Kerafyrm
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Kerafyrm (also called The Sleeper) is a boss character in the fantasy MMORPG EverQuest.
Originally intended to be unkillable, the character caused a stir in the EverQuest community when the developers of the game (Sony Online Entertainment, hereinafter referred to as SOE) intervened and prevented a group of nearly 200 players from killing him. The next day, SOE apologized for interfering, and allowed the same group of players to retry the encounter. After a nearly 3-hour battle, Kerafyrm was defeated.
[edit] Sleeper's Tomb
Kerafyrm is guarded by four ancient dragons in a zone called The Sleeper's Tomb. If all four dragons are dead at the same time, The Sleeper is awoken, and begins a rampage of death across the game's land of Norrath. This event is particularly unique in EverQuest, because it can only ever be completed once on each game server. Once The Sleeper is triggered, he and his four guardian dragons (with their highly prized "Primal" loot) will never appear again.
The guild Blood of the Spider on The Rathe was the first guild system-wide to kill Ventani (the fourth warder) on July 28, 2001, and therefore wake the sleeper. The event caused a stir on the server when Kerafyrm went into multiple zones, including Skyshrine, killing everyone and everything in his path.
On November 15, 2003, on the Rallos Zek PvP server, the three top guilds (Ascending Dawn, Wudan, and Magus Imperialis Magicus) assembled over 180 players with the intent to wake and kill The Sleeper. After 3 hours and 15 minutes, at 26% health, Kerafyrm disappeared (despawned). The players talked with the EverQuest Game Masters, and there was a general consensus that a bug had caused the problem, although some suggested (backed by statements from one GM) that higher-ups at SOE had purposely despawned Kerafyrm, because it was not intended to be part of the story.
The following day, the players logged in to find that Kerafyrm was back in his "sleeping" state, ready to be triggered again. There was also an apology on the official EverQuest forums from SOE, explaining that they had stopped the encounter because they feared the players were engaging the boss in an unintended manner. Although annoyed (the players pointed out that the reasons SOE gave could not have occurred, and felt lied to), they attempted to battle Kerafyrm once again.
On November 17, 2003, after a nearly 3-hour battle, Kerafyrm was defeated. He had at least 3 million hitpoints, although probably closer to 4 or 5 million (most EverQuest bosses have 2 million at most), was immune to all spells, possessed an ability that automatically killed players, and attacked players for 6999 damage per swing. By using the cleric's epic weapon and other resurrection spells, the players were able to bring their dead characters back into the battle faster than Kerafyrm could kill them all.
