Chapter 111
Chapter 111
Let Gizmo join the Gang: 14 Votes
GIZMO has joined the Gang:
Gizmo
Age: ???
Description: Brass robot designed to look like a mare.
Healthiness: 10/10
Gunslinger: 1/10
Muscle: 9/10
Sweet Talker: 1/10
Scholar: 1/10
Instincts: 1/10
Lady Luck: —/10
Honor: 0Status:
- Robot: This individual is constructed from metal, machinery, and magic, and therefore is not alive. They do not have basic survival needs like living creatures do, but will need somebody capable of maintaining and repairing them should they suffer damage.
Quirks:
- Metal Mare: This character is resistant to all forms of damage, and only takes damage on critical hits. This character only has two damage conditions, MALFUNCTIONING and DISABLED, instead of the standard four (GRAZED, SERIOUS, CRITICAL, DEAD).
- Untiring: This character never gets exhausted and does not need to sleep. If it passes a Muscle check to move or carry an object, it does not need to make successive Muscle checks to continue moving or carrying the object unless conditions change.
- Machine Learning: This character will slowly gain points in relevant ability scores as it performs more activities involving relevant ability checks.
- Luck Ain’t Artificial: This character does not have a luck score, and will automatically fail any luck checks.
Skills:
- None.
“Well, she certainly can be annoyin’, ‘specially today,” Kestrel admitted. “But I think havin’ our own robot horse helpin’ us out with things could be real helpful. She don’t get tired, so she could help with keepin’ watch or pullin’ the wagons whenever we gotta move out. Might be we can get her to do some more complicated tasks as well, but havin’ another companion that we ain’t gotta provide much for’ll be much more helpful in the long run.”
Tumbleweed frowned as he watched Gizmo move from one end of the camp to the other, trying her best to rouse the other members of the Gang from their sleep. “I suppose you’re right,” he said. “It would be a shame to just get rid of the damn thing when we could get some mileage outta it instead. Wanderer, I just want you to be careful with it. It may be in your control thanks to our dear friend Applejack, but I wouldn’t put it past her to have some kind of nasty surprises hidden in store for us.”
“I’ll make sure that Gizmo never gets too close to Applejack while she’s our honored guest,” Wanderer said. “You’re right; she could just take control of the robot back from me with a word. We don’t know how loyal Gizmo is until her creator is out of the picture.”
“Or if she’s fine with taking abuse,” Kestrel muttered as she saw the robot fall backwards away from Roughshod’s lean-to. The large stallion emerged from his lean-to, shouting and hollering at Gizmo, as the robot lay motionless on the ground for a few seconds before beginning the slow and tedious process of picking itself back up. In that time, Roughshod went back to his bed, leaving Gizmo to return to its standing position, blink its mechanical eyes once or twice, and then turn around and trot to a different corner of the camp. “Think a robot can learn a lesson?”
“She’ll learn pretty soon if Roughshod hits her again,” Wanderer said, shaking his head. “At least she’s tough as metal, for obvious reasons.”
“Roughshod better be the careful one,” Miss Irons said. “You don’t want to hit a filly that’s tough as iron, because she’ll probably hit back twice as hard.”
Tumbleweed chuckled at that. “If Rough learned well enough to steer clear of you, Miss Irons, I think he’ll learn soon enough with Gizmo. Who knows if she’s got any nasty surprises in that metal body of hers.”
“Hopefully we find out sooner rather than later,” Kestrel said. “I’d like to know just what we can expect this robot to do for us ‘fore we actually need her to do somethin’.”
“We’ll figure that out with some more time,” Tumbleweed said. “Maybe while we’re layin’ low for a few days here. After all, we gotta let things cool down for a bit ‘fore we try ransomin’ Applejack back to her company. Speakin’ of which…” Tumbleweed turned around to where Starlight and her crew were sitting by the lake and waved Starlight over. The revolutionary ended her conversation with the rest of her supporters before standing up and striding over, stopping when she stood at the edge of the small gathering.
“I see you’re feeling better,” she said, nodding to Kestrel and Tumbleweed. “That’s good. I needed a little something to relax myself, truth be told. Leading an ideological crusade is often exhausting.”
