Motif · Book 4, The Gate of the Feral Gods

The Dirigible Gnomes

A peaceful race that took to the clouds to be left alone, traded its legate balloons for a dreadnaught when winged predators came through a portal, and now runs a failing air force of Mad-Max flying machines, Drop Bear biplanes, gerbil-firing rifles and a few thermobaric bombs kept as a standoff weapon. Their card: 'forced to choose between fighting or being wiped out. They chose to fight.'

Segment appearances

• Chapter 1 — Hump Town
• Chapter 2 — The Wasteland through a telescope
• Chapter 3 — A goose from the sky
• Chapter 4 — The Royal Chariot; Ifechi
• Chapter 5 — Rapid Detox
• Chapter 6 — City hall
• Chapter 7 — The frog con
• Chapter 8 — A yam from the pacifists
• Chapter 9 — Ruckus
• Chapter 10 — Squeeze out the Juice Box
• Chapter 11 — The Vahana
• Chapter 12 — Dolores Doesn't Splat
• Chapter 13 — Gerbils
• Chapter 15 — The Gate of the Feral Gods
• Chapter 16 — Denise
• Chapter 17 — Jennifer and Dale's house
• Chapter 25 — The Akula
• Chapter 26 — Lusca
• Chapter 30 — Get Orthrus
• Chapter 31 — Emberus, summoned
• Chapter 32 — Acolyte of Emberus
• Chapter 33 — Phase three
• Chapter 34 — Seeding the pond

Progression

A speck, a Drop Bear, a Knock-Knock, a FarSeerer that warns its targets (ch. 2, ch. 3); their card — peaceful, forced to fight (ch. 6); the Vahana's — sky gardens renamed dreadnaughts when winged predators came through a portal (ch. 11); the hostage and the watch (ch. 10); a hundred-rifle battery firing gerbils (ch. 12); the armour blown off the Wasteland, gnomes raining from the sky (ch. 13); a commandant ripped to shreds by his daughter's pet (ch. 16); Bonnie, orphaned, taken in by the people her father bombed (ch. 17).