What do we know about the 14K Tong?

14000 Tongs

Where there are Chinese, there are tongs — sometimes several. Those tongs that comprise the current Chinese gangs are splintered remnants of the old Earth-That-Was Tong 14K Triad, which became decentralized when the arks began sailing the black. The mass Exodus posed logistical and organizational nightmares for the 14K Triads.

They couldn’t disperse the higher-ups without risking losing communication as each person’s ship sailed for the different corners of no and where. On the other hand, if the heads of a 14K Triad stayed together on one ship, they would lose control over the members who were in other ships. Or the ship carrying the powerful leaders might end up on the drift, never to be heard from again. They decided to divide up the leadership among various ships, keeping the organization in tact. Once they finally settled on solid ground, the 14K Triads were back in business. Many of them infiltrated independent tongs, drawing them into criminal activity.
The criminal tongs continue to proliferate among Chinese communities, particularly on the farther reaches of the ‘Verse, engaging in the usual lawless enterprises: smuggling, racketeering, gambling and opium trafficking—when they’re not feuding with other tongs. Grudges often last forever, to the point that everyone has forgotten why they’re fighting in the first place. On worlds where tongs exert sufficient control, such as New Kasmir and Lazarus, the battles take to the heavens, with ships exchanging gunfire in nearspace.
The authorities are well paid to sit back and watch.

Tongs tend to be tight-knit. Loyalty is the best currency for upward mobility. If you’re willing to take a bullet or two for the da gher (“big brother”), you just might find yourself at his right hand (assuming you survived). Betrayals and coups do happen, but not nearly as much as Alliance’s antigang propaganda would like you to think. What usually happens when a leader retires is that he selects his most trusted second as the successor.

All others have the choice of pledging allegiance to the new big brother or being corpse-ified.
Tongs seldom solicit outside help; members are expected to be self-sufficient and take care of their own. They normally recruit specialists only for the highly technical jobs (such as piloting or security hacking), though they will sometime seek extra muscles to bolster their ranks in anticipation of a coming gang war. They fully expect the hired hands to show the same loyalty as a brother while in employment. Given their lavish pay scale, they have very little problem keeping a mercenary’s fealty.

All criminal tongs, as they say, “do business.” Guns, in particular. The bigger, the better. And grenades, by the dozens. Ain’t no sense bringing knives to a firefight, less so when the other tong boys are aiming to end you any which way. Every buck a gang makes, bet on fifty cents going to weapons. Shooters to sell and a good price in mind will get you a shiny in with any tong.

Nearly all tongs restrict their activities, keeping business within a city or other manageable area. This has more to do with a tong’s limited resources than ambition, as most gangs operate in low-income or undesirable places and are essentially small packs of greenhorn punks. Only large, prominent tongs can afford to expand into other cities. Every once in a while, a ser toh may remove the opposition and proclaim himself the “warlord” of a world (the Ming Brothers of Victoria out in Kawalsa come immediately to Mind). Especially out on the Rim, spacers know that even if you don’t respect the ser toh’s claim, you respect his arsenal.

The Alliance worked hard to eradicate the tongs from the Core worlds, with the result that most simply packed their bags and moved out to the Rim. However, it may be premature to pronounce the death of the 14K Triads. There is talk of a movement to restore the 14K Triad system to its former glory in the Core worlds. This tone is led by a mysterious figure known solely as Shiung Tzu, or “Master of the Mountain,” the traditional title for the 14K Triad’s grand boss.

Evidence suggests that Shiung Tzu has friends within the Parliament.

Well we aren't going to stop. First the REAL Tong wouldn't say "Hey I'm the Tong and you should be afraid."

The Tong does not exist, it is just something people make up, just ask any Ghuh-Ghuh or the Master of the Mountain.

They use implied treat and rumor.

Did Gambino say, "Hey I run the Mob?"

Tess get ready to burn.

I'd like to check into what Jason knows about the tong on the Baron's guest list and who they might be associated with....let me know either here or via PM.

Merci,
Phelan

First, the tong can't shoot us down.

Second, they can't force us to land or board us.

Third, if they do try to use violence in a major shipping lane it will most definitely attract the Feds

Fourth, if we do something stupid and flashy (see hard/full burn in shipping lane) we might have the Feds on our butts

Now, having pointed out these four facts....CAN WE CALM DOWN and think before we do something monumentally STUPID?

At least allow Jason and Grace to check into this before we freak out...and yes I'm referring to our tendency to over react.

If folks don't get posts in or bring out information in Q&A there isn't a lot to work with. The group was agree to avoid the encounter.

Getting out of Dodge doesn't need to be full burn, Tess's fancy flying would serve the same message and I left that open for her. And trap still smells like a trap, I saw no real gain putting the team a risk or delaying the flight.

I had asked for and would have liked to have input about the Tong at the party but that didn't happen.

I had asked that same question and didn't much of a response other than the guest list looks like a "who's who" of Alliance, Fed, and Tong....I've asked for more info and will relate it as soon as I get it....I'd just like to make sure that we're not going to cause ourselves even more grief before we arrive.

I really value your gaming knowledge and experience, but if you don't post your ideas here for me and others to clearify then we just have to move forward.

Jason and Grace are the information people. The both have their channels and that is a great help. Also Doc has her channels, but that comes from Al.

Ken is letting out that he has a bit dark background too and there's more there between the ears than he lets on.

With the holidays ending maybe we all will have more time to compare information.

Al,

1) Guest List: I was fairly certain that I already had one but can't find it.

2)Skill check to see what Jason knows or can find out about the tong that we're apparently dealing with and if they're two separate factions.

3) Skill check to have Jason contact Norman Sellers and learn what he can about this recent development w/o alerting everybody and their brother.

4)Skill check to have Jason attempt to schmooze Decimus and have ground support for the delivery.


Phelan

1) The guest list is long and extensive. The party takes over the entire building of the Museum of Alliance History. It is huge. The list is the who's who of the alliance verse.

2) You are familiar with Tong but none of operators. Of course, you don't know every person in play right now.

3) "Hi, this is Norman Sellers of Seller's Estates. I can not answer your wave right now so please leave your name, pulse number and date and time, I will call you right back."

4)It is late at night on Osiris at the moment so wait a few hours and then call Decimus. Not sure what you mean by ground support? Lifters? crew? Well armed personal army?

If my theory is correct, Howard is working for the Tong. Which would explain why Norm was so terrified when he spotted Howard and tried to hide his deal making for 'trying his luck with the ladies.' I bet he made Norm talk, then sent a note to his buddies hoping for a reward. The fact that Norm isn't answering our call doesn't help with disproving my theory.

Interesting theory there; quite possible. Guess we will find out one way or the other.

Well it has brought to my attention that some of the group feels we need to investigate Chungs offer. If the majority wants to land and talk then I'll edit my post. Although it would be an interesting encounter, I still feel it's a trap and won't give us anything good.

So I vote "no".

Tell me what you think and why.

No? I didn't think the Q&A conversation was going that direction all. I was pretty sure our plan was to make the delivery, but investigate the people contacting us and/or our employers.

But if it's in question, I vote no to landing at the moon and yes to continuing on to the delivery site.

and as always, Tess will follow her captain wherever he will lead her. ^_^

Hey just cause my character mentions checking it out doesnt mean we should do it. I prefer meetings on our own footing. To meet someone on their timing and setting is usually not a good idea.

Ken just likes to look at the possibilities. He would wish we maybe find out how to contact them later and then do so and see if they are serious about meeting, at a time and place of our choosing; Less chance of an ambush that way.

But in the end it is your decision Captain; Ken might complain but he will go with the flow.