Stumpy

Stumpy, AKA Bernard Wilfred Gainsville, was a man of a uniquely woeful fate. It is not clear precisely what led this obscure English clerk of vague and distant aristocratic origins to join Madam Czarna's coven, or for that matter what led her to accept him; though one guess would be that he simply wanted a more exciting life, and was willing to do anything to get it. If so then in a way he had succeeded. After Czarna's death, Bernard passed into the control of Viktor Vaughn and was duly instructed to get out. Falling in with the largest group of refugees, he settled in Paris, but lacking any useful skills beyond bookkeeping in English he soon became a petty thief, languishing in misery and poverty (partly because he insisted on spending all the money he could steal on hobbies such as chemistry, literature and summoning).

When Viktor - now Gregor Kovacs - arrived to Paris and revived the local part of the coven as his personal spy network, Bernard was overjoyed to help out, but found his general incompetence and newly acquried kleptomania did not serve him well, especially in combination. He had the poor foresight of trying to pick Quadruple Pierre's pocket, thus earning his name when the distinguished gentleman in question tore his hand off. Stumpy continued to do his best to serve Gregor after that, repeatedly putting himself in harm's way and volunteering to spy on Pierre's Asian cartel. In the ultimate twist, his death had very little to do with Pierre, as instead he was sent to spy on the Montreuil Manouches on the day of Gregor's heist at the Musee Cluny - and witnessed Maius destroying the gypsies as disgraceful failures. Fleeing to warn Gregor of this horrible new danger, he briefly found Karl and his group, but then attempted to infiltrate the Black Moon Cult compound where his boss was housed and was captured, tortured and subsequently left for the dead when Gregor and his allies made their hurried escape, having never actually managed to pass on his message. By then it was redundant, as was he.