Passholdt

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The devastated town as scouted by the Circus

Passholdt: A town that sits on one of the few good passes over in an unnamed Europan mountain range, and thus a major way-point for travelers such as Master Payne's Circus.

Along with the pass, previously known for making "those fried cream things." Now known for all the townspeople having been turned ✣ into a new form of viciously hostile revenant; these unfortunates evidently went on to kill or convert a whole lot of visitors before the Circus advance men Lars and Augie arrive on the scene ✣ and flee with a swarm of revenants at their heels. They, Agatha and the rest of the troupe manage to escape and report the situation to the Wulfenbach empire. (Agatha's notion of a rescue mission being very firmly shot down by Master Payne.)

The cause of this infestation is presumably not known to the general public, but during the comic's Sturmhalten plot-arc, Lord Selnikov reveals to Anevka that Passholdt was also the base of operations of another spark loyal to The Other, one Snarlantz, who was "entrusted with most of the Slaver Engines." Snarlantz was "always trying to improve them" which resulted in ✣ the disaster.

Selnikov and the Jotun Brothers (who we can assume were fellow Knights of Jove) removed all traces ✣ of the Order's presence at Passholdt before the mess became public, along with snatching the one existing sample of Snarlantz's Spark-enslaving mini hive-engine. Apparently, this wasn't easy.

Novels

One of the Girl Genius print-novels includes the recipe for the Fried Cream Things, while another notes that when word of the revenant infestation did finally reach the Empire , the entire area for miles around was sterilized.