Thread:MrParaduo/@comment-4641958-20171014053404

i am translating Quinsberry Lodge, from the RPG Book "Shades of Empire", and I can not fully understand this expression

"Meanwhile, all their relatives became scribes, runners, advisors, and attendants, flooding the oil of the wheels of bureaucracy with Halfling blood—so that they could, when necessary, run that oil cold." 