Ulug is, of course, a gotcha monster. There are a lot of ways around him; through is the only one that's a really bad idea.

I introduced him with an NPC plain telling the party about the curse. This went basically like this:

NPC: Oh, this is Ulug, he is nasty, he will want whatever you treasure most. My pal Zuk killed him once, Zuk died screaming a few days later, and now Ulug is back.
Party: Sounds bad. Any idea to avoid him?
Druid: Maybe we could banish him?
Cleric: Yup, can do.
Paladin: What does my Divine Sense tell me? (Ulug reeks of evil.) Bleargh, I smite him with my sword!

That was one session ago, now they are desperately trying to figure out how to cure a cursed paladin.

Ulug is humanoid, a little smaller than the average human. He wears a dark coat and a deep hood that obscure his features even to magical light; the only part of his body one may occasionally glimpse is a black-taloned hand.

In (5e D&D) game terms, Ulug is AC 11, has 2 hit points, no attacks and fails all his saves. All of his other stats are average (10, +0 or whatever).

Whoever kills Ulug gets cursed. At the end of each long rest, they have to make two saves:

• Wisdom, DC 15, or lose 1d6 points of Wisdom;
• Constitution, DC 15, or gain a level of exhaustion.

At 0 Wisdom, the cursed character is treated as under a permanent Confusion spell. The levels of exhaustion gained because of the curse cannot be eliminated naturally by rest.

A Remove Curse gives advantage to the next pair of saving throws. A Greater Restoration can either work as a Remove Curse or reduce exhaustion by one level.

The curse itself can only be removed by a Wish.

When the world was young, Lakk lost a bet with Medlar. He could not pay what he owed but he swore on the World Grapes he would pay Medlar before the end of time.

So Lakk created the minotaurs and tasked them with getting him enough gold to repay his losses. This is why the minotaurs guard passages and gateways and extort gold from travellers, so they can give it to Lakk.

Now Lakk has almost paid off his debt, so he should set the minotaurs free. Who knows what will become of them then?

#lore24

The sisters Solina and Selena, the Sun and the Moon, decided to share the world at the beginning of time. However they only had a single lamp between them. They gambled for the lamp and Solina won.

At the beginning Selena enjoyed the quiet of the night, but after some time she began missing her sister, so she lingered a bit longer in the sky every day to catch a glimpse of Solina.

Unfortunately Selena had grown used to the night and could not stand the light of the lamp anymore. She tried as much as she could, but she had to spend less and less time with Solina and more and more time alone in the night.

So began Selena's endless cycle, always trying to spend her time with Solina, always failing because of the lamp.

#lore24

The Portal is an underground fortress a couple of days north of Penca.

It was built some 300 years ago by the people of Halavos for guarding a known entrance to the Underworld. It was manned for about 60 years, during which it stopped at least 4 major orc raids.

It then fell into disrepair before being taken over by the sorcerer Malak. A few decades later it was occupied by a tribe of orcs that established a market there for trading with the surface people. Slave trading, mostly.

It changed hands a few more times in the last century and a half. Nowadays the entrance is guarded by a tribe of kobolds who extract a small tax on anyone passing through. There are still orcs under the fortress, raiding the surface for slaves every few years.

#lore24

Vanya the Conqueress is the goddess of the imperial might. She is a goddess of war and conquest, and she personifies the divine right of the Empire to rule its subject peoples.

Her cult as a goddess of war has been imported by soldiers during the wars in the east, 100 to 150 years ago. When Eudochos I ascended the imperial throne after the War of the Three Claimants, he made Vanya the divine protector of the new imperial house.

For a couple of generations now, the priests of Vanya have been serving as advisers to the imperial leaders in the provinces, and her cult has been steadily popular in the farthest reaches of the Empire, probably more so than in the old imperial core regions.

#lore24

Alec Dimitrescu is the current master of the guilds in Penca. He has a fifteen-year-old son, Mika, who is currently as angry with his father as fifteen-year-olds can be.

Dona Sorelev has been quietly watching him for years and reporting to the Grand Mother of her order. The few times she has been caught, she explained it as keeping tabs on the families of important people, as all sane religious leaders do. It is probably true, but is it the whole truth?

#lore24