The Hand of Tomorrow

A street gang that thinks it has a glimpse of the future.

The Hand of Tomorrow used to be a normal street gang, going by the name of The Freaks. Then one member, Sybil Delano found a television abandoned in her attic. When she turned on the set, it didn't show any familiar shows, but instead seemed to be showing broadcasts from some point in the future, ranging from several years to a few days. After some of the events mentioned on the television set became true, she decided to show it to the gang's leader, Render, who began using it to plan some small time scams and such. The gang has yet to become very skilled at tuning the television to a particular time, however, so they can't consistently watch tomorrow's news and react to that knowledge. Primarily, they try to watch sports results for gambling and pay attention to news broadcasts involving local criminal activity, which gives them a slight enough advantage over other gangs that they have expanded quickly since finding the set, which they have nicknamed "Telemachus".

The set does not, in fact, tell the future. What really happened is that Sybil's father used to be a notable local adept, a blind videomancer named Eyeless Tommy. When another duke pissed him off, and he happened to have a large amount of mojo built up, Eyeless Tommy sucked out the duke's soul and put it in a spare tv set, trapping it like a genie in a bottle. Eyeless Tommy hid the set away for safe keeping, until his death, at which point it was found by Sybil, who knew none of this. As far as she is concerned, her dad was just another lazy slob, and she has no idea where the set came from.

The demon that now inhabits the set doesn't remember much of its previous existence. All that remains is a desire for control over others, a facility for guessing, and a highly devious streak. This all adds up to it faking broadcasts from the future to manipulate the gang's activites. The set is, in fact, often wrong, but the gang has the same ability to forget inaccurate prophesies as the followers of an apocalyptic preacher. It helps that the demon rarely directly mentions a date, so gang members are always able to convince themselves that the date for the prediction hasn't come yet.

GMCs:   "Telemachus", box full of evil.

Obsession: Control chance, by knowing the odds and guessing the outcomes. This extends to controlling the actions of other people, through whatever means necessary.

Passions:

Fear: Beyond the Veil. Telemachus doesn't know anything more about what's beyond the veil than a living person does, but he's afraid what will happen to his incoporeal self now that's he's been trapped in the box for so long. In particular, rumors of the Cruel Ones freak the shit out of him. (Helplessness)

Rage: Failing to see the obvious ahead of time. Whenever this happens, Telemachus will manifest his anger by forecasting news coverage of earthquakes, tornadoes, riots and other disasters, one more horrible than the next.

Noble: Telemachus really believes that if he had complete control over everything, the world would be better. In particular, he tries to protect and care for the gang members, if he can.

Personality: Capricorn. While not a lot of obvious personality filters through, in that Telemachus himself never shows up, just television shows from 'the future', the demon has been stripped of little more than a megalomaniacal desire to control everything.

Body: 0 (inanimate) (Wound points = 20) Speed: 0 (no moving parts) Mind: 65 (knows the odds) Soul: 60 (obsessively focused)

General Education 25%, Obsessive Compulsive Attention to Detail (Notice) 45%, Good Guesser 65%, Charm 15%, Lie 55%, Imitate Television Broadcasts 40%

Good Guesser: By knowing the odds, and observing carefully, Telemachus more often than not can predict accurately what's going to occur. He tends to play it safe and not predict presidential assassinations and such, but will occasionally foretell an impressive longshot.

Imitate Television Broadcast: If he succeeds, the broadcasts appears nearly perfect. If he fails, then someone looking for mistakes can find them, which might suggest that Telemachus isn't all he claims to be.

Madness:

Violence: 1F, 7H Unnatural: 3F, 8H Helplessness: 2F, 1H Isolation: 1F, 1H Self: 4F, 2H

Sybil Delano, high priestess of the television

Obsession: Sybil wants nothing more in life than to escape her poor living conditions, and not end up like her lazy, good for nothing father.

Passions:

Fear: Life on the streets. She allied herself with the Freaks to protect herself from various other gangs and criminals in the area, only to find that this didn't help her chances of survival any. She tries to avoid direct conflict, leaving that to the others. (Violence)

Rage: Laziness. It gets you nowhere, and bogs you down. You have to put forth some sort of effort to get anywhere in this world.

Noble: She has a great respect for anyone trying to get ahead in life, and won't sabotage their progress for her own benefit.

Personality: Sagittarius. Rarely works well with others, and clearly is using her connection to the set to gain power in the gang. This has pissed off some, but Render allows it.

Body: 50 (lean) Speed: 55 (nervous) Mind: 45 (mind is elsewhere) Soul: 65 (intuitive)

General Athletics 30%, Struggle 25%, Nondescript 25%, Dodge 35%, Driving 25%, Initiative 28%, Grace Under Pressure 25%, General Education 15%, Notice 25%, Breaking and Entering 20%, Monkeywrench 15%, Charm 20%, Lie 35%, Tune the television set 40%.

Tune the TV set: This lets her find something important or relating to the subject at hand on the set. Because she can do this better than any other gang member, she tends to be operating the set, and thus has gained a large bit of control over the gang, second only to Render.

Madness: V: 1F, 0H U: 0F, 0H I: 0F, 1H H: 2F, 2H S: 0F, 1H

Render, Gang leader

Obsession: Hedonistic Pleasure. He's running the gang simply for the benefits that he gets from the criminal activities they perform.

Passions:

Fear: Losing what he already has. He likes being the top dog, and if he ever lost that, he'd lose all the perks that go along with it. (Helplessness)

Rage: Challenging the gang's authority. Whenever another gang moves in on their turf, or someone tries trafficking stolen goods without his okay, they can expect Render to show up at their door with a two by four and a bad mood.

Noble: Render doesn't let his gang kill or harm small children. Killing their parents is fine, but no direct violence towards kids.

Personality: Scorpio. Straightforward, brutal, violent, determined.

Body: 65 (lifts weights) Speed: 40 (big and clumsy) Mind: 40 (all brawn, no brain) Soul: 60 (intimidating)

Gen. Athletics 25%, Streetfighting 55%, Driving 25%, Dodge 20%, Initiative 20%, Firearms 25%, Gen. Education 15%, Notice 25%, Gang Tactics 30%, Lie 25%, Charm 20%, Bully 45%

Madness: V: 0F, 5H U: 0F, 0H I: 0F, 1H H: 2F, 4H S: 1F, 3H

Copyright Nick Wedig, posted on the official UA website on July 21, 2002