Tang Kii-Chow
(Prime human fighter-mage [he/him] / Fated / N)
“Yeah, I know Tang Kii-Chow — the one you might call the God of Gamblers or The Killer — better than most of you rubes, so keep those holes on both sides of your head wide open if you want to be well-lanned.
“You see, Kii-Chow not only controls the Great Circle Gang, he probably controls almost every criminal organisation based in Sigil by now. Yes, the gangs Red Heaven, Third Ring, Four Furnaces, Born to Slay, the Romero family, the Mendozza Cartel and many others are all under his thumb. In fact, chant goes the high-ups of the Great Circle belong to his own special gang The Dead-Book’s Scribe.
“The high-up himself is associated with Shemeshka the Marauder, Koe, Tripicus, Ziporath, and Chiryn; I have in fact seen him with all those knights of the post at some time or another. And be warned that the one known as White Orchid who claims to be a concubine is really the succubus Chiryn. Some of his other associates outside of my trade are even more frightening. The first one is Jemorille the Exile, this blood is an argenach a sub-race of the Rilmani. I’ve met Jemorille before actually, he is probably one of the barmiest bashers I’ve crossed yet. This cutter’s an arrogant berk who claims to have done stuff on prime worlds, like causing various problems on Kii-Chow’s own world in fact. But perhaps this rube’s crowning achieving is actually getting Kii-Chow, Shekemster and the others to work with him. Jemorille, of course, reckons he’s the head of this organization they formed, who claim to be in the concerns of all the thirty-eight known planes.”
“The one that frightens me more is the Dark Prophetess. She happens to be a high up of the Doomguard,said to be very close to Pentar herself. The Dark Prophetess is an awful and mysterious blood; chant goes she’s the best prophetess there is because she has a third eye that allows her to look anywhere in the multiverse, even into the future. She’s been thrown into the mazes and flayed so many times by the Lady, yet some how she always seems to come back. Some whispers reckon it simple ain’t possible for her to end up in the dead-book. She’s also got a soft spot for Tang. If Kii-Chow ever learns a secret of yours you never shared witha soul, it probably came to him from the Dark Prophetess.
“Which brings us to our next trade, one that I am also involved in. Anyone who gives the right amount of jink or whatever is required has got us on their side. For those of us in the gang, we’ll protect the sod who pays right price from other crosstraders, and of course some of our members advertise for this service as well. We also provide jinkskirts and jinkshirts (depending on your tastes). Another of our specialities is the marketing of various substances, yes, you guessed, we have it all, which ever poison suits your needs, be it Opium, Fiend-Blood, soXa Staph, and the trendy Glitterglee (Dream Dust as some would call it) — all coming from Torch where we have gotten the best, purest quality a cutter can find.
“If you need a scribe for the dead-book we can also provide that service. Our whole gang has many members who will work as hitmen. I ply that trade myself once a while, in fact. If you need a basher outside of our associates in the dead-book we will put them there. We’ll kill them always unless they are a very important high-up, but that doesn’t mean we won’t give it a try. We also do employ and work with scribes outside of the gang such as Saure and Adamok Ebon. But enough free advertising for my clan. You asked about our leader…
“As to what Tang does with some of his other associates, here’s the dark of some of his activities. One is his trade of darks with his the King (or Queen) of the Crosstrade, Shemeshka the Marauder. Shemeshka for those of you clueless is an arcanoloth who makes her kip in the Cage. She bangs around the gambling hall known as Fortune’s Wheel, where she directs her network of spies and grooms (she’s a very vain jackal). With Kii-Chow’s new-forged alliance with Shemeshka, if you try to give either of ’em the laugh, you’ll definitely be found in the dead-book.
“You should also be lanned on this: Kii-Chow has been plotting with his very own factol Duke Darkwood over whatever plot the Takers have in mind. Kii-Chow himself is a digger, though always going under different names. Chant goes he uses his gangsters to further the Fated’s goals, but they’re just as likely to work for other factions as well.”
“But without a doubt the biggest alliance Kii-Chow has been working in, is with his associates the rogue asuras Koe, the ursinal Tripicus, the rogue fierre eladrin Cirily, and the fallen deva Ziporath. The deal is that they sell weapons forged on the Upper Planes to the baatezu and tanar’ri so that they will continue to kill each other. A lot of the transportation is done through the Guvner and Planar Trade Consortium member Estevan, but the celestials don’t trust the ogre mage, and so it’s the gang that makes sure he never tries to bob them. Also there are, of course, some weapons that Estevan can’t transport, so we happily do that ourselves. The jink comes in huge piles from this deal.
“The Great Circle has extended its influential fingers to all of existence since we have made our kip here in the Cage. We influence many planets of the crystal spheres on the prime, countless number of realms throughout the Great Ring, and the infinite spaces throughout the elements.
“You want to know still more about our high-up? If it’s his origins you want to know, Kii-Chow is from the prime world of Toril, native to some country called Tu Lung. Apparently Tu Lung and its neighbouring country Shou Lung have had this grudge for years. Tang also has a deep hatred for the Shou nation. He’s begun his own personal war on Shou Lung. He’s got a personalized spelljamming ship, a yacht he’s used to attack the Shou from space.
“It’s said his hatred for the Shou began many years ago, but it’s something on which he won’t let slip the dark. But we do know this: the high-up was a sellsword a few years ago. He brought a lot of destruction to the nation of Shou Lung during this time and also sold his talents further West; he was been hired by the Harpers, the Cult of the Dragon, the Zhentarim (prime “factions” all), and he suspected involvement in some canny iron extortion scheme in a place called the Sword Coast. And thus he set forth his skills as a cross-trader’s blood.
“A couple of years later Tang discovered the planes, and since then has spent almost all of his time there. He continued his mercenary job, this time with the yugoloths, as we have been told. He did very well at this job that it seems he has the powerful backing of these fiends. About a short time later he came to Sigil, starting from a lowly gangster to the position of Red Pole in the Great Circle. Then he put the former high-up, known as Atinmar Wang into the dead-book by himself.
“Kii-Chow’s skills are those as a competent spellslinger, and a very fierce skill with his two chivs, but his most deadly is the mastery of the dangerous weapon… firearms… He prefers to use his two special gold plated, black obsidian on the handle, dragon-shaped wheel-lock pistols with eight ball rotating lotus-wheel chambers. I’ve seen him ruthlessly cut down many of the opposing berks in his way, with his pure skilled marksmanship.
“Indeed Kii-Chow has moved up the ranks very quickly, he claims to be only twenty-three years of age, perhaps that is how he has earned himself the name of the Unstoppable Gangster, or the God of Gamblers. At least, amongst the criminal underworld of the Cage; the Harmonium have far less flattering names for him. In fact, only a few weeks back the Hardhead Malkalotl vowed to capture, expose, and write into the dead-book out illustrious leader, or die trying. We’ll see…”
— An anonymous member of the Great Circle Gang
See Also:
- Cage Rattlers:– Dark Prophetess, Malkalotl.
- Uncaged: Faces of Sigil:– Cirily (p20), Adamok Ebon (p28), Estevan (p30), Jemorille the Exile (p50), Koe (p52), Saure (p90), Shemeshka the Marauder (p96), Tripicus (p102).
- Chiryn is detailed in the adventure Love Letter of The Well of Worlds.
- Factols Pentar and Darkwood are detailed in The Factol’s Manifesto.
- Ziporath is also detailed in The Factol’s Manifesto, (p60 and 67).
Source: Jason Ng