Before I can explain what happened to me last night, let me first share a few important pieces of information…

Since January 2008, I’ve been a fairly active player of Blizzard Entertainment’s “World of Warcraft”, an online game where you create your own unique fantasy character to battle dragons, undead zombies, and even other players in the world of Azeroth. Having played WoW for roughly 6 years, I’ve explored the many vast areas of the game pretty thoroughly, and sadly, the world feels much smaller now than it did when I first picked up the game. Until a few days ago; however, there was one area of the game which I had never heard of before: The Karazhan Crypts.

For those of you who have never played WoW before, Karazhan is a haunted castle nestled in an eerie zone known as “Deadwind Pass”. Players had to assemble into a group of 10, and venture inside Karazhan, fighting ghosts, demons, and a series of difficult raid bosses in an attempt to reach the top of the castle tower. The creepy atmosphere and haunting music made it one of my favorite places in the game. There has been nothing quite like it since.

Behind Karazhan is a small graveyard which also houses a crypt. There are stone steps leading underground; however, players are soon met with an impassable iron gate, making the underground labyrinth inaccessible.

Curious, I began researching why it was blocked off. I discovered that the game designers created the Karazhan Crypts several years ago, but abruptly scrapped development and sealed the entrance. No official statement was ever released as to why. Rumors circulating on online forums state that it was due to the “extreme graphic nature” of the crypts. Reading this intrigued me, and I soon learned that players went as far as to exploit a glitch in the game which allowed them to pass through the Iron Gate that sealed off the crypts. Apparently these players used the glitch consistently, and eventually had their accounts banned by Blizzard.

It’s been more than half a decade since the Karazhan Crypts were created and sealed off to players.

Last night was just another normal night like any other. I spent time applying for a new job, ate dinner, and went to bed after watching some TV. Having trouble falling asleep, I browsed various world-news channels on my phone until I did. A few hours later, I was shaken by a horrifying dream. An unfamiliar person and I were locked in a dark, stone room in ankle-deep water. It was too dark to see anything, but I could hear the sound of rushing water coming from the cracks in the walls, quickly filling the room. A feeling of hopelessness washed over me as I frantically ran my hands across the cold, stone walls, but could not find a door.

My eyes opened to the darkness of my bedroom, barely illuminated by the green light of the computer speakers on my desk. The time on my phone was 2:58 AM. I got out of bed, turned on my laptop, and logged into World of Warcraft in an attempt to distract myself from the bad dream and insomnia. It wasn’t long until my eyes grew heavy and I wanted to log out, when I remembered reading about the glitch to get into the Karazhan Crypts. There was a rumor on the official WoW forums that the crypts were to finally be taken out of the game with the launch of the upcoming expansion, and I decided to check them out before they’d be gone for good.

I arrived in Deadwind Pass, making my way through the eerie trails when I noticed something peculiar: two players, a Human and a Night Elf, traveling towards Karazhan. When I finally reached my destination, I saw them circle behind the crypt, and attempt the glitch to bypass the Iron Gate. At first I felt annoyed because I knew they’d probably want to fight me if they saw me, seeing as my character was a part of the opposing faction. So I hid and waited for them to enter before approaching the crypts myself.

One of them was speaking, although I couldn’t make out what was said (Blizzard translates speech of the opposing faction into an intelligible language called “Common”). Horde players can’t read what Alliance players type, and vice versa. The Human character seemed to be showing his companion how to do the glitch. It felt kind of strange to see this so late at night.

After several minutes of watching the two struggle to glitch their way into the crypts, it was finally my turn to sneak my way in. It took me a few tries, but after a few YouTube videos, I was finally able to get past the Iron Gate. I looked at my map, which read “The Well of The Forgotten”. At 3:00 in the morning, this felt pretty creepy. There was no music, only a soft ambience of wind and the sound a slow, steady heartbeat.

Upon descending my first flight of stairs after the Iron Gate, I found myself in a stone room with a deep well in the center, and what looked like claw marks surrounding the hole in the floor. I peered down and saw the two Alliance players at the bottom. I waited a few minutes until they were out of sight, I really didn’t want to get attacked by two people. I took a deep breath, and jumped.

When I hit the bottom of the well, I noticed something really weird. From the videos I saw, when players jumped down the well, they would land on a huge pile of bones and skulls to soften the landing, but this one was covered in the corpses of other players. There were hundreds of them, all with different names and races. I thought this had to be a joke, but what I saw later on still has me questioning what the fuck it was I landed on.

I still didn’t want to be seen by the enemy players, so I slowly made my way to the next area of the crypts: “The Upside Down Sinners”. In the videos I saw online, it was a room filled with water, with human corpses chained to the bottom by their wrists, their bodies unable to float to the surface. I traveled down a stairwell that led me to a vast, flooded room. The two Alliance players were just ahead of me, so I used an Invisibility Potion to sneak past them.

They were still speaking to each other, although I was unable to make out what they had typed. The “Upside Down Sinners” were definitely there; however, there was something off… The corpses each had unique names, and weren’t just built into the game. They were players. They were still tied by their hands and suspended from chains, feet floating vertically to the flooded stone ceiling.

I noticed that the Human player was beginning to yell something at the Night Elf player. The person playing the Night Elf tried “hearthing” (a spell that teleports your character to a safe location, usually their faction’s major city), but didn’t seem to work. The Human kept laughing at the Night Elf, and something about the whole situation distracted me from the fact that my Invisibility Potion had finally wore off. The Night Elf player instantly targeted me and started spamming the /beg and /help emotes, but I wasn’t sure what was going on. This had to be a joke, right?

Out of nowhere, the Night Elf player’s health bar started dropping – he was drowning. I then noticed my health slowly ticking away – I was drowning too. I tried hearthing, but the spell wouldn’t work for me either. The Human player turned to me and started emoting laughter, and yelling more in Common. At first I thought this was a pretty awesome joke until he sent me a message.

Jsjsleroth whispers: There is no escape.

Jsjsleroth whispers: You will join the others.

Jsjsleroth whispers: Death is close.

It’s impossible for someone to message a character on the opposing faction. I was way too creeped out to continue, but to my horror, the game would not close. The screen gradually dimmed down. The water we were floating in started turning red, and the heartbeat that was in the background grew louder, faster, and was accompanied by what sounded like a thousand different voices all whispering at once. I noticed my character slowly turning upside down in the water. This was too much; I ripped off my headphones and held the power button down on my laptop.

Jsjsleroth whispers: It doesn’t matter.

Jsjsleroth whispers: I will find you.

Jsjsleroth whispers:

My computer screen went black. I turned on the lights in the kitchen and poured myself a glass of water. Pacing back and forth, I debated whether or not I should wake up someone in my house to tell about my experience. I decided to stay up until sun-rise, watching TV with the lights on. By 7:00 AM, I decided to re-open World of Warcraft. I logged into my character with the intent of asking anyone online if they’d ever been inside the Karazhan Crypts. Just then, I noticed that I had an in-game mail waiting for me from sender “Unknown”. Seemed peculiar—I didn’t have anything for sale on the Auction House. I rolled my eyes, expecting to see a message from a Blizzard Game Master about my use of the glitch earlier. It definitely wasn’t.

“I’m waiting. You know where to find me.”