The first impression most folk have of Roupert is that he looks like he just emerged from a sewer. More often than not, this assumption is the truth, for the simple reason that the sewers are where Roupert spends the majority of his time, as a ratcatcher.
Roupert was born ugly. Gaedren Lamm once said the halfling would make a serviceable gargoyle, if only he would sit still long enough. Tall and lanky for a halfling, he is slightly bowlegged and thin to the point of being gaunt. His pallid complexion is the sickly hue of pale, subterranean mushrooms, except where the florid blotches of his acne or pockmarked skin shows where the ravages of a childhood bout of the pox cruelly left it's mark. Roupert's lank hair is black as coal, dirty, and stinks of a cesspit on most occasions. As if the gods had not smacked him about enough with the ugly stick, he is "blessed" with a lazy right eye. His narrow, prominent, slightly upturned nose calls to mind the prey he so obsessively hunts in the bowels of Korvosa. If it were not for a charming smile, filled with perfectly even, pearl-white teeth, Roupert could justifiably be called hideous. Fortunately for him, the one saving grace of his visage is redeeming enough that folk merely choose to not look upon him for too long, rather than chase him away with torches.
History:
Spoiler:
Roupert was born the bastard son of a halfling maid of loose morals in the service to a wealthy family of Chelish descent in the Heights. Rumor has it that his father was a diseased halfling sailor with less than discriminating taste in women. Others jest that his sire was obviously one of the loathsome imps that haunt Korvosa's skyline. Whatever the case may be, shortly after his birth, Roupert's mother abandoned him as a toddler in the dockside slums along the Jeggare River, fearful that she would lose her position in the household of her mistress if the hideous child she kept locked in the attic ever came to light.
Not even old enough to speak, left to his own devices among the brooding warehouses, Roupert went feral. He somehow survived, eating garbage left behind from the stevedores lunches and dining on the plump rats that lurked below the docks when he was quick enough to catch them. It was not long before Gaedren Lamm caught the pitiful creature filching from his pantry one night. Capturing the young halfling in a cage, Lamm tamed Roupert through a routine that was more often stick than carrot, eventually earning his trust through generous rewards of food when the rat-boy followed his commands. Never having known anything remotely resembling kindness, Roupert soon saw the manipulative f&#an Lamm as his benefactor. He received food every day if he stole for the man, the beatings were infrequent and tolerable, and he had a nice warm place to sleep in abandoned kennel Lamm provided for him.
As he matured, Roupert's natural inquisitiveness and intelligence began to manifest. His teacher was the city of Korvosa itself, his books the broadsheets and shipping manifests he happened upon. At first Lamm encouraged his streetwise education, assuming that combined with Roupert's natural cunning, it would make him a better pawn for his own schemes. Eventually the halfling taught himself to read and write in both Common and his native tongue by interacting with the sailors moored on the Jeggare. He even learned how to count his sums and numbers. This was enough for Lamm. It was concern enough that the runt was brilliant with a crossbow. It would be more than bad for business if he ever became smart enough to use it on the man who bullied him. Resorting to his favorite instructional technique, a brutal beating, he made it clear to Roupert in no uncertain terms that no one would be 'putting on airs' that they were craftier than he. Roupert barely survived this final beating, and decided enough was enough. He left the only "parent" he ever knew in the dead of night, absconding with the great dane pup that now shared his filthy kennel.
His knowledge of the docks and an indomitable will to live carried him to adulthood, and in time he took on the vocation of rat-catcher, using this job to eke out a meager living among the folk of the docks. Over time, his uncanny ability to find specific people among the teeming throngs of Korvosa gained some notoriety, and before long he was often taking work as a guide or headhunter for a little extra coin. Although Roupert has made many contacts in his vocation, he remains distrustful of folk as a rule, preferring only the loyal company of his massive brindled hound, Henley.
