Thieves of Lankhmar is one of my favorite books in the D&D Lankhmar campaign setting, not the least because of the Fred Fields cover, which I think nicely captures the greedy spirit of the city. No, I love this one because it’s all about thieves, specifically the vicious and powerful Lankhmar Thieves Guild.

I should note: the thief is my class of choice. I love playing thieves. Keep your magic; give me a some shadows and a long dagger any time.

While the skew number implies this is an adventure, it is actually a sourcebook dedicated almost entirely to the Guild. While the Guild, hostile to freelancers and zealous in the protection of their turf, is often positioned as the villains in Leiber’s stories, this book is carefully neutral in tone. Characters can go to war with the Guild, like Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser did, or they can work for the Guild. Whatever works. Either way, every detail you can imagine, including a painstaking exploration of Thieves House, is between the covers.

Curiously, the book assumes the events of Leiber’s stories “Ill Met in Lankhmar” and “Thieves House” have already occurred, which is a bit of a shame. Grandmaster Krovas and his pet necromancer Hristomilo are two of Lankhmar’s most interesting villains and it is a bit disappointing that this book doesn’t explore them, even in the past tense.