Cavaliers Challenge

[GoldMonk]

So, I'm reading through these guidelines, and I can't find anything, be it RAW or general consensus concerning how exactly the challenge works. To be specific, a friend of mine is playing a Blue Rose Cav, and he offered terms to a deaf person. The deaf man couldn't understand him, or understand that he is calling for surrender. The question then is, does my friend get the bonus?

[Yael]

For the Knight's Challenge?

It specifically states that if there's no shared language, the Knight can still effectively communicate through body language, tone, and a mix of oaths and challenges from languages you've heard or know. PHB2, Page 25

Otherwise I dunno~

[Faily]

Challenge (Ex): Once per day, a cavalier can challenge a foe to combat. As a swift action, the cavalier chooses one target within sight to challenge. The cavalier's melee attacks deal extra damage whenever the attacks are made against the target of his challenge. This extra damage is equal to the cavalier's level. The cavalier can use this ability once per day at 1st level, plus one additional time per day for every three levels beyond 1st, to a maximum of seven times per day at 19th level.

Challenging a foe requires much of the cavalier's concentration. The cavalier takes a –2 penalty to his Armor Class, except against attacks made by the target of his challenge.

The challenge remains in effect until the target is dead or unconscious or until the combat ends. Each cavalier's challenge also includes another effect which is listed in the section describing the cavalier's order.

So yeah... nothing official about it. However, it doesn't mention that the enemy needs to understand the challenge (such as not being able to Challenge opponents lacking Intelligence, like certain Undeads, Oozes, Constructs, etc), see the Cavalier or share the language.

So there is probably no need to share the language.

[weckar]

Considering that the challenge is rather one sided (the challengee gets no opportunity to accept or reject it) understanding should not matter in the slightest.

[Aldrakan]

The Blue Rose challenge bonus specifies it applies if the challenge is made to an intelligent creature who you've taken a standard action to offer terms of surrender to, so for the order-specific part of the challenge comprehension does matter. If the person was offered terms and surrendered, they would be obligated to honor that.
I think it depends on whether the cavalier knows the person is deaf.
If they don't, they've attempted to negotiate and the person has seemingly refused to engage with them, they get the order bonus.
If they do, they're deliberately communicating in a fashion they know won't be understood, and thus did not actually offer terms of surrender. They don't get the order bonus, and could even lose the ability to make the challenge for violating their edict (depending on the circumstances, e.g. whether not attacking promptly would endanger someone)