Deadsmell

Corporal Deadsmell was a mage in Sergeant Balm's 9th squad of Medium infantry in the 8th Legion of the Malaz 14th Army. He was the squad's healer, and had access to High Denul. He had a broad chest, bearded chin, and mostly hairless brows.

Like many other Malazan soldiers, his name had been bestowed by Master Sergeant Braven Tooth. His name likely came from his musty odor or his ability to sniff out the dead. Some of his fellow soldiers thought him a necromancer.

In House of Chains

Deadsmell was part of Adjunct Tavore Paran's punitive expedition against the Army of the Apocalypse. On the road from Aren to Raraku, his squad had done their share of the fighting, and their names were well known amongst the other soldiers in the legion.

In The Bonehunters

After the Battle of Raraku, Leoman led the Army of the Apocalypse westward to Y'Ghatan and the 14th Army followed. Upon reaching the outskirts of the city, Deadsmell, Throatslitter, and Widdershins settled in for a game of Troughs. Sergeant Balm, pessimistic of their chances, went off to create his death-mask.

In the hours before the Last Siege of Y'Ghatan, Balm engaged Moak in a game of Troughs, but soon became overwhelmed by "the Confusion". He knocked over the board, unclear who he was and what he was doing. Deadsmell led his sergeant to safety from an angry Moak while congratulating Balm on a clever ruse for ending a losing game. Balm could not respond because he no longer understood what language Deadsmell was speaking.

Adjunct Tavore launched the attack on Y'Ghatan by sending the army's sappers to breach the city's wall under the cover of night. First into the city were the Malazan marines, followed quickly by the heavy and medium infantry. Once inside the city, the Malazans immediately came under attack from swordsmen on the ground and archers in the buildings above them.

Balm's squad pushed forward well beyond the other Malazan troops and took cover in a building filled with bolts of silk. While Galt and Lobe watched the street from the windows, Deadsmell, Throatslitter, and Widdershins went to investigate a noise upstairs. The three soldiers discovered the walls of the entire building had been filled with olive oil. Realising what Leoman meant to do, Balm's squad attempted to report their findings to Fist Keneb. But it was too late. When enough Malazans were engaged in street fighting inside the city, Leoman sprung his trap. The city's olive oil-soaked buildings were set alight and the streets quickly became an inferno.

Fleeing from the flames, they soon joined a mixed group of survivors from Hellian's, Fiddler's, Cord's, and Gesler's squads, who made their way to the Temple of the Queen of Dreams. Deadsmell was among the small group of soldiers who survived Y'Ghatan by tunneling their way out from under the city. They spent three days crawling on their hands and knees through the dark led by Bottle and his rat. During the ordeal, Deadsmell and a panicking Balm quarreled over Balm's verbal abuse of a refugee child. The corporal vowed, "if I was that child ahead of you, I'd shit right in your face."

Unaware that any had survived, the 14th Army made haste for the Kokakal Sea to embark on Admiral Nok's ships and escape the Bluetongue Plague ravaging Seven Cities. On the long trek following the army across the desert, Deadsmell and Lutes did their best to tend to the survivors. While Deadsmell treated Masan Gilani after Dejim Nebrahl's attack, Bottle realised the mage was a necromancer.

After the survivors caught up to the 14th Army, Gesler and Stormy were given back command of the Silanda. They requested that Balm and Fiddler's squads serve as their crew for the return voyage to Quon Tali. Deadsmell was later among the soldiers on the Silanda who taunted the passing Jakatakan Fleet by waving and holding up one of the ship's animated Tiste Andii heads.

The Adunct's fleet travelled to Malaz City where Empress Laseen awaited Tavore in Mock's Hold. The Silanda joined Tavore's flagship, the Froth Wolf, to moor at the city pier while the rest of the fleet remained anchored in the harbour. The entire city seethed with magically induced anger against the 14th Army and the soldiers of the Silanda prepared to defend their ship from the mob after the Adjunct was escorted away. During the attack, Deadsmell helped Shortnose and the other wounded. Eventually, he had to take a break as he was "all used up." Later, when the unconscious Adjunct was brought before him, he threw up his hands claiming, "Hoods breath! She doesn't even need me. Damned Otataral—I never could get that, what it does..."

In Reaper's Gale

Adjunct Tavore clashed with Empress Laseen at Malaz City and took the Bonehunters rogue, following the Tiste Edur fleet that had ravaged Sepik back to Lether to invade the Letherii Empire. Gesler was forced to give up control of the Silanda during this time and Deadsmell was the only one willing to take up the bone whistle that commanded the haunted vessel. Balm and Cord's squads took the Silanda to the island of Second Maiden Fort off the coast of Lether to establish a headquarters and resupply base for the Adjunct. They found the island on the verge of being destroyed under a mountain of ice released by the collapse of Gothos' ancient Omtose Phellack ritual, but Sinn was able to hold the ice back with her magic until its force was spent. The island's self-declared ruler, Brullyg, gratefully welcomed the Malazans as royal guests until they placed him under house arrest and secretly took control of the island.

