In Akkharia, Conan loses most of his money gambling, and the remainder when he is knocked unconscious from behind by the brute Kagal, who takes his purse and the woman Tamris, who Conan was entertaining, killing three men on his way out of town. Conan and an angry mob follow the Kothian but when he takes refuge in the cursed keep of a long-dead sorcerer, the townspeople slink back to the city. Unafraid, Conan enters the keep and hears the howling of a dog. Searching the deserted house, he finds the body of Kagal and the skeleton of who is assumes is the long-dead sorcerer, Caldix. Following the sounds of a woman's sobs, he discovers Tamris, chained to a wall, weeping in the room next to a large mastiff. To Conan's shock, the dog rises up on his hind legs and begins speaking - he is Caldix