Pact Kino (pronounced PACT KEY-no) is a tengu bone croupier and the owner of the Pale Orange, a sailing casino. Born in Avaris sometime around Y9830*, Kino gambled compulsively in the many taverns and gambling houses in the ports around the Kilche Sea.
Death
In his perpetual search for higher stakes, Kino ultimately become deeply in debt to a number of loan sharks. After a period on the run, he was finally captured by bounty hunters near Mokuan in Y9847*. The loan sharks, seeking to make an example of Kino, wanted him dead. In a desperate bid to escape, Kino made his ultimate bet. A simple game of dice would decide his fate. If he won, his debts would be cleared and he would receive a ship of his own to leave the port in peace. If he lost, he would willingly go to his death.
The loan sharks, unsurprisingly, did not play fair, and the game was played with a set of loaded dice. Kino lost and was hung in the middle of Mokuan.
Undeath
Seven days later, Kino awoke again, his desire to win stronger than the forces pulling his soul along in death. Still hanging from a noose, he cut himself loose with a hidden blade and hid aboard a ship bound for Avaris. Once there, he sought out the same unscrupulous lender who had led the effort to have him executed. With his business unfinished, Kino offered the same deal - wipe the slate and give him a ship, or he would allow himself to be destroyed again. This time, even against the same loaded dice, Kino won.
Kino named his newly acquired ship the Pale Orange, and over the decades transformed it into a mobile casino of his own. He now wanders between the ports of the Kilche Sea, enticing gamblers into high stakes games. Though the house almost always wins, Kino does not do it for the money but rather for the sheer joy of gambling, one of the few things that can still bring him pleasure in his undead state.