Lartup, merchant of murder

Lartup is a tengku vulture and a freelance assassin primarily working for fairly low end criminal cartels. He usually robs and eats the victims of his contract killings.

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Like nearly all tengku vultures he has a supernaturally fast rate of natural healing and his is frequent travel and physically active lifestyle has made him pretty fast and strong for a tengku, but he is fairly wiry and doesn't look as strong as he is.   He does have frequent achy joints and internal pains from his various budding cancers that fight with his natural rengeration but he doesn't overtly look sick yet. He is in his forties but he looks like a tengku in his twenties, a sickly nervous twenty-something tengku.

Special abilities

He has supernatural fast healing and is immune to most poisons, allowing him to eat the flesh of his poisoned victims with no ill effects.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Lartup was once just another young aspiring tengku merchant, and like more than a few tengku merchants, he did less well than he liked. His main problem was he started with very little capital so he was basically a junk peddler, and he often went hungry.   Out of desperation he turned to eating mortal flesh to survive and ultimately became addicted to it, becoming a "vulture". Originally, he fed on those already dead, but Once becoming a full-time cannibal, he became a robber and murdered people for their meat and their possessions.   Now he became a slightly better merchant because he had more things to sell, though since he was dealing with stolen goods, his clients were mostly disreputable sorts willing to accept questionable goods without asking questions.   Through his slowly growing web of questionable contacts, he picked up a knowledge of poisons and gradually transitioned from a robber of random people into becoming a killer for hire.

Sexuality

His unhealthy appearance does not attract female tengkus. Lartup has considered forcing himself on females twice, but the voices is in head become even more conflicted than usual and he ended up eating them instead.   Now Lartup generally tries to avoid tengku in general.

Education

His parents were not especially attentitive but they taught him the basics of commerce and language.   Most of his other skills he learned the hard way from the school of hardknocks or from books he bought or stole. He had a few criminal mentors here and there.

Employment

Partially because of preference and partially due to his schizophrenia fueled paranoia, Lartup works a series of contract jobs rather than seek a full time position in some criminal cartel.   When hard up for coins, he will simply poison and rob people though this is fairly rare.

Failures & Embarrassments

A great many tengku vultures are dealing with some form of madness. He has voices in his head frequently telling him if he wasn't such a bad businessman he wouldn't be a filthy corpse eating vulture.

Mental Trauma

A great many tengku vultures are dealing with some form of madness. He has voices in his head frequently telling him if he wasn't such a bad businessman he wouldn't be a filthy corpse eating vulture.

Morality & Philosophy

Lartup has no moral conflicts, only regrets for tactical mistakes.   Any regrets of his past vile actions are because he resents that he was forced by circumstance to do it. He regrets his past weakness and incompetance. He does not regret any mortal failures, past or present.

Social

Mannerisms

Lartup has twitchy eyes and makes a lot of jerking movements giving him an air of paranoia (which is accurate).   He can surprise his crazy ticks for a short time if he is running a con of some sort.

Speech

All tengku are gifted mimics and can take on almost voice they want. Lartup is more gifted than most, but sometimes his mental instability gets the better of him and he will change his voice mid conversation without realizing it.   When he argues with the voices in his head, he is likely to make faces or mutter but he has thus far managed to avoid having verbal arguments with himself.
This is an extension of my Spooktober 2023 entry for "Harvest"
Alignment
Chaotic Evil
Species
Conditions
Year of Birth
1792 CE 46 Years old
Circumstances of Birth
Maylar's Zodiac Year, Zarthus' Zodiac Month
Children
Sex
male
Eyes
brown eyes, usually bloodshot
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
black feathers, somewhat prone to molting
Known Languages
Common, Elven, Draconic, Dwarven, the tengku's lost language


Cover image: tengku #8 by Zeta Gardner
Character Portrait image: tengku #8 by Zeta Gardner

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