In any bet, there’s a winner and a loser. Enns was the loser.

History: To look at Denis Enns now, you’d think he was just another broken-down heap of human refuse. He’s eighty-six now, and looks it. He developed cancer of the larynx in ’94, and now speaks either through his little black mechanical voicebox, or through the hole in his throat. His hip was busted in 2000, when he took a bad fall down the stairs and nearly died from the shock. Now he walks with a cane, and he’s had discussions with his physician about having a pacemaker put in. All Denis Enns does now is watching greyhound races from a box seat at the track, and gamble away what he thinks will be the last years of this life.

But if you’d met him in his prime, you would’ve thought he was a god. Largely because for all intents and purposes, he represented one.

In 1967, Denis Enns became Godwalker of Gamblers. He’d been working at it consciously since he was twenty-two, and had been an unknowing avatar of the archetype since sixteen. He had won: at least three people’s lives; a number of artifacts which he’d sold off to various interests in the OU or kept for a rainy day; a no-questions policy from the Sleepers on his territory; and had enough money that he could retire for life, but the sheer power of being godwalker kept him in the game.

In addition, he’d been the death of least six other people (not including the people willing to bet their lives aginst him), betrayed his ex-wife for a proxy ritual, bet his second son away looking to win the Cartesian Curse ritual, lost his first son to a chaos mage in Boise, and had his pinkie finger cut off by a fleshworker from Reno.

Then in 1979 a young avatar of the Gambler challenged him. She bet her life against his stature with the Clergy. Her name was Fatima then, and Enns didn’t see the threat until the last card had been dealt.

Aces and eights in his hand.

The cards had gone against him, and Fatima, a nothing avatar before she challenged Enns, became Fortuna, Godwalker of Gamblers. And Enns, Enns became a washed-out old fool with a ton of enemies and nothing but fair-weather allies.

He hasn’t picked up a deck of cards since.

But the track stayed with him. The track still loved him, win or lose, and he loved the track back for staying with him.

Enns has been out on the fringe of the occult underground since the mid-80s. As a result, he hasn’t heard much about things like Mak Attax, TNI or the Naked Goddess. The only remaining world for him anymore is the track, and getting back at Fatima for what she did to him.

Personality: A bitter, cantankerous, old codger who had everything in his hands and then lost the majority of it in one game and who intends to get back at the person who ruined him if he and her both have to die.
Obsession: Taking back the stature that is rightfully his and stompimg Fortuna flat in the process. (Avatar: The Gambler)
Wound Points: 35

Passions
Rage Stimulus: Fortuna. Anything having to do with that woman is sure to drive Enns up the wall.
Fear Stimulus: (Unnatural) Losing the rest of his connection with the Gambler terrifies him.
Noble Stimulus: Respect for the Elderly. While a little self-serving nowadays, Enns has always felt that the young people of today need to honor their elders more.

Stats
Body: 35 (Eighty-Six Years of Bad Karma)
Speed: 25 (Broken-Down)
Mind: 80 (Mind Like A Whip)
Soul: 99 (The Once & Future Godwalker)

Skills
Body Skills: Cane-Whacking (Struggle) 20%, General Athletics 5%, Speaking Through the Throat 30%
Speed Skills: Cheats of the Hand 25%, Dodge 10%, Driving 15%, Initiative 20%
Mind Skills: Conceal 40%, Odds & Statistics (General Education) 30%, Cheats of the Mind 71%, Notice 65%, Sizing Up the Bet 50%
Soul Skills: Aura Sight 25%, Avatar: The Gambler 80%, Pity the Poor Old Man (Charm) 45%, Lying 65%

Notes:

Speaking Through the Throat is equivilent to Distracting Physique, and is related to the fact that Enns had his larynx removed and now either speaks through the stoma in his throat via esophageal talking, or the mechanical larynx he keeps on his person.

Cheats of the Hand and Cheats of the Mind are described under Fortuna’s write up in To Go (pg. 57-58)

Sizing Up the Bet works like Hairy Eyeball (Lawyers, Guns & Money, pg.84), except within the context of a gambling situation.

Madness Meter
Violence: 3 H 3 F
Unnatural: 7 H 1 F
Helplessness: 4 H 3 F
Isolation: 4 H 2 F
Self: 6 H 3 F

Possessions
While Enns claims to have lost everything, it’s not entirely true. He owns a small number of off-track betting parlors, and while it’s nowhere close to what Fortuna has developed, he could probably end up with $3 million dollars if he liquidated the various stocks, bonds, securities, and various investments and shares he gathered before his loss of godwalker status.

He also has two remaining lives left from those he won (the first he lost in 2000, during the broken hip/heart attack fiasco).