In the middle of a barren desert where nothing should live, unnatural growth shoots into the sky. Its origins lie in a criminal cabal, who created it as a place to escape the rule of law. The very waters of the earth have been bridled and tamed, forced to generate power to feed the constant, never-ending appetite of the people and buildings nearby.

The place never rests; even in the witching hours between midnight and dawn, it remains in constant activitiy, illuminated by blazing lights that conceal as much as they reveal the people scurrying around in search of debauchery, gluttony, and vice. It lures in millions of people each year with the promise that they will most likely leave poorer; indeed, the opportunity to lose money and get nothing in return has always been its most famous attraction.

Those attractions are housed in mimicries of famous destinations from around the world, but the scale is wrong; large things are too small, while small things are too large. The buildings are opulent palaces on the surface, but if you manage to break through that surface, or even see them from behind, you can see the glamor is paper-thin.

The people who actually live there turn a jaundiced eye to all of it, watching as the city feeds on its visitors, but many of the residents will find themselves sucked into the creature's maw, lured into the same traps that have caught so many others.

A more wretched hive of scum and villainy would be hard to find, but you can get a 99-cent shrimp cocktail.