Baldur's Gate

Even the most hardened watch their steps in Baldur's Gate, where lives hold prices in copper and greed proves deadlier than dragon fire. Baldur's Gate has a reputation for being a rough place, where crime and opportunity walk hand in hand, and where anything can be bought, sold, or seized at swordpoint. If something can be given a price, it's for sale somewhere in Baldur's Gate. Drugs and poisons sit on shelves alongside tinctures and remedies. Trade goods from Chult, mechanical wonders from Neverwinter, tomes of magic from Calimshan, and the most believable counterfeits of each can all be found in the city's stalls.

The Flaming Fist, a mercenary company paid for by the city, protects residents without the barest hint of civil delicacy. The Watch, the guardian force of the wealthy Upper City, exists only to serve the patriarsthe city's detached upper class. Meanwhile, crime flourishes under the control of the Guild, which oversees almost every organized criminal act, from dockside gambling rings to blackmail at patr iar garden parties. Either under the Guild's auspices or in defiance of them, those who cut purses or throats make a decent living in the city, their talents traded as briskly - and often just as openly - as those of any other professional. For all its shadows and dark dealings, Baldur's Gate is not without its lights. Some residents earnestly seek to make the city a safer place by banding together to make their own sort of imperfect but effective justice