These things write themselves. They well and truly do.
Phenix, City of Thieves – Google Docs
Phenix, City of Thieves
City: Phenix City, Alabama
Population: 10,000
Controls: Phenix City
Government: Machine
Problem: Gangs
Heroic Opportunity: Mercenary Work
City Aspect: Corrupt
Pound for pound, Phenix stacks up as being probably the wickedest city in North America. It boasts a ridiculous number of bars and bordellos: at least three smuggler’s rings operate out of the town; everybody seems to know that the local Fraternal Order of Eagles serves as a front for an actual, no joking, thieves’ guild; and every mercenary group within a hundred miles of the place keeps a representative in the town to take enquiries. Theoretically, the town makes its living from salvaging the ruins of the area (including Columbus, Georgia, right across the river). In reality, it thrives on sin and debauchery. So much so, in fact, that the net population actually stayed relatively stable over the last few years.
Phenix does not officially belong to the New Konfederacy. After all, its notoriety made it a household word for being a festering pit of vice, corruption, and crime even before the Serpentfall, and it retains that reputation even today. Also, The Imperial Kounty of Birmingham is far away, and Fort Benning, Georgia, is just across the river. Of course, the former US Army personnel currently possessing the Fort transitioned fairly quickly to mercenary work, and now need take only one more step to become outright warlords; but the Fort still feels no love for the Konfederacy. The Fort’s retains a somewhat more favorable attitude towards Phenix, which at times becomes downright ravenous.
Which explains why what remains of ‘regular’ Phenix stays quiet about the Konfederacy’s ongoing policy of quietly inserting its own men as town officials. Of course, the Klan keeps needing to replace its minions; the local mobsters prefer to keep both the Konfederacy and the Fort at arm’s length, and considers beating up, blackmailing, intimidating, discrediting, or even maiming town officials as being just part of business. And, just to complicate the entire situation: a two-fisted masked adventurer called The Principle (real name: Albert Patterson, local attorney and former county official) with a yen for cleaning up the streets recently started up regularly caning both mobsters and Klansmen with equal aplomb. He will not run out of targets any time soon.
So, yes: great place to find work.