Chaur

Chaur was a huge, well-muscled young man with a pocked and ugly, monstrous face and skin the colour of stained rawhide.The Bonehunters, Chapter 14, UK MMPB p.674/676Toll the Hounds, Chapter 17, US SFBC p.705 He was a simpleton with the mind of a child, although the sight of blood had never bothered him.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 3, US SFBC p.106The Bonehunters, Chapter 12, UK MMPB p.607 Chaur was also a mute, but capable of making various sounds, including laughter.The Bonehunters, Chapter 19, UK MMPB p.912/914/915 He was usually good natured and fiercely loyal. Chaur was also stubborn.The Bonehunters, Chapter 16, UK MMPB p.782 
Chaur lived in a tiny hamlet at a crossroads of the Tapur Road and a trail leading into the Path'apur Mountains in Seven Cities. About three days' trek north was the city of Ahol Tapur. The blacksmith of the settlement was Barathol Mekhar who seemed to be Chaur's de facto guardian.The Bonehunters, Chapter 12
==In The Bonehunters==
The small travelling party of Cutter, Scillara, Heboric, Felisin Younger, and Greyfrog was ambushed by the Crippled God's T'lan Imass servants, The Unbound, near the hamlet. Heboric and Greyfrog were killed, Felisin was taken, and the others were wounded. While the survivors were tended to, Chaur, Fenar, and Urdan were tasked by Hayrith with stripping and butchering the dead horses left in their wake. Chaur was briefly stopped from dealing with one horse by Barathol as the blacksmith wanted to look at tracks surrounding it, which made Chaur fidget and whine. When told he could continue, Chaur smiled brightly.The Bonehunters, Chapter 12, UK MMPB p.605-608
The pregnant Scillara gave birth and sometime later, she and Cutter prepared to leave. Barathol observed Chaur holding the baby girl, making faces and cooing sounds to the little one. When L'oric took the child away from him, Chaur sat there crying. Barathol saw that L'oric had not even noticed Chaur crying, and sarcastically asked the High Mage, "A question... how old do they have to get before you lose all sympathy for them?" Then the blacksmith diverted Chaur by telling him that he would need his help digging up a body, which at least brought a half-smile to the simpleton's face as he liked shoveling. They disinterred Heboric's body and readied it for Cutter and Scillara to take with them. The task brought a smile back to Chaur's face.The Bonehunters, Chapter 14, UK MMPB p.673/674/676-679
Barathol chose to leave with Cutter and Scillara, who were taking Heboric's body to its final resting place on Otataral Island. Chaur, carrying a canvas bundle, followed after his friend and caught up with them soon after they had left. The blacksmith let him stay with the group, knowing that Chaur was too stubborn to return. The smith attached Chaur's travelling pack to the mule and gave him his boots as Chaur was barefoot, and unlike the rest of them, would have to walk for the time being. Scillara suggested that she would make some sandals out of Bhederin hide for Chaur that evening. Chaur seemed to be unfamiliar with wearing footwear and struggled to get the boots on.The Bonehunters, Chapter 16, UK MMPB p.782/783
During a stop close to the coast, Chaur stroked Scillara's hair and watched with fascination as she exhaled smoke (from smoking Rustleaf). Later that morning, never having heard the ocean before, Chaur was circling the camp with excitement, wondering about the unusual sounds he could hear. When he finally saw the sea, he stood routed to the spot for quite some time, smiling, with tears streaming down his face. He was making strange mewling sounds, almost as if he was singing.The Bonehunters, Chapter 19, UK MMPB p.910-912
They came to a village on the coast, empty and depopulated by the Bluetongue Plague, where Cutter found a carrack, Sanal's Grief. They loaded it with their supplies and when they were under sail, Chaur held onto the steering oar and laughed with joy whenever the bow pitched down and there was spray. The innocence of his joy gave much needed comfort to his shipmates.The Bonehunters, Chapter 19, UK MMPB p.914/915
Their journey across the Otataral Sea was interrupted by the appearance of a dozen suns plummeting from the sky. A hail of fiery debris destroyed their carrack, and Chaur grasped Heboric's wrapped corpse as it disappeared into the depths. He became entangled by the cloth and would have drowned if Barathol had not dived after him and found him by the sudden jade glow of Heboric's body. While Scillara and Cutter were spotted and carried to a nearby ship by Spite in her Soletaken Eleint form, Barathol swam to the ship with Chaur in his arms. Aboard ship, he held Chaur's limp form in his arms and began angrily issuing Chaur orders. The others were convinced he lost his mind until Chaur coughed up a lungful of water and regained consciousness. Barathol assured the bawling young man he was not angry, before he began weeping himself.The Bonehunters, Chapter 20, US SFBC p.782-791
==In Toll the Hounds==
After a miserable, much-delayed trip that took two whole seasons,Toll the Hounds, Chapter 7, US SFBC p.259 Spite's ship brought Chaur, Barathol, Cutter, and Scillara to Darujhistan (along with Mappo Runt, Iskaral Pust, and Mogora). As the group split up and went their separate ways, Barathol described Chaur as "a gift I do not deserve."
