Overheard in Crow’s Foot
Hello Blades fans! I’m adding a section to the write-up for each district called “Overheard in [District]” — which will be a collection of sound bites one might hear while walking around (or skulking in) that area. A passing comment, a whispered exchange, the cries of a vendor, etc. I started writing them myself and then I thought, wait! This is a great thing for the community to be involved in.
So, please share your overheard snippets! Keep them short (a single person speaking a line or two, or a couple people talking back and forth with a line from each). Feel free to include rumors or events that have occurred in your home games of Blades. Be colorful and specific. Make up slang as needed. References to Friends and Contacts from the sheets are a bonus. 🙂
This post will collect material for the Crow’s Foot district. I’ll make new posts for the other districts.
“Lyssa did it with her own hands, they say. Eye to eye, cold as can be.”
“If she stuck her own boss she’s a dirty scuttler, (spits)… but not one I’ll cross any time soon.”
“I heard Barker used to be a sergeant in the Imperial Cavalry… Or maybe he just killed one and took his saber.”
“Ye hear mates? Someone broke into Mylera’s own room, stole her best paintings and knicked ‘er knickers. Wilson’s cousin saw the whole thing.”
Yeah my players are weird…
Overheard in whispers in one of the Red Sashes’ high-end drug dens:
“Yeh, ya heard of it? Mohkolo, the Milk o’ human kindnesse? Y’take manatee milk, boil it pure, then cut it with a vesch of fractionated spirit essence, the best mem’ries of former life… damm’t hard to get, y’ken, and yields merely a thimble of the stuff – and y’got to mekkit zactly right – but if y’got some, even a dram – the highest high that money could ever buy… and kennit – it’s addictive – so y’could make some coin AND have a hold on some of the wealthiest nobs of Duskwall. Yeeehhhhhh… just thinkit on that for a while… I see y’turnin’ it over and over… I know where to get some.”
“DAY OLD FISH!!! GETCHA DAY OLD FISH!!! Just as good as if it came fresh off the boat! GETCHA DAY OLD FISH!”
“Nice stall ye’ got there, would be a shame if anything happen to it”
-Constable Darwin
Looking for a night of pleasure? Nyryx is the best. She lives down by the docks. I’ll introduce ya.
“Ya see, there are two types in this world. Me an’ doffing idiots.”
“So I hand the mug a bullet, and I says ‘if you don’t have my money by next week, the next one is going to come a lot faster.'”
(Paraphrase from an actual conversation I overheard outside a bar in Chicago. I later heard paraphrased on the show Justified)
“Hey Terry, I heard you punched a guy out of his pants!”
“Yeah, they were kinda loose, I guess. Knocked him out of his boots too. Then his pregnant wife came at me. What are you supposed to do about that?”
(Actual conversation I had with my pal “Scary” Terry) 
“How do you think this is going to go down? Is this how you want to be remembered here?”
‘I’m as dirty as a Rail Jack’s grundies… Lets have a butcher’s at Singer and see if we can’t have a quick lemon.’ Â – Orlence the Hound after a particularly risky Corn.
“you going down to the fights tonight?”
“You insane? I lost 30 silver last time I did.”
“I told you not to bet against Marlene once she’s got a few drinks in her!”
“There goes another crow. Tonight’s gonna be a bloody one and make no mistake.”
“Whassat? Seven inna last half hour? Naw, mate, this is Crow’s Foot.”
“Ash in his eyes, is what.”
(sung as an out-of-tune sea shanty)
“… pawned my farm for a ‘viathan hunter
lost me ship to the ink
paddled back home on a dead god’s shell …”
(louder, as if expecting others to join in)
“… I’d sell me soul for a drink!”
“… seen her in the mirror.”
“Like, behind him?”
“No, just her reflection, in the mirror.”
“Inky hell.”
These are great! Keep ’em comin’. 🙂
“Ever saw those fancy suits of armor displayed on the iruvian temple? That shit can move! I had a runner checking on the ‘sashes turf and saw those pieces of scrap patrol the inner temple.”
“Madame Le Mort show was intense, darling. The troupe showed up in Lady Remira’s house all masked and dressing black robes. Madame never uttered a word until the seance started. That was no smokes and mirrors, love. Too bad you missed it.”
“- Tally’s missing from the orphanage. I asked the headmistress if he was taken already, but she shunned me out! I’m desperate, I can’t leave my little brother like this!
– Dear, that orphanage was founded by the Weeping Ladies. That poor kid is already shoveling coal down the factories.”
