Nice when one’s family is competent enough that even when they bring trouble after them, it’s because they made the smart move, instead of the one that makes you want to bury them yourself!
Love the thief’s cant.
Nice subtitles for the dialect impaired.
Please, do NOT have someone “reading the subtitles”.
Have I ever told the story about the precog whose power manifested as being able to “hear the background music”?
Essentially the same thing.
Gosh it’s late…
This really strikes a sour chord to me. How could anyone possibly extract those meanings from those phrases? It seems utterly daft to me, and really ruins my suspension of belief. I’d be more comfortable with halflings in this universe being natural telepaths (that, after all, has precedent in the Kithkin of MTG: Shadowmoor) than with the idea that anyone could hear the dialogue (especially in panel 4) and immediately “hear” the translation below. No matter how good at non-literal thinking you are, there has to come a time when further attempts to decrypt a hidden message become pointless, because there are too many possible correlations for there to be any hope of extracting sense from it.
(Perhaps related to my confusion here, I can never do those Magic Eye things….)
If they were using the bluff skill to pass along hidden messages, that might be true. But here, it is more likely that they are using thieve’s cant.
Thieve’s Cant is a language of common phrases that have preset hidden meanings. So, when Stabs refers to ‘Ma’, then they know she’s asking about the target. Royal pain is obviously the princess (as opposed to ‘she’s a queen,’ or ‘she treats us royally’ which might refer to different members of royalty. Thieve’s Cant is an evolving language.).
‘Made sure we tell you’ probably means exactly that, with the subtitles being implied in the tone.
‘Still planning that vacation?’ means ‘So you need to lie low?’ And ma suddenly refers to the party.
‘Long trip abroad’ stands for ‘covered our tracks’, and ‘bad weather’ means trouble.
And of course, sheltering in the shadows of mountains is, well…
‘considering’ probably has connotations as well: they aren’t immediately leaving, which implies some degree of safety. If ‘ma’ had ‘bought everyone tickets, we brought yours’ then not only would they have been tailed, Stabs would now be in danger. If the ‘trip was cancelled due to weather’ then either the routes out, or potential safehouses, would be more dangerous than staying put. Simply deciding not to go would imply they thought it was fairly safe, which would probably be enough reason for Stabs to decide that they were being reckless, and would get everyone killed if left to their own devices.
Actually, quite the opposite for me. This was a great and comedic representation of Thieve’s Cant. I had no more suspension of disbelief needed as an audience member/ reader/ listener than I do in any other comedic situation.
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Beautiful example of functional Thieves Cant. Awesome!
All planned out in advance. Extensively.
+1, I think this dialog is great.
Nice when one’s family is competent enough that even when they bring trouble after them, it’s because they made the smart move, instead of the one that makes you want to bury them yourself!
Indeed! and I love how Kris and Dirk don’t seem to be morons as the temptation might be writing this module.
HA. knew we had volunteers. “Dogs bark; can’t fly without umbrella” Oops. Wrong movie. Puts on Mission Impossible theme (original 1966-73)
*adjusts it to the key of B-flat*
I just gotta say I LOVE Kris’s face in the first panel!
Do family gatherings always make him blue?
They always choke him up.
Love the thief’s cant.
Nice subtitles for the dialect impaired.
Please, do NOT have someone “reading the subtitles”.
Have I ever told the story about the precog whose power manifested as being able to “hear the background music”?
Essentially the same thing.
Gosh it’s late…
This really strikes a sour chord to me. How could anyone possibly extract those meanings from those phrases? It seems utterly daft to me, and really ruins my suspension of belief. I’d be more comfortable with halflings in this universe being natural telepaths (that, after all, has precedent in the Kithkin of MTG: Shadowmoor) than with the idea that anyone could hear the dialogue (especially in panel 4) and immediately “hear” the translation below. No matter how good at non-literal thinking you are, there has to come a time when further attempts to decrypt a hidden message become pointless, because there are too many possible correlations for there to be any hope of extracting sense from it.
(Perhaps related to my confusion here, I can never do those Magic Eye things….)
If they were using the bluff skill to pass along hidden messages, that might be true. But here, it is more likely that they are using thieve’s cant.
Thieve’s Cant is a language of common phrases that have preset hidden meanings. So, when Stabs refers to ‘Ma’, then they know she’s asking about the target. Royal pain is obviously the princess (as opposed to ‘she’s a queen,’ or ‘she treats us royally’ which might refer to different members of royalty. Thieve’s Cant is an evolving language.).
‘Made sure we tell you’ probably means exactly that, with the subtitles being implied in the tone.
‘Still planning that vacation?’ means ‘So you need to lie low?’ And ma suddenly refers to the party.
‘Long trip abroad’ stands for ‘covered our tracks’, and ‘bad weather’ means trouble.
And of course, sheltering in the shadows of mountains is, well…
‘considering’ probably has connotations as well: they aren’t immediately leaving, which implies some degree of safety. If ‘ma’ had ‘bought everyone tickets, we brought yours’ then not only would they have been tailed, Stabs would now be in danger. If the ‘trip was cancelled due to weather’ then either the routes out, or potential safehouses, would be more dangerous than staying put. Simply deciding not to go would imply they thought it was fairly safe, which would probably be enough reason for Stabs to decide that they were being reckless, and would get everyone killed if left to their own devices.
For Further Study, see “Peddler’s French” or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thieves'_cant
Actually, quite the opposite for me. This was a great and comedic representation of Thieve’s Cant. I had no more suspension of disbelief needed as an audience member/ reader/ listener than I do in any other comedic situation.