While Cutter hastened to meet his friends at the Phoenix Inn, Chaur followed Barathol and Scillara on their exploration of the city. The trio bumped into Picker, Blend, and Antsy at a restaurant. The retired Bridgeburners noted Barathol's resemblance to their former comrade, Kalam Mekhar, and feared he was a Claw sent to kill them. A drinking contest defused the matter.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 5, US SFBC p.175-182 The encounter ended back at K'rul's Bar where all but Chaur spent the evening sharing beds.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 7, US SFBC p.274-275 The three continued to stay as residents in the bar's guest rooms.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 11, US SFBC p.445-446
Barathol decided to set roots in the city and establish himself as a blacksmith. He was unable to meet the Guild of Blacksmiths' requirements, but this did not stop him from opening his own shop.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 7, US SFBC p.276Toll the Hounds, Chapter 9, US SFBC p.342-346 Chaur was helping to clean and set up the smithy when a gang of Guild toughs arrived to wreck the shop and assault its owners. Barathol drove them off by brandishing an inert cusser given to him by the Bridgeburners.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 11, US SFBC p.441-443
Barathol and Chaur returned to K'rul's Bar to find it under attack by the Assassins' Guild. Chaur rushed inside to barrel over a half-dozen assassins on the verge of killing Blend. Using only his fists, he broke necks, bloodied faces, and threw bodies around. Barathol followed, helping Picker and Antsy end the battle. But many, including Mallet and Bluepearl, were dead. Chaur's forearms were bleeding with dagger wounds and he wet himself in the melee. Barathol hugged the weeping man tightly both to calm him and to express his own relief.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 11, US SFBC p.454-457
The Guild of Blacksmiths retaliated and had Barathol and Chaur arrested by the City Watch for using the incorrect drainage pipes for waste disposal.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 17, US TPB p.565/567 Misunderstanding their situation, Chaur attacked the guards forcing Barathol to take them on the run. When the guards caught up to them, Barathol battled them alone, telling Chaur to run and hide on Spite's ship.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 17, US SFBC p.705-706 Spite quickly deduced why the crying Chaur had returned and helped him get cleaned up. Examining the simple man, she determined a practitioner of High Denul could reorganise the broken pathways in his brain, but the treatment would likely eliminate his state of gentle happiness. Eventually she was forced to leave him alone while she went into the city to conduct her business.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 19, US SFBC p.785 Barathol was jailed at the Warden Barracks and given a six-month sentence.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 19, US SFBC p.782
On the last night of the Gedderone Fête, powerful forces converged on Darujhistan. Chaur left Spite's ship, fetched Barathol's large war-axe, and went looking for the smith. He found Barathol caught in the middle of a fight between the Hound of Light, Pallid, and the Hound of Shadow, Baran, which had demolished much of the gaol Barathol was held in. Seeing his friend about to be killed by Pallid, Chaur hurtled into the dog. Picking himself up again, he tossed the axe to Barathol then faced an enraged Pallid armed just with a stone. Although the stone struck the beast's nose, the Hound's momentum slammed it into Chaur and flung him against a wall with a sickening crunch. Chaur's action saved Barathol as the two Hounds carried their fight off to another part of town, but Chaur was left unconscious and dying from a cracked skull. 
Barathol put Chaur's body in an ox-cart and enlisted Antsy to help him find a healer.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 23, US SFBC p.917-920 When High Alchemist Baruk turned them away because he was too busy with the night's greater events, Antsy suggested they take Chaur to the Finnest House. Whilst unconscious, Chaur's brain for a brief time made new connections, suggesting an intelligence Chaur had not possessed in his life. After a brief haggle with Raest, the House's guardian allowed them to place Chaur inside the hallway which Antsy explained would keep his body in stasis, allowing them time to find a healer.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 21, UK HB p.769Toll the Hounds, Chapter 23, UK HB p.841-843, 849-853
== In Orb Sceptre Throne ==
Chaur was retrieved from the Azath House by Rallick Nom and, according to Raest, he left physically hale and mentally as he came in.Orb Sceptre Throne, Chapter 21, UK lg. PB p.820/821 He was reunited with Barathol Mekhar and went on to Barathol's new villa (likely curtesy of Kruppe) with him, little Chaur and Scillara.Orb Sceptre Throne, Epilogue, UK lg. PB p.837/838
==Notes and references==
Category:Males
Category:Seven Cities natives