Фил Фоглио - Agatha H. and the Siege of Mechanicsburg

151 When the Heterodyne Boys inherited the Castle and the town, they realized they had a monumental job ahead of them: converting the Mechanicsburg economy from “pure or chaotic evil” to what Professor Garibaldi Gygax (LLM, The School for Advanced Studies of the Unnatural World, Lucca) referred to as “lawful evil.” Realizing they couldn’t turn a town of minions, pirates, and henchmen into honest people overnight, they began slowly by turning them into hucksters, which, while it lay upon a bed of solid, accountable mercantilism, still allowed for a generous exercise of low-level chicanery. Repurposing the various death machines that littered the place was a bit more problematic, but as we see here, they were working on it.

152 Yes, this was, in fact, Lieutenant Yarl Bollet, who’s firsthand account, The Fall and Rise of Mechanicsburg: One Half-Hour of Terror (Transylvanian Polygnostic University Press), became, on its release, the most read and, at the same time, most banned book in Europa. A very effective use of viral marketing.

153 A derogatory term, long used by outsiders, to refer to the natives of Mechanicsburg.

154 For the record, no ethical teller-of-tales would tell the story of the Fog Merchants to children. It might give them ideas.

Phil Foglio, Agatha H and the Siege of Mechanicsburg