Thieves Catacombs, Curse of
The story of the curse, as penned by Dovolente:
The original Thieves' Catacombs, the area which has been replaced by the Earendam Sewers, was an area built by Lilune and introduced in the first couple of weeks after the MUD known as "Pantheon" at ender.com opened up. I recall being among the first group of mortals to be given several nudges towards finding the place (which was then in the Old Earendam, and of which I will not talk further, not for any price).
The Thieves' Catacombs had lots of rats, and these were the most popular training mob in the MUD (since skill% wasn't affected by levels back then--it was an art form, switching targetting of the rats at just the right pace to keep them all alive), and it had thieves and whores, a strange magic mirror, a ring which changed one's gender, and an odd dead-end which later connected (and was even later, disconnected) to the Rock Lizard tunnels.
It was a terrible area, and really needed to be axed along with Old Earendam. But the few who attempted to revise the area found themselves bogged down in a hopeless and vain attempt, and ultimately fell victim to the curse. The Thieves' Catacombs curse claimed at least these three, and maybe even more that have since been forgotten: Lilune, Khaern, Rascyc.
The brave and foolhardy Kestrel later took up the challenge, and the Catacombs Curse proved to be no match for Kestrel's manic energy. And thus we now have the Earendam Sewers, with much-improved rats, thieves and whores, plus a whole lot more.
