Funny / Best Served Cold

• When Cosca first meets Morveer, he expresses disgust for him, commenting that one of his mistresses was murdered by a poisoner. Morveer objects to being held responsible for the misdeeds of other poisoners, and then thinks to himself about how he was the very poisoner responsible- he had been hired to poison Cosca, and due to a mix-up, Cosca's mistress ended up being poisoned instead.
• Morveer's awkward attempts to make conversation with the others/earn their trust are always funny, particularly his "joke" that he had poisoned everyone's bowls, which creates further awkwardness later on when as a nice gesture, he makes soup for everyone.
• Morveer's initial attempts to assassinate the banker Mauthis: Under the guise of being a potential client, Morveer goes to see him, and being Crazy-Prepared, continually tries a succession of attempts to poison him, none of which he is able to put into effect because Mauthis does something that makes it impossible (i.e. Morveer wants to stab him with a poisoned ring during a handshake, but Mauthis doesn't extent his hand; Morveer wants to poison Mauthis' wine, but Mauthis declines to drink himself). What makes it funny is that it's hard to tell whether there is actually an I Know You Know I Know Battle of Wits going on, or if Mauthis is just coincidentally acting in a way that foils each attempt- it's probably the latter, but the fact that Morveer's POV sees it as the former makes it hilarious.
• The whole scene where the group hires/interviews various performers/killers to crash a party posing as entertainers. It is like a Terrible Interviewees Montage, except that everyone is hired because they are good (bad) enough for the desired purpose. Also, the whole idea that the protagonists hire a Carnival of Killers says everything you need to know about the morality of the work
• Playing into his whole Became Their Own Antithesis plot re the Bloody Nine, there is something funny and ironic about the fact that the random Northman, Greylock, the group hires to mock fight with Shivers at a party (wherein Shivers dresses up as the Bloody Nine), ends up trying to enact a personal vendetta against Shivers and kill him for real mid-fight.
  • Also somewhat humorous, Greylock had no idea who Shivers was and the vendetta wasn't actually against him personally. Shivers simply mentioned following the Dogman (who, to be fair, is at least somewhat responsible for the death). Compared to Monza, who's revenge rampage includes killing literally everyone in the room where she was betrayed and her brother was killed, Greylock simply deciding that a guy who was present and under the command of someone vaguely responsible was good enough.
• The scene that reveals that Shenkt is an Eater is a combination of Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick that would do Hannibal Lecter proud. Shenkt comes upon a scene of slain mercenaries, and chops off the leg of one woman, musing about the proper cooking of meat and delicious recipes. After collecting the leg, he walks by a bakery and smells the delicious odor of fresh-baked-bread, and thinks to himself how much he would have liked to be a baker (had his life turned out differently) and how good some pate would be on bread. So, he goes back and cuts out the woman's liver.
  • The fact that said woman was nicknamed "Lucky Nim". One dreads to imagine what would happen if she was unlucky...
• Morveer's murder of Day. After he kills her, he starts furiously swearing at and kicking the corpse. Then he feels remorseful, falls to his knees and starts crying. Then, he gets his leg in the urine that the fresh corpse is voiding, remembers why he was angry and starts swearing at and kicking the corpse again.
• "Bloody Northmen, couldn't find your arse with a chair." reminds about the Logen & Ferro scene from "Before They Are Hanged". Northmen are much better fighters than lovers it seems.

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