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The
Chows
"A deal? We have been taking care of the feeding business in this town for 25 years: bombs and Armani-dressed mooks will not scare us off..."
Now a round-bellied, jovial if soft-spoken old man, Chow Youen learned the way to properly cook a serving of Cantonese Rice when he was 13, from his grandfather. Today there is probably no recipe outside his experience, and he has often proved himself capable of improvising the most sumptuous meals on short notice and having access only to limited funds and ingredients.
After
20 years as a cook on the mainland,
he moved to Hong Kong with his wife and his daughter, and having spent 15
years in the kitchen of some of Kowloon 's most respected dinner-serving
institution, he finally
put all his savings in a small place off Jordan Street that an Italian
seemed eager to get rid of, and started serving
his own meals.
Nice neighbourhood, good business.
Things were quiet for the next 10 years...
Vital Stats:
Bod 6, Chi 2, Mnd 6, Ref 7
Skills: Info/Chinese Traditional Food & Drink 15, Medicine 10, Martial Arts 8
Weapon of choice: straight-bladed, many-purpose kitchen knife
"...So you scare off the Armani-dressed mooks and their bombs: we'll keep taking care of the feeding business in this town. Deal?"
While her husband is the mind behind the "creative process", diminutive Rita is the organizing force behind is creations: she takes care both of the supplies and the restaurant conduction.
Now that her daughter is working as a computer programmer in Melbourne and all the debts have been payd off, Rita Chow has only her husband to take care of. And the restaurant. No matter what, she will deliver the best dishes in town, at the best price.
She is very silent.
But extremely attentive.
Vital Stats:
Bod 5, Chi 2, Mnd 7, Ref 6
Skills: Info/Catering 16, Leadership 9, Martial Arts 7
Weapon of Choice: a heavy abacus
Sheena
Lee
"Nice little thingy, yes? Perfect with your hair style. And really cheap."
Sharp-minded
despite her post-retro looks and her "Grease" fetish, Sheena
was the one to discover that the place was jinxed.
Or whatever.
Fact is, her shop seemed to have some of the features that, according
to that old article in "Glamour" she read once, are usually associated with
Egyptian pyramids - and more! Not only razors getting sharper, but used clothes
getting fresher as they hung in the dark at back of the place, tossed coins
often landing upright on their margins and the business picking up real fast
after she put up shop (Sheena may be a romanthic in many other things, but
she's a realist as far as her activity is concerned).
Then there was that
creepy story about a customer changing attitude and lifestyle as she changed
clothes
late one evening - but she seemed glad of the change (if she realized about
it).
Sheena even spent a few nights up to ponder these facts, but came to no
conclusion.
So every morning she wakes up, she makes up, gets there and
opens up shop, trying to think not about what might hide behind the weird
stuff.
The undeniable fact that since the new guys arrived things simply gor
weirder (mechanical apes? shaolin monks? a big horned demon? orbital laser
strikes?) is somewhat
balanced by the fact that the biz got busier and she acquired three unlikely
business partners and two room-mates.
The girls are real sweet if a bit
eccentric, and some of the guys are real lookers!
So she keeps managing the shop, dodging stray bullets on bad days and trying to look the other way when things get really crazy.
Vital Stats
Bod 5, Chi 0 (Luck 7, Magic 4), Mnd 6 (Charisma 9), Ref 5
Skills: Info/Fashion 10, Info/The Beat 10
Magic Shticks: Influence (Inspiration), but does not yet realize it.
Liu
"Nobody knows the trouble I had..."
Once
a spoiled merchant's daughter, Liu thought that the best way
to conquer the heart of a certain Imperial Guard Captain would be through
the administration of a certain love-potion, brewed and sold for a price
by a disreputable old witch living on the outskirts of town.
Disreputable old witches being a notoriously unreliable bunch, in a few days the situation somewhat evolved in an unexpected (by Liu, at least) way: the town in an uproar, the promising young man dead by strong poison after a long agony, the girl almost crazy for grief and looked upon with growing suspect.
And returning to the hag for more counsel and help was an even worse idea:
granted, the
young man got back from the grave, if a little worse for use and not his
usual cheerful self, but the poor spoiled child found herself pledged in
the service
of the witch, destined to follow her wherever she went, and to do her
bidding.
