The Dealer

Ezra Shelby was born an unexpected wild card, dealt into the hand of his gambler daddy Jubal. Though Ezra’s God-fear­ing mama was quickly discarded, as Jubal was a sorry, rambling no-count for the most part, he loved his boy like a precious ace. Just as Jubal’s daddy had done for him, he showed Ezra how to cheat the odds by hiding sleeve cards and stealing ladies’ hearts just long enough to grab the winnings and skip town. Life is a draw from the deck, Jubal always told Ezra, so make sure you’re the dealer.
Holding all the cards, Jubal taught, was the only way to beat a devil let loose on the Shelby clan years ago. According to family legend, Jubal’s daddy once cheated the son of an Appala­chian witch out of his last cent in a poker game, and broke the boy’s heart so bad it killed him. For the wrong done her kin, the witch hexed all the Shelby menfolk, fatally cursing them unless they dealt misfortunes to in­nocent strangers. Jubal, his daddy, and Ezra all scoffed at first, but eventually suffered enough harrowing bad luck to make them believers. From then on, the Shelby boys would be hated for their thievery, grifting and violence—whatever sins they believed necessary to satisfy the curse.
Jubal and his daddy eventually ran out of aces and met their fates, but Ezra had cunning and skills like they never did. His foxiness and talent eventually carried him to a high-stakes poker game in a high-falutin’ part of Emerald City. After the last hand was dealt, Ezra (dishonestly) claimed the entire pot, including a sizable marker from a big-shot businessman who wanted to settle his debt with “store credit.”
When Ezra learned the credit would be good with the criminal super-scientists known as Ghostworks, he saw an opportunity. Being just a small-time crook barely offered enough bad deeds to avoid his curse, but being a costumed supervillain, he reckoned, would allow him to hand out so much misfortune he’d finally be able to relax some and enjoy the ill-gotten gains. With that in mind, Ezra cashed in his marker and outfitted himself as “The Dealer,” spreading bad luck around just like his daddy always said he should.

Physical Description

Special abilities

The Dealer wields a number of playing card-themed gadgets acquired from Ghostworks. These include body armor, flying platforms, high explosive grenades, razor-sharp throwing blades, flash grenades, taser darts, black­jacks, and pokers. The Dealer is skilled in their use, as well as being an expert hand-to-hand fighter, gambler, and thief. He is also devilishly charming and preternaturally lucky, and adept at using both talents to evade trouble.

Mental characteristics

Intellectual Characteristics

The Dealer believes he’s been dealt a very bad hand through no fault of his, and in his mind the family curse justifies his misdeeds. If he has to do wrong to go on living, the Dealer reasons he might as well steal and enjoy spending the loot while can. Reflecting his blameless self-image, he is all Southern charm and manners unless severely provoked, limiting his misfortune-spreading to robbery whenever he can. Though he masks it, the Dealer truly believes he is cursed by black magic (or coincidence and paranoia), and when enough misfortunes convince him he’s fallen behind on dealing bad luck to others, his terror renders him desper­ate and vicious—capable of murder, even—until he feels safe once more.

Social

Contacts & Relations

The Dealer employs a gang of highly skilled merce­nary soldiers known as the Player’s Club, outfitted and equipped with gadgets similar to his own. Otherwise he usually operates on his own, but he has considered the possibility that certain allies could potentially, if not “shield” him from his own misfortune, take on some of the burden of his family curse, were they to become as­sociated with him.