“That bum. Roethe. That… thing is twisted. I was walking late the other night and can swear that saw him surrounded by a damn horde of hobos like him. And they were pleading allegiance like he was the dammed king of the alleys. It was the mockery of a court, with throne and everything. He… it’s gathering an army, I tell you.”
“Got a chance to see the papers, friend? No? That young talent Kristov died last night. His Complete History of Our Imperial Reign just hit the shelves. The paper says ‘natural causes’, but you can bet they didn’t saw twice before cremating him.”
“Do you know why thugs dispose the bodies in the canals after midnight? The spirits of the drowned live there. Well, ‘live’, right? They claim everything that touches the water after the clock strikes twelve. Well, everything except those gondoliers“
” – There’s a wolf loose on the park.
 – So?
 – That thing broke out from the imperial warehouses. Some deadland scavengers brought it from outside. That beast is as large as a horse and breathes electroplasm. Pray that it keeps satisfied with bums and urchins.”Â
“Dirty bombs ain’t real.”
“It went off in the ken and every last ben been there last week got jammed. Naw, it’s a fact. Hundreds of spectres—all mad hellbent—got out, dogged every scent left there. Only how we were in Lyza’s Eye, we’d be jammed too.”
“There’s a beggar near the Museum, Telda is the name. An old, iruvian man, old as sand and dressed like a ruined caliph. He tells the fortune to everyone that drops a coin. Vivy gave him her last two thrones some time ago. He said some nonsense like ‘every time a life comes, other goes away.’ A year later her father was rotting on the docks and she had an oven full of buns. Never saw her happier.”
“…wind of the lush who’ll be the Ecstacy’s next Apex. Heard you had plans for their big festival. Only days now, so seems like knowing be well worth a hangman’s wages.”
“A storm’s coming, brewed up by a trio of hags. You heard o’ Quellyn?”Â
“Well I heard Kellis married a pirate.”
“A toast to Roslyn then and all rum doves.”
“…a dragon forged it to hide its true form from the eyes of men. How Harker got word of the mask, I’ll never know.” Â
“Got this stuff off Stazia, meant to ‘elp me sleep. But now the fings I ‘ear at night, echoin’ up outta the ink… I’m scared the stuff’s makin’ me go mad. ‘course, not ‘alf as scared as I’ll be if it turns out it’s not madness at all.”
“The kid of some Brightstone toff named Penderyn came a-visitin’ the docks yestereve. Got sloshed on bilge and lost a brimful when Marlane got floored in the first round. Never thought I’d hear language that foul come outta someone wearin’ that much glim!”
That’s the why of the name, son; only thing that’s had more bodies beneath it than this neighborhood is–well, you get it.
Give it back, you bastard! You stole me bleeding kidney, and I wants it back!
“She won the deeds from Ulf Ironborn in a game of cards. She knew that she couldn’t make the claim stick so she sold them to Baszo Baz. ‘Thing is, the house is deep inside Red Sash territory and Baszo is going to be furious when he find out.”
(Yes, one of my players really did that, with a devil’s bargain that placed the house in Red Sash territory.)
“Take her to the apothecary to get something for the dark-boils.”
“She’s dead, dude!”
“Thats what a mean – might as well wring some coin out of her corpse. Where’d you think Stazia gets her “ink-black” pills from?”
So many good quotes here! Thanks again, everybody.
What are you saying Paul Byford?! That Ulf Ironborn can’t be trusted?!
“I tell ye, there are spiders stalking the streets, all fancy an dressed like ladies.”
“Oh my, did you heard that strange whisper, when Lady Ollena entered the ballroom in her new bloodred dress?”
“Vampires aint go down easy. Train accident? Seriously? No my friend, something worse is out there.”
“Why ye worry about the sewers? There aint nothing beside shit and smugglers!”
“Oh comeon, you sure you didnt saw Vex? He is pretty ill and pale lately. I need to find him before anyone else.”
“Blood on the streets, my boy, is blood in the game. Ever saw a bloodpudding Walking out of the chanel?”
“I’ve spent my share of time gazin’ into the ‘byss, and haven’ her right well gaze back into me, so believe me when I say that a bit a this stuff will have ye seeing through to the other side…”
“Youh keeph ya’ moth suth and ah-ah youh wilh be’h allh righ ah-ah”
“Who the flipping flogging has a sermon at the middle of night? Who the flipping floggin! My old man has his duties running and me my own. No respect. No respect at all. Sermon at the middle of night…”