For life.
And after.
When finally the Blackadder Witch Ghost that used her as bait to lure young men to their untimely demise (you know this kind of story, I guess...) was killed and beheaded in a shopping mall during the Chinese Take-Over Ceremony in 1997 (don't ask), Liu found herself psichically stranded on the second floor of an old building, and fell madly in love with a weird techie kind of guy and part-time restaurant-owner.
She now watches TV by day and serves at tables on busy nights down at the 'Dragon.
It's a living.
Sort of.
Vital Stats:
Bod 5, Chi 0 (Magic 6), Mnd 5 (Charisma 9), Ref 6
Skills: Info/Musicianship 10, Info/ TV soaps & quiz-shows 10, Seduction 15, Sorcery 7, Creature Powers 14
Creature Powers: Flight, Insubstantial, Blood Drain (Voice Gain)
Magic Schticks: Weather (Heat and Humidity), Influence (Illusion)
The Chu Shai's
"Leslie Cheung? And who the heck is this Leslie Cheung...?"
If Elvis is God, Chu Shai Hong is his prophet among the Hong Kong infidels.
Living in a small house crammed with dubious memorabilia and wearing studded
jackets
and white suits that are becoming increasingly embarassing with the passing
of the years and the progressive growth of his waistline, "Elvis" is nonetheless
the soul of the party.
Any party.
Wherever.
A hard working man (with a family of five to take care of) he's been known to play local clubs after long hours spent on the docks, and both his voice and his spirit are unbreachable, if old fashioned. And living in a rock'n'roll fantasy does help him turning a blind eye on some of the most unusual recent happenings (like one of his daughters dating a lizard for a time)
The new landlords?
Nice guys, they seem ok... Better than the old crowd,
certainly.
Like music, like to dance.
Lower rents, too.
And with them around, meeting the King in the flesh is no longer such a wild possibility.
Vital Stats:
Bod 7, Chi 0, Mnd 5, Ref 6
Skills: Info/The King of Rock'n'Roll 18, Info/The Hong Kong Docks 15, Martial Arts 10, Drive 7
Weapons of Choice: any improvised weapon
"Supper's ready!"
Once you spent 25 years of your life next to a man that wears white jumpsuits in his free time, you are pretty much used to anything.
Teresa is more often than not just a voice from the kitchen.
Sure help to give BB Street an aura of familiarity.
"Gross!"
Nurse in training
and oldest of the Chu Shai girl, she used to serve at
the tables at the Laughing Dragon, and sometimes goes back for the sake of
old times.
Currently employed with a Kowloon dentist ("A bit of a lech but nice"), Debbie is usually away and as a consequence she has been seldom involved in the Dragons activities; she looks upon the new landlords as a bunch of mostly harmless lunatics.
Does not give too much importance to stories of ghosts, mechanical apes and garishly dresed monks.
Nothing new, considering she grew up listening to her father croon "Heartbreak Hotel" while shaving.
Vital Stats:
Bod 6, Chi 0, Mnd 6, Ref 6
Skills: Medicine 6, Info/Dentistry 8, Martial Arts 6
Weapons of Choice: none
"See anything you like?"
Also known as
"Hong Kong Jailbait number one" (according to Di Long),
Tracy is the wild one in the Chu Shai bunch, with a track record going from
shoplifting to pill-pushing, and a list of friends that would impress a CID
department: a variety of gangbangers, time wasters, motorheads, gunbunnies
and assorted small time crooks.
Recently, the BB Street Dragons have been keeping an eye on her - there's already enough stuff liable to attract undue attention on their base without the help of a juvenile delinquent.
While the air of danger clinging to the Dragons somehow attracts her, their adamant refusal to be baited by her heavy-anded advances usually causes her to be harsh in judging our heroes.
Vital Stats:
Bod 5, Chi 0, Mnd 5, Ref 7
Skills: Info/HK Gangland10, Info/Illegal Substances 6, Drive (without a licence) 5, Martial Arts 6
Weapons of Choice: a nasty looking switchblade
"Just like a Call of Cthulhu game! Cool!"
Lin is
the youngest in the family, and used to help Sheena down at the
shop before the position as an hairdreser in a small beauty salon on Jordan
Street.
