In the days following the last Shade Realm Wars, when the keys locked the doors and cairns were toppled, the people lived in relative security. Outside of the isolated incursion from a random encounter, the monsters of the Dark Land were mostly forgotten. Still, the memories remained and some sought to court heresy in hope to gain power. One such incident involved the Crane Family and what the chroniclers referred to as the Dark Winds of Baal.
The Crane brothers Zero and Alucard travelled into Azara and were seduced by the locals and the legends of the old god Baal who brought prosperity to the people of Munroville. Believing worship of Baal would bring them great power, they performed dark rituals designed to summon the demon into this world from the realm of hell. Luckily the Crane Brothers were defeated and imprisoned, but not before the trickster imp Pugnatia was released from his realm. Pugnatia had deceived the Cranes in the guise of Baal.
The reign of terror Pugnatia was short, but led to another minor Shade Realm war but the Chroniclers and a coalition of allies gathered together to banish the imp into a prison.
A powerful ritual was cast by unnamed mystics. The imp was bound to a ritual device known as a dybbuk box and hidden away in an old watchtower in the region of the Shade Realm north of the human town of Breccenaerie. The box was hidden away and forgotten for cycles.
It was said that one day the trickster imp would find a way out of his prison. Pugnatia cast a curse that one day a thief would come to free him from the dybbuk box and he would have his vengeance on the world by bringing about a world of pain and horror. Luck was with the Praelians however as the mystics ensured that the box would have to be opened in the Shade Realm and also a sympathetically linked replica would need to be opened in Alluvium afterward. To add to the protection, a glamour that made the box appear as a worthless, broken old crate. The chances that two different thieves would find the box and even consider disturbing it seem astronomical.
Unfortunately the imp was stronger than the mystics knew and was capable of projecting a part of his psyche just outside of the box. A joker like Pugnatia is capable of projecting his form in such a way as to trick those foolish enough to enter the old watchtower. May there never be one so catastrophically unfortunate as to free Pugnatia and his wrath.
