Bedusk Pall Kovuss Agape

Provost Bedusk Pall Kovuss Agape (who referred to himself as a 'Jaghut Anap') was the elected ruler of the coastal village of 'Reach of Woe'. He lived in a tower situated along the seaside cliffs just outside the village. His Jaghut wife had lived in the tower with her husband, until he had buried her in the yard of the tower nine years before.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 16, US TPB p.543Toll the Hounds, Chapter 18, US TPB p.611 
The Jaghut was exceedingly tall with red-rimmed eyes and skin of a deeper shade of blue than even that of the natives of the Napan Isles in the Malazan Empire. He also had massive, silver-tipped tusks which protruded on both sides of his lower jaw and curled like a ram's horns on either side of his bony face.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 16, US TPB p.543Toll the Hounds, Chapter 18, US TPB p.608/611
==Bedusk Agape's tower==
The stone tower of Bedusk Agape was shaped into a roundish square with corners either weathered down by centuries and centuries of wind or deliberately softened with the same effect. Its recessed, shadowy entrance was topped by a moss-covered lintel.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 18, US TPB p.610/611 A spiral staircase led from the tower's uppermost chamber to a crypt in the tower's hollowed out root.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 16, US SFBC p.663 Originally built to be further from the cliff edge, the tower was now located almost at its very lip because of significant subsidence into the sea far below. The entire yard where Bedusk Agape's wife had been buried had only recently fallen into the sea.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 18, US TPB p.610/611 He was attended within the tower by a dozen reptilian-eyed servants.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 16, US SFBC p.663 
==In Toll the Hounds==
Master Quell led a Trygalle Trade Guild caravan intended to transport Mappo Runt from Darujhistan to the continent of Lether. But the caravan was forced to make an unscheduled and violent stop outside a tavern in Reach of Woe. When Bedusk Agape spotted the outsiders from the top of his tower, he sighed and sent his servants to awaken the three Tralka Vonan sleeping in their crypt below.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 16, US SFBC p.658-664 Under attack from the demon-like creatures, the Guild shareholders and Mappo barricaded themselves in the tavern, while the villagers locked themselves in the tavern's basement. Once the three Tralka Vonan were dead, the villagers emerged and revealed their home was under a four-year curse that turned their young girls into monsters. When Master Quell asked to speak to the local ruler, the bar keeper directed him to the Provost's tower.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 18, US SFBC p.740-743
Quell, Precious Thimble, and Mappo Runt travelled to the tower where they were surprised to learn the Provost was a Jaghut. Bedusk Agape admitted he was the source of the village's curse and he had no intention of removing it. He said he had buried his wife in the tower's yard, not because she was dead but because he had lost an argument with her.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 18, US TPB p.613 The villagers had felt sorry for the isolated Jaghut, attempting to ameliorate his grief and solitude by electing him Provost four years ago. Bedusk Agape had taken to socializing more with the villagers of 'Reach of Woe' – which proved to have been a bad idea, as he fell in love with one of the young maidens, who spurned his advances, sending him into a rage. Rather than bury the entire village, he cast a curse upon them transforming any childless women, now and in the future, into mindless, vampire-like 'demons' known as Tralka Vonan (aka 'Blood Feeders'). Twelve such creatures had been created in total, and nine had already perished hunting outsiders who had come to the village. Women who had already borne children were immune. To avoid the curse, the villagers sent all their young girls away, which did not bode well for the village's future.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 16, US TPB p.543Toll the Hounds, Chapter 18, US TPB p.612-613
Quell and Precious Thimble quickly realised that the caravan's three female shareholders (Precious, Faint, and Sweetest Sufferance) had only a day or so before they too fell victim to the curse. Quell agreed to let the female shareholders leave immediately until the severely damaged Guild carriage was sufficiently repaired to depart.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 18, US TPB p.612-613 
As it turned out, Bedusk Agape's wife had been freed from her "grave" when it collapsed into the sea. She resurfaced from the waves at the base of the cliff and made her way up to the village with deadly purposefulness, determined to wipe out all of the inhabitants of 'Reach of Woe' who were, one and all, wreckers, who preyed mercilessly on any passing ships that they could lure to destruction upon their coast. Quell saw the opportunity to negotiate an end to the curse which was almost upended when shareholders Amby and Jula Bole attacked the woman. Despite her terrifying magic, they brought her down and pinned her until Gruntle bargained for peace. The Jaghut agreed, but the Boles had to be threatened with Gruntle's swords. The Jaghut woman said Bedusk Agape had been lying when he said his death would not end the curse. When the Provost caught sight of his--not surprisingly vengeful--wife approaching his tower, he knew that he was "in trouble now".Toll the Hounds, Chapter 18, US TPB p.611/614/617-619
As might have been expected with such severe marital discord involving two powerful magic users, the fighting between Bedusk Agape and his wife escalated and soon they not only had destroyed the village and villagers of 'Reach of Woe', but they also were well on the way to destroying all the other villages on the rest of the island – and perhaps each other – as well.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 20, US TPB p.675/676
==Notes and references==
Category:Females
Category:High Mages
Category:Males
Category:Jaghut
Category:Rulers