Following their initial disastrous encounter with the Demon Etrigan, the Shadowpact are splintered. Nightmaster and Detective Chimp are injured, Enchantress is forced to use her own life energy to maintain a spell keeping Nightmaster alive, and the spirits inhabiting Ragman's suit are more frightened of Etrigan than of remaining trapped for eternity. So Blue Devil, newly demoted to the rhyming caste of demons, has recruited others to help him in retrieving the Lucifer Trident, taken from him by Etrigan.