“Of that, I have no doubt,” Tumbleweed said, gesturing for Starlight to sit. She did so as he continued. “But now that we’ve had a little bit of fun and games, it’s back to business. We’ve got a wildcard sittin’ in our camp, tied to that tree over there. She’s dangerous, but she’s worth a lot. Only question now is, how much is she worth?”
Starlight and Kestrel looked across the camp to where Applejack had been tightly bound to a tree. The mare was finally starting to stir, now that Starlight’s sleeping spell was finally running its course. The earth pony was deceptively strong, Kestrel remembered, and the longer they kept her around, the greater the risk of her finding some way to break free of her binds. She was a conundrum that needed a resolution as soon as they could figure one out.
“That’s the million bit question, isn’t it?” Starlight asked them. “We gotta keep the Apple Conglomerates in mind, though. Applejack might be the face of their company, but corporations are inherently faceless, and they’ll find another mask if they don’t want to buy her back, even if it stings them. So that means we have to find a good enough compromise. If we ransom her low, then they’ll take her for sure without any funny stuff, or at least, that’s what I hope. If we push our luck, though, they might try to take us out during or after the exchange. It all depends on what they think an acceptable ransom is and how much they value Applejack’s life.”
“They’re all family though, aren’t they?” Wanderer asked. “I can’t imagine somepony letting a family member die because they don’t feel like paying the ransom.”
“Capitalist pigs only care about one thing: money,” Starlight said. “Even family comes second. We have to make this a good business deal for them, otherwise they aren’t going to bite.”
“Yeah, I see where you’re comin’ from,” Tumbleweed said, and Kestrel nodded in agreement. “So we gotta find the right price point. Well, what’s a good low bid? Ten thousand bits? The Conglomerates are incredibly wealthy, we all know that for certain.”
“They’ll probably pay that,” Starlight said. “But remember, I want half for my team for all the help we did here. We’d split that into five thousand for both of us.”
“Might try our luck for something a little more,” Wanderer suggested. “Twenty thousand would be fair, right? Or we could go even further for thirty. Really push our luck.”
“So long as we don’t push it too far,” Tumbleweed said. He rubbed a hoof to his chin and stroked the ends of his mustache. “Remember, the more we ask for, the more the Apples might try somethin’ funny. So, with that in mind, what do we think we can get?”
1. Ransom Applejack for 10,000 bits. It’s a bit low, and we’ll only take home five thousand of them bits, but at least it’s somethin’ the Apples would be willin’ to pay.
2. Ransom Applejack for 20,000 bits. Pushin’ our luck some, but the Apples are rich as can be. Twenty thousand bits ain’t gonna mean much to ‘em at the end of the day. Applejack should be worth at least twenty thousand to ‘em.
3. Ransom Applejack for 30,000 bits. Might be a bit of a stretch, but I’m feelin’ confident we can ransom Applejack for thirty thousand. That means fifteen grand for us and fifteen for Starlight’s group, and that’ll put us above halfway toward gettin’ out of Equestria for good.
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3. We just raised luck for a reason, right?
2. Let's face it, there is no scenario where the Apples just comply quietly with the ramson without any funny business. Chances the Pinks, Government agents and probably the army getting involved (the band has the equivalent of 5 stars in GTA). But 20000 bits is reasonable enough money for at least bringing it to the exchange.
3.
I think we’re going to have to start pushing our luck if we want to escape Equestria alive. We’re not even at the halfway point yet, which is a little disappointing but we’re not gonna get paid at all if we demand too much.
It’s rough, but I think we have to go 2 here. Pocket 10 grand + whatever we got from the rich convention goers makes this a decent investment, especially with no/minor injuries.
Considering how hot things are for us at the moment, we can't afford to go too hard. Go for option 2 and see if we can negotiate anything extra depending on their reactions.
2. Enough to make to risk worth it.
3 big money is what the gang needs
1. Low-ball it just to get rid of her, it isn't worth the trouble it will bring in negotiating a way for them to pay us. I'd say just let her go, but that isn't an option
2: Lets not yolo right after an epic win streak
Option 2
Robot gang member, hell yeah. We didn't get to become sky pirates, but at least we get a robot.
30, let's go all out.
Ehhh 20k. The high choice seems too likely to end up with us getting nothing but bullets.
20k sounds reasonable. Not too low for us and not too high for them. Let's go with that. But, we should still keep watch for anything that doesn't look right.
Option two ( 2 ). Take a small risk for a decent profit.
2.