a.k.a. Gulliver Stony, Gulliver Vatticus (?), the Triangle Man (?), the Snake (?), Rony Stoiču, Digger, Remus Doppelman
INVESTIGATOR (Steel Hound) 4/GUNSLINGER 1
A lean and wiry human male of middling height and indeterminate age, maybe late thirties? Perhaps significantly younger? He has olive-colored, leathery, sun-wrinkled skin, and dark black hair, mustache, and soul patch. His eyes are dark. Many of his teeth have been replaced with metal versions, some of gold, some of rusted iron. The left side of his face is tattooed with a geometric spiral of tiny equilateral triangles. He also has a brand between his shoulder blades of a squiggly line. One’s eyes wants to slide off him instead of linger.
The words that echoed in his mind from the Prologue were “Hide yourself.” In the shared nightmare of Chapter 1, he was clutching a makeshift torch made from a table leg and a soiled diaper. He speaks Taldane.
In Chapter 2, he claimed the red leather armor (even though it was obviously not made for him) everything that matched it, and the rapier. He told the others his name was “Stony,” and when he saw the engraved wedding rings, he further claimed to be the “Gulliver” that Dora believed the G in the engraving stood for. He claimed the man’s ring, the lockpicks, the tools in the red leather case, the strange torch-like object, a rapier, a couple of daggers, and the two tomes they found in the room with the cells—one bound in red leather, detailing alchemical processes and formulae that is almost totally ruined, and the other a large, mangled tome, reeking of urine and covered in mold, clearly once a wizard’s spellbook and now just trash. He has also stashed a lockpick in a secret place, just in case. Gull believes he stole all of the belongings of the dead man on the table, including the wedding ring.
In Chapter 3, Gull retrieved the body of a fox that had been beaten to death with a hammer, to carry it with him until it could be buried, and he was quite emotional about it. He also displayed an affinity for mixing the materials from the red leather belt, and a knack for coming through in a pinch.
Upon being healed from unconsciousness on the second day of the adventure, Gull discovered that his belongings had been tampered with. The others confessed immediately, but the damage was done. Later, after Dora failed to access Ray’s memories using hypnosis in Chapter 6, the idea that someone may have stolen his memories—vital pieces of his own identity—infuriated Gull and made him vow revenge upon whoever did it to him.
In Chapter 8, Gull dreamed of a nightmare chase through a labyrinthine university, and himself in his “true form:” a plague-ridden, snot-covered, useless little boy wearing soiled diapers and tear-soaked orange scarves. He was also a shapeshifter in that dream, moving seamlessly from form to form, trying to outrun the nightmare. The dream also implied that he had an uncle and both of them suffered from an illness marked by leaking sores, and the Nightmare Man even claimed to know his “real name.” In that same chapter, he obtained a magical dagger whose blade can glow with light at will.
During the test of charity, Gull helped by finding means to preserve the survivors’ food and medicine to make it last longer. Later that day, he asked Winter to say a few words over his dead fox. Afterwards, he shared the details of his nightmare with the others, and realized that the university in his dream was actually the Sincomakti School of Sciences. Dora noted that the directive he felt in the dream to “chain the night” was possibly a reference to a 3,600-year-old book about dreams. Gulliver spoke privately to Dora about the Rag Man’s claims that she was Gull’s wife, and relayed the creature’s message to her. When he repeated the phrase “Down your mouth, down your throat, down to the ocean to die,” both of them realized it was a common nursery rhyme.
In Chapter 11, it was revealed that Gulliver’s “alchemical torch” is actually a weapon of unique and considerable power. In Chapter 12, Gulliver embarked on a solo scouting mission through the library. In Chapter 13, he decided to gather materials to build Bates a toy “alchemical torch.”
On the morning of the fifth day, Gull learned that he had contracted tumor infestation from the Hungry Flesh, but unlike Grip, he managed to fight it off—at least at first. The same morning he noticed that the fungus covering the rotting, piss-soaked wizard’s book he’d been carrying around had started to flake off and die.
In Chapter 15, the file recovered from the Briarstone Asylum records room that was attributed to “Gulliver Vatticus” described someone dramatically physically different from the man the party escaped their cells with—in fact, it described the man who died from the torture of the doppelganger in the cells below the day the party awoke. Count Lowls warned that Gulliver Vatticus’ gear should be locked away, separate from everyone else’s.
In the Act I Interlude, it was revealed that 22 years ago, when he was nine years old, Gull once stood, at midnight, bare feet were wet with sewage, in a steeply sloping alleyway, in the aftermath of something terrible. He backed away, unable to take his eyes off what had happened, and stumbled down a dead-end alley, ignoring the sewer grate he’d left open, and reached desperately for a slick, coiled cloth rope draped over a nearby wall. Then the Stranger appeared and took him by the hand, and after saying “You will do nicely,” she asked Gull what his name was.
In Chapter 16, Gull revealed that he believes himself to be Gulliver Vatticus, transplanted into the body of the mysterious individual who accompanied Grip when the half-orc threatened Airwynn in Pharast 4715.
Later that chapter, a patient record was recovered that seemed to correspond to Gull’s body. It said, among other details, that it was a Varisian human, 31 years old, called “The Triangle Man” or “The Snake.” The record also indicated that Lowls said he was the most recalcitrant individual one would ever encounter (that without sedation or psychotropic manipulation, he would “thwart your every best effort and make your life a living hell. Lying, to him, is like breathing”) and that Gull’s body was observed muttering “Hide yourself” in the Varisian tongue, changing pitch, timbre, dialect and tone with each utterance.
