The Phantom Tong
From Changeling Venue
Contents |
Overview
The Phantom Tong is a criminal organization. It exists to purposely propagate an illicit underworld bent toward acts of violence, thievery, gambling, prostitution, drug-peddling,
piracy — whatever unruly behavior the group can manage. Its members either belong to “normal” fae society and work with the Tong on the sly, or instead disappear from the freehold’s normal comings and goings, working full-time for the order — becoming phantoms, themselves.
Title
Dai Lo
Prerequisites
Wyrd 2, Larceny 3
Joining
To become a Dai Lo within the Phantom Tong, it’s said that one must “court” them in the way that one would court a distant lover. Except here, instead of leaving flowers from a secret admirer or writing poems from afar, one must perform criminal actions (or actions against the extant Courts) in the hopes that the Tong will take notice. This usually means that whatever the entrant does, it must be momentous or at least public — something that stings a given ruler is of particular value. When the time is right and the Tong is said to be pleased, the Dai Los apparently approach the potential entrant with an offer to join. This offer might be genuine, or it might be a con — more than one changeling has been made to believe that he’s tithing money and Glamour to pay the “cost” of entrance, when in reality they’re just fleecing the poor fool and leaving him out in the cold… often selling him out to the Courts in the process. Some even suggest that all offers to join start with a con of some kind, and only those Lost clever enough to see through the ruse are given the courtesy of an honest invitation.
Once a Dai Lo, the changeling is usually given some manner of control over a particular sphere of criminal influence. If he’s a leg-breaker, maybe he’ll be sent out on collections. If he’s got a cunning mind and a greedy heart, maybe he’ll be cast out to run cons on unsuspecting marks (human and fae). One might be a chemist, boiling up strange new drug strains using goblin fruits, another might run a gambling den where one of the evening’s festivities include various brutal “fight club” matches. Leaving the Tong isn’t really… encouraged. The Tong takes the “blood in, blood out” attitude, like most street gangs or criminal organizations. The only way out is your own blood, preferably spilled out of your broken head across cracked pavement. Another way is possible: kill all the other Dai Los. If the Tong is eradicated from within, then those who wish to escape its grasp are safe. Or, so they hope.
Mien
To remain secret, the Dai Los of the Phantom Tong have been able to mostly suppress any changes to their mien (it would do their secret little good if any changeling could gaze upon them and see clearly that they embody the physical shifts emblematic of the order). They haven’t been able to stifle these changes entirely, however, and those who belong do find that their miens change in subtle ways (but obvious to those who know what to look for). In certain lights (full moon, for instance), a Dai Lo’s eyes seem to fade partly out of existence, becoming opaque or translucent — “ghost eyes,” the Tong calls it. Others sometimes breathe out wisps of breath that look like fog but have the haunted eyes and frozen silent mouths of ghosts.
Background
Most of the Dai Los come from some manner of dysfunctional background. Some come from criminal families or from pre-existing street gangs. Others have simply lead bad lives as humans, fae or both, and need an outlet for their rage, greed and lust. A number of the changelings within the Tong care little for their own Clarity, focusing instead on the sheer power that some Contracts (such as Darkness and Smoke) can give them in their criminal endeavors. It’s worth noting that some of the Lost who end up within the Phantom Tong do so because they see the corruption that exists in the current Courts and truly hope to play some kind of errant Robin Hood to these crooked courtiers. They seek either to inject some honesty into the Courts or seek outright revenge against them — either could lead them to the underworld where the Tong awaits. Many such members still belong to their current Courts, subverting the ruling body’s own resources against it.
Organization
In any city where one finds the Phantom Tong (and many worry that this not-so-noble order is as prevalent as rats and roaches, and often as hard to find and exterminate), one finds the Dai Lo Dai (also “chief of chief” or “brother of brothers”). The Dai Lo determines how broad or narrow the focus is of the local Tong. Do they only concentrate on the drug market? Or do they spread themselves thin, running rackets in every conceivable dark corner of the city? The Dai Lo Dai sets the pace for all the other Dai Los; if one wants to know what the Tong will be like in a city, the Dai Lo Dai is often its bellwether.
The Tong has meetings under every full moon at a different location each time — strip club basement, penthouse apartment, at the top of a water tower. Certainly in cities where the Tong has more power, the meeting locations tend to be more opulent (extravagant opium dens instead of broken-down crackhouses, meth labs or rotting poppy fields). The Tong also tends to dice up some of the freehold territory amongst its members, with the larger portions of the domain (and hence, its spoils) going to those Dai Los with greater seniority. Such territories encompass all of the freehold — it’s just that the other changelings might not recognize that their communal space is just around the corner from a known drug den or slave market.
An important note is that the Tong tends to maintain strong connections with mortal criminal organizations, too. Crime exists in every city of the world — tongs and triads across Asia, street gangs and Mafia in the Western world, corrupt police… well, everywhere. Any brother,
drug den or chopshop, the Tong will hope to have its hands involved.
Concepts
Bangkok ladyboy, black market maven, carjacker, con artist, corrupt Hong Kong cop, double agent, drug chemist, kneecapper, river pirate, slave marketeer, smuggler, Yakuza
Privileges
Below is a privilege available to those who possess the Dai Lo entitlement, belonging to the secret order of the Phantom Tong.
Criminal Network
Once the Dai Lo is officially connected to the larger criminal network of the city, the Dai Lo has easier access to resources that others do not. Dai Los, upon joining the Tong, can take one free Specialty in either Larceny or Streetwise. Moreover, any Allies or Contacts purchased with experience points and specifically relating to the criminal world (ask the Storyteller for approval) possess a reduced experience point rate of new dots x 1.
Members
Rumours
- The Tong are said to have a holding some where in Greece.
- It is believed that the Tong has a strong hold in the Southern United States.