The most naive of the Chu Shai girls, she was the first to befriend the
Dragons, and currently sometimes doubles as make-up expert on undercover
missions.
Not that her parents know about it, of course.
Vital Stats:
Bod 4, Chi 0, Mnd 6, Ref 6
Skills: Info/RPGs 10, Info/Secret War 2, Martial Arts 5
Li Ng
"Ah, that's impossible to find. Mark me: Im - possible...! But I might have something equally useful, here somwhere..."
People call him "weasel".
Small, lean and unctuous, Li Ng has never been seen outside of his Shop of Antique and Curious in Go-By Street. He's usually sitting behind the counter, in a white sweaty shirt and a black vest, reading a newspaper spread wide on the glass top, rubbing his hands continuously and apparently ignoring customers browsing his overcrowded shelves.
Vital Stats:
Bod 4, Chi 3, Mnd 6, Ref 7
Skills: Info/Contraband 16, Info/Jewelry and Collectibles 11, Martial Arts 6, Guns 7
Special Schtick: Need it? Got it! (self explanatory)
Note: Li Ng is probably (?) a transformed weasel, but much of his capabilities are still unknown to the players and are at the keeper's choice.
Alice
Liddell
"Curiouser and curiouser..."
Once
the subject of a rather popular literary phenomenon, young and unruly
Alice took
rather well to the Netherworld, moving there on a permanent basis after a
series of visits of varying lenght, and finally landing an unlikely position
as Dragon
muscle short before Operation Killdeer. Now, she can usually be found in
the Shop's basement, wherever that happens
to be at the moment.
Her actual looks are a bit different from the Tenniel illustrations gracing certain old books: Alice is an extremely shapely and muscular blonde, six foot high and wide shouldered, with a penchant for very short light blue dresses and high-heeled Victorian boots. Her eyes are normally hidden by round mirrorshades, while a big Automag and a walkman playing loud British hard-rock are her accessories of choice; her most striking feature is a many-coloured dragon tattoo, starting on her right ankle ,and wrapping itself around her body, so that the dragon's head rests on her left arm and one of the dragon's claws seem to grasp her left breast. She got it "somewhere in the NW", but refuses to elaborate further.
Probably as a consequence of having long been associated with a white rabbit in popular imagination (the rabbit being widely recognized as a lascivous animal - by the Chinese, at least), Alice has a strong aura of naughtiness to herself, that coupled with her aloofness and tough stance can sometimes lead to ridiculous situations.
She may not be the most effective Dragon operative around, but sure is great as a PR agent.
Vital Stats:
Bod 7, Chi 0, Mnd 5 (Charisma 10), Ref 7
Skills: Info/The Netherworld 16, Info/Victorian Era 12, Seduction 13, Intrusion 9, Guns 12, Martial Arts 10
Gun schticks: Signature Weapon (Automag), Trick Shot, Air Trigger Neck Hair
Weapons of Choice: AMT Automag V, chrome model with mother of pearl grip.
Tu Bi
"Muuwhaaugh!"
He was just doing his bit back in Shangtung, scaring travellers witless
and eating
small children (or much more frequently dogs) when a bunch of funny guys
dressed in tin foil and waving lightning rods actually kidnapped him and
took him forward in time!
Or so they said talking among them
as they believed he was still way under.
When he climbed down from the wagon with about twenty other regular blokes
like him, he figured pretty fast that from that point on, things could only
have gone for worse: this people lived in big stone boxes under a dull sky
and ate things wrapped in tin foil... they had a thing for tin foil this
people, had they?
So just to be on the safe side, he played dumb,
an art he had to learn
real fast down in the Underworld where brains were usually rewarded with
a quick demise after a dirty, longish bit involving hot irons and jade tipped
scapels, and followed the flow for a few
days.
And when all his observations seemed to confirm that a tin foil
shroud was
his best future option but also the most unlikely, he tore a head or three
away from more or less as many foil wrapped bodies, got back to the portal,
activated tha magickish thingy that opened up the latches, dodged a few shots
running like hell and kept running
down the dark mucky tunnel as long as his strenght and resistance lasted.
And they usually last long, when you're a full ton of eight foot-something and have a spare set of arms.