In Chapter 17, Gull chose clothes from the personal effects room at Briarstone Asylum that have places to hide things but are also a little bit peacocky, gloves that would protect him from having to touch skin, shoes, and a bowler hat.
In Chapter 18, Gull learned that he was fluent in the Orcish language, after hearing Grip and Denman in conversation.
In Chapter 20, Gull began training with Vaustin to improve his close-range firing skills. But after that, his tumor infestation worsened significantly, leaving him sickened and fatigued, with his sense of self starting to fade. Believing himself to have once been a doctor, he gathered Dr. Latchke’s surgeon’s tools and tried to treat himself… without much success.
In the same chapter, Airwynn's story indicated that Gull (or his body, at least?) had played a role in the murder of Dr. Trice, the former Administrator of Briarstone Asylum.
In Chapter 21, Gull despite (what he thought might be a resurgence of) his physician’s training, a medical kit, inspiration, shame, and an extract, succumbed further to his tumor infestation. The disease plagued him for many days.
In the same chapter, Gull reflected on what he knew about Gulliver Vatticus killing people and experimenting on them with psychotropic drugs, and wondered if he’d had anything to do with the treatment of Ulver Zandalus.
In Chapter 24, Gull was exposed to leprosy in a fight with two Boilborns.
In Chapter 27, Gull drank Dr. Elbourne’s potion of remove disease and was finally cured of his tumor infestation (it turned out that he had never succumbed to leprosy).
When the party returned to the chapel on the 1st day of Neth, he flayed the triangle tattoo off of his face.
In Chapter 28, he tried to get Tolman to perform a divorce proceeding for himself and Thema, but this instead led to a very strained conversation amongst the party.
During the battle for the chapel in Chapters 29 & 30, Gull focused on drawing as many enemies away from the survivors as possible, single-handedly facing off with dire rats and swarms for much of the melee. In the end, he helped Grip and Denman bring down Ratch Mamby (after threatening to eat the ratling).
In Chapter 31, Gull made good on his threat and did indeed cook and eat a portion of Ratch Mamby. In the same chapter, he revealed that he is fluent in the Orcish language.
In Chapter 35 (Part 1), when he was able to make out the words Zandalus was chanting, Gull learned that he was fluent in the Kellish language.
During the fight with the Tatterman in Chapter 35 (Part 2), Gull succumbed to the creature’s frightful presence and was driven into hiding while the rest of the party fought on.
In the Act I Epilogue, a 9-year-old Gull told the Stranger to call him “Rony,” after his dead uncle.
In the Act II Prologue, it was learned that the person formerly known as Gull, now called Rony, had been brought to Cassomir and the stewardship of Gulliver Vatticus on behalf of Count Lowls fifteen years previously. He spoke differently at the time, and believed Dr. Vatticus stole his self-hood from him, promising revenge as he cursed Vatticus. When compelled to answer the questions “who the hell do you think you are?” he called himself Rony Stoiču.
In Chapter 37, while taking care of Briarstone Asylum survivors on the Sellen Starling, Rony notably no longer resisted being touched, and displayed a stern bedside manner.
In Chapter 38, Rony reverted to his former way of speaking when confronted with the rattling knowledge that the Revenant of Dr. Trice was coming for them.
In Chapter 39, Cesadia Wrentz told Rony that he would kill people who asked questions about him or called him by a proper name. She said he changed his nicknames every week, usually to a new animal reference, and that he had been going by “Digger” the last time she saw him before the events of the campaign.
In Chapter 42, Rony (along with the rest of the party) heard the name of Xhamen-Dor and was seeded by it.
In Chapter 43, Rony realized that he’d had neither his false teeth nor tattoos in the memory from the beginning of Act II, and that his skin was sunburned as if he had been in a climate he was unfamiliar with.
In Chapter 45, Rony learned from Denman that cutting off his tattoos and giving up his family blade was akin to taking a shit on Varisian culture and erasing part of his story. Denman suggested that his blade was a clear sign that his family had been Sczarni.
In Chapter 46, Rony found what he believed to be his “go-bag” at Pier 19. Inside, they found multiple potions, a wand of invisibility, some money, a sealed waterproof document case containing keys and the deed to 23 Bridgeview Road in Thrushmoor (dated 5 Lamashan 4718, under the name Remus Doppelman), a small prototype alchemical torch, and a contentious letter to Grip. The letter contained reference to an “Uncle G,” who Rony believed might have been Gavrony Stoiču, possibly his namesake. It also posited many theories of deception and backstabbing amongst the party in the “before times,” and was signed “V” (clearly in Rony’s handwriting).
In Chapter 48, Rony donned Jane’s wooden armor.
Rony contracted demon fever from the bite of the Night Hag in Chapter 48, but was immediately healed when he put on her Heartstone in Chapter 50 (Part 1).
Rony developed the lesser madness of paranoia at the sight of the projected eldritch creature on Market Street in Chapter 50 (Part 3). He soon came to fixate elements of that paranoia onto Dabwick, believing them to be part of a “Grand Conspiracy” involving Dr. Vatticus. And in Chapter 51, Rony set aside some ingestible poison in a vial labeled “D.”
First Appearance: Prologue