With the release of Five Fingers: Port of Deceipt, Privateer Press paints an interesting picture of an “evil city” for their campaign setting, the Iron Kingdoms. From other sourcebooks, we fans of the setting knew Five Fingers as a pirate haven on the border of Ord and Cygnar, a city with a dark and lawless reputation. Port of Deceit simultaneously confirms and dispels these notions.

Told through the voices of a series of distinctive expert characters, see how this odd city works. The authors clearly put a great deal of thought into the interactions of the various interests, ranging from legitimate businessmen to government officials to criminals and refugees. It is the ways that these groups interact that gives Five Fingers its shine as an adventuring setting.

This is not some shadowy city dedicated to evil, with tyrannical necromancers ruling from dread temples and people being murdered in the streets. Leave such things to the Forgotten Realms with its hackneyed Thay and Menzoberanzan. Five Fingers is a dangerous place, but the authors understand that a state of normalcy is necessary for crime lords and pirates to make the kinds of profits they would be after. They also understand that any major enclave of aggressive evil would only be tolerated by its neighbors (who would rightly be concerned about subversion and invasions from such a place) under exceptional circumstances.

Instead, we are presented with a city that thrives on the razor’s edge of respectability. Pirates, smugglers, and cultists operate there, but do so discreetly. The Lord Governor tolerates the activities of the criminal High Capitans, but only so long as they maintain the peace. Similarly, the High Capitans tolerate the presence of the Lord Governor, but only so long as he allows them to run their businesses. Similarly, the legitimate businesses pay protection money to a series of extortionists in exchange for a degree of protection from elements that the government simply isn’t in a position to insure against. Located in the sole neutral country in a continent consumed by war, Five Fingers also plays prominently in its king’s efforts to stay out from under the feet of his more powerful neighbors.

Intrigue, crime, and the occult are the three key elements of Five Fingers, and authors Doug Seacat and Wolfgang Baur present readers with a myriad of possibilities, with dozens of colorful characters and locales. Each person has a place in this city that makes sense, not only in the context of the city, but as a potential plot hook for an adventure.