE FLATHEADS
RULERS OF THE GREAT UNDERGROUND EMPIRE
WHOSE HEADS WERE PLACED ON POLES
BY THE KEEPER OF THE DUNGEON FOR AMAZING UNTASTEFULNESS
RULERS OF THE GREAT UNDERGROUND EMPIRE
WHOSE HEADS WERE PLACED ON POLES
BY THE KEEPER OF THE DUNGEON FOR AMAZING UNTASTEFULNESS
There was a secret door in the south wall of the crypt that could only be detected when it was pitch black in the room. This was the door that lead to the third level of the Dungeon. Magical wardens, formed of incorporeal green curves, guard this decent.
Boris Flathead was one of the caretakers of the tomb. At the beginning of the tenth century, Flathead chained cerberus without the crypt as a guard dog. The three-headed beast remained there until at least 948 GUE, when cerberus' ferocity had been sedated by the Second Dungeon Master. Boris sought to sell cerberus in a classified he placed in the New Zork Times Responding to the add, Herakles returned cerberus to Hades. But sometime before the close of magic in 966 GUE, Hermes brought cerberus back to the tomb. The duration of the hound's second term at the Crypt of Death is unknown.
| SOURCE(S): Zork I, Dungeon, Zork Zero, Zork: The Cavern of Doom |