Contagion Collectors — Jim McPherson

Despite often violent suppression by forces blinkered by monotheistic absolutism, at the height of the Renaissance seekers after secrets are determined to discover all there is to know about the universe. Yet, right here on the earth beneath their feet, there is no bigger secret than that there is a Cathonic Dome. The second biggest secret beyond the Cathonic Dome is that a continent the size of Africa lies underneath it. Two hundred years earlier, someone who knew all there was to know about the Hidden Headworld was none other than the infamous, pan-pipe-playing Rat Catcher of Hamelin. Three Outer Earthlings you may have heard of play howsoever insignificant roles in Contagion. They are Twisted Tommy (Tomas de Torquemada, age 56), Bosco (Hieronymous Bosch, age 26), and Dire (Albrecht Durer, age 4). Dire and Drang (a hound, not yet a dachshund) are having a wonderful boy/dog adventure until 4 already much feared riders on psychopomp-steeds burst into their hence no longer exclusive paradise, the Garden of Earthy Delights.