2.1. Who says they're cannibals?

In a small, dusty town in the middle of the desert, failed-bard-turned-stuntman Justice Beaver has just finished his japery when he’s approached by a man who introduces himself as Lord Harrow. He offers to employ Justice to go to Decembria and find his daughter, Beulah.

One week later...

Justice performs his “act” in front of a stonefaced crowd outside the city walls of Decembria, one of the few true cities that withstands the unforgiving Odo Desert. From among the crowd, he spots a few faces that seem likely to help him find the missing girl.

This, specifically, is the chain
wrapped around Tomi's fist.

• Kelly AC Slater, a 6'9" surfer lookin' dude, very laid back but definitely with a glimmer of murderous rage deep in his eyes; 
• Hans "Nakatomi" "Tomi" McLean, an unsettling biological experiment by the shadowy Nakatomi corporation, with a chain wrapped around his fist;
• Don the Warlock, a shadowy figure with more magic than his name implies;
• Feloriel Mithyeaseer, the near-mute assassin last seen when all those Christmas zombies came around, and;
• Ulrich Grood, the massive, massive dude with a huge weapon who regularly scares off enemies by screaming in their faces, who’s been zapped into this dimension after his last stint acting in a play (see Oni Macaroni).

They march up to the city gates and demand to be let in. Justice claims he’s got a gig booked inside, but nobody has any paperwork to prove it. Negotiations don’t go well, and Justice gets an arrow in the thigh. Ulrich screams in the guard’s face, who slams shut the porthole and runs away.

Some of the stonefaced slumdwellers have gathered to watch. As the guards begin to lose their patience, a boy gets their attention - “There’s other ways into the city! You don’t have to die at the gate!” The party bravely retreats from the gate and follows the boy.

Back in the slums, they stop and question the boy. He says he can get them through the wall, through a sewer grate that is unguarded for a few minutes at 2am every morning. They ask him where Beulah Harrow is. At the name, he gets scared and tries to run, but Hans wraps his chain around the kid’s neck. They question the kid further, but their questioning is vague and their perception rolls are all very low, so they learn very little and the terrified child eventually escapes into the alleys.

Like this, but more desert-y.

They follow the general direction of the crowd to the edge of the Pit. People are snuffing powder, drinking foul-smelling liquor, and stamping their feet in approval while at the Pit’s bottom, an old man with a sharpened rock is fighting an eight foot worm. Justice hops in, doing a few victory laps and whipping up the crowd (who stamp a lot). Feloriel, Don and Ulrich join the fray, and kill the worm with a flurry of arrows and blows—though not before it kills the old man—as well as it’s larger cousin, which busts through the wall into the pit next. A third and yet larger worm appears as they beat a hasty retreat.

Their bravery and showmanship endears them to the crowd. Topside, Kelly and Hans have been whipping the slumdwellers into a foot-stomping lather, and they lead a charge towards the city gates.

“Fuck!” say the guards. “Okay, okay, you can come in—just leave those cannibals outside!”