For the following months he wandered the underworld, staying on the move
to shake any pursuers, finally reaching the more traffiked areas; during
these travels he met lots of strange people and ate a few of them, but without
any malice.
Except once, when a party of loons dressed like extras from
a Robin Hood
flick called him "Wandering Monster" in his face once. Who's the friggig
wandering monster, you nerd?, he roared and afterwards, as he was
digesting them, he decided that he was too old for life on the road anyway,
and it was time to look for some stable position.
So he went through the classifieds for a while, and finally, after a few dud interviews, ended up manning the reception desk for the Dragon cell coordinated by Master Li.
No sweat.
Vital Stats:
Bod 7, Chi 0 (Mag 7), Mnd 5 (Intelligence 10), Ref 4
Skills: Creature Powers 12, Martial Arts 10, Info/The Underworld 10
Weapons: two large curved swords (DV 11 each)
Creature Schticks: Armour, Ranchid Breath, Rigeneration.
Master
Li
"If only I was ninety again..."
Probably (nothing's certain about this man) hailing from the backwoods
of Shangtung province way back in 69 a.D., Master Li is the only reliable
guide in the maze of the Secret War upon which the BB Street Dragons can
really count.
His penchant for chasing young women, speaking in riddles
and drinking strong cheap wine does not help in this sense.
And yet, nothing escapes the cunning chinese, and his convoluted plans - rarely explained in full, seldom fully comprehended - have so far granted the BB Street Dragons few unespected victories and the grudging respect of many enemies, and allies.
Note: Master Li has no stats.
He is what the keeper needs him to be.
And a lecher.
Romeo
Tsui (a.k.a. "Only
You" Tsui, "Pretty Boy" Tsui)
"Never again... I promise! I was a fool, dear... can you forgive me? It's you I love, dear! Only you..."
It's incredible just how much a nice set of clothes and a self-help book can do for a rat.
Endowed with more looks than brains, Romeo Tsui began his carreer by charming with his smile both teachers and - later - schoolmates of the female description; after a few severe whaks administered by his enraged schoolfellows, he moved on to a job as part-time model, part-time shop assistant and full-time/small-time seducer.
Too blundering to be a serious seducer but too likable to be seriously harmed when his duble-dealings are discovered, Romeo (a name he chose as a substitute for a more mundane but still unknown moniker) has so far been a fixture in the night-club/cozy-restaurant scene, thanks to well placed friends and a few rubber credit-cards.
About three years ago he landed the job of his life: second-manager in a lingerie shop in a big mall in central HK. He could not believe his luck. He was so enthusiast about the after-hours opportunities the job offered that on the second day he simply dumped his regular girl-friend. He blew quite a cut of his savings on a sharp dark suit and a pair of silk shirts, stole a book called "Sex for the Knowing Man" from the local library and started planning his conquests.
He ws briefly involved - as an unwilling Chi-donor - with the Blackadder Witch Ghost business, an occasion on which his former "significant one" took quite a bit of pleasure giving him the creeps.
Since then he's been popping out of the woodwork at the most unsightly moment, dodging bullets with an almost preternatural agility and leaving pretty ladies in the lurch.
Vital Stats:
Bod 5, Chi 0, Mnd 4 (Charisma 10), Ref 6 (Agility 12)
Skills: Info/Personal Grooming 16, Info/The Club Scene 12, Seduction 14
Special Schtick: Look Innocent (Self Explanatory)
Yuen Mah
"That was good... now do it faster, and it will look almost true"
Also known to Hong Kong Cinema fans as "The Pete Best of the Seven Little Fortunes" ("This was back when we were eight, you see"), Mah has carved a nice place for himself as a freelance fight scene coordinator and stuntman for independent productions.
Yuen Man came in contact with the Dragons while working on the Phoenix Productions lot filming a medium budget Wuxia a few hundred meters from BBStreet.
After that he decided to hang around, trying to date one of the ladies and generally making himself useful whenever the need to stage a fight surfaced.
Vital Stats:
Bod 6, Chi 2, Mnd 6(Charisma 8), Ref 7 (Agility 10)
Skills: Info/Hong Kong Cinema 12, Martial Arts 7
Special Schtick: Impressively Coreographed Fights (bonus on intimidation attempts)