Balm's squad kept Brullyg under guard and monitored the island from its only town, as Cord's squad patrolled the island's coast and interior while awaiting Tavore's arrival. Deadsmell, Balm, and Throatslitter spent their days in Harridict Tavern observing the clientele. The three were free to speak their foreign Malazan tongue and argued frequently. When Balm mooned over fellow bar patron, Shurq Elalle, Deadsmell mocked him for lusting after an obviously dead woman. Throatslitter took this as further proof that Deadsmell was secretly a necromancer. The mage continued to ridicule an increasingly angry Balm, provoking Throatslitter into one of his embarrassing cackles of laughter.

Meanwhile Tavore sent Fist Keneb's marines to the mainland, spreading them in isolated pairs of squads across thirty leagues of coast and burning their transport vessels behind them. The marines moved forward into the Letherii countryside towards Letheras, the capital, with orders to kill Edur by night and stir the occupied Letherii into rebellion. Each squad had a mage responsible for hiding their presence and confusing their enemies.

After Adjunct Tavore arrived with the rest of the Malazan fleet, she hired Shurq Elalle to guide them to the mouth of the Lether River leading to Letheras. The undead pirate was distinctly uncomfortable around Deadsmell, sensing she held no secrets from him. When Yan Tovis and Yedan Derryg came to Second Maiden Fort to stake their claim to the island, Deadsmell immediately recognised the Shake's Tiste Andii ancestry from their titles and physical appearance. His knowledge of secrets that even the Shake did not know about themselves rattled Yan Tovis.

Balm and Cord's squads made the journey to Letheras on the Silanda. The Adjunct's fleet made landfall near Letheras in time to see a massive release of enemy sorcery near Fist Keneb's reported position. Believing the marines had been wiped out, Tavore's forces defeated the city's Imperial Brigade. Balm's squad, along with Masan Gilani, secured horses to chase down fleeing Letherii soldiers before continuing further inland towards the city. When they arrived at the field where Beak had saved Keneb's marines, they were mystified to find no bodies. Deadsmell reported that whatever had happened there had forever drained the entire area of magic. Approaching the city's western gate, they found it in control of Keneb's troops. By this time, "the Confusion" had come upon Balm and he was incapable of communicating with anyone. Deadsmell assured Keneb the sergeant would snap out of it soon, as Masan Gilani raced back to fetch reinforcements from Tavore. Soon the City Garrison surrendered and the city fell.

In Toll the Hounds

Nimander Golit remembered Deadsmell from their time aboard the Adjunct's flagship. The corporal had often come down into the hold at night bearing a jug of rum to talk to him and his group of Tiste Andii. At first, Nimander and the others had resented the intrusion, but the rum had pulled down their internal defences and loosened their tongues, drawing out tales of their childhoods. On one of these evenings, Nimander recalled Deadsmell saying that "rage in battle was said to be a gift of the gods."

In Dust of Dreams

He had necromantic skills, acquired in his youth in the village of Gethran prior to his military service. He was a user of Hood's Warren.

In The Crippled God

After the apparent death of Hood, Deadsmell gained access to Omtose Phellack, an elder Warren, which allowed him to heal Adjunct Tavore Paran after the Bonehunters' disastrous encounter with the K'Chain Nah'ruk. Other healers could not help her because of the presence of her otataral sword, but Deadsmell was able to use his newly accessible Warren. In doing so, he gained disturbing insight into the Adjunct.

History

Growing up in Gethran, the boy who would become known as Deadsmell was described as grubby, "half-wild", and hounded by his four older sisters. He often took refuge with Old Scez, the village dresser of the dead, essentially becoming his apprentice. Scez might have been the boy's uncle or another of his mother's lovers from the period before his father had come back lame from the Quon Talian civil war. His father never talked of his wartime experiences and instead drank himself stupid.

When Deadsmell was seventeen, Scez was murdered by a jealous husband and the boy took over his duties. Scez's killer sickened and died a week later. By the age of nineteen, he had settled in Scez's hand-built stone house just outside the village cemetery. When the local priest of Fener, Hester Vill, suffered a stroke, it was Deadsmell who attended him in his final hours. Waiting for Fener to come and take the priest, the boy was surprised to witness not the Boar of War, but the Lord of the Slain, Hood, coming for the dead man. Sensing Hood's grief for the dead, Deadsmell spoke with him and was surprised to learn the other gods did not care about their followers. Hood then declared that Deadsmell could be one of "his own" and invited him into a game. Deadsmell would do all he could to prevent lives from falling into Hood's hands while spitting in the Lord of Death's face, knowing all the while that Hood would always win in the end. In return, Hood would give him the respect due a mortal's courage and stubborn refusal. In the contest, Deadsmell would find undeniable truths, unwavering regard of life's sorrows, the sigh of acceptance, and the gift of "the end of fear". It was thus that the young man began his service to the God of Death, "the only damned god he respected."

Deadsmell buried the priest in the portion of the village's cemetery reserved exclusively for the highborn. He knew they would howl, but he no longer cared. Then he made his way to Li Heng to be first in line at the Malazan Military recruiting office.

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