Episode 29: Strange Things Unarmed at the Firing Range

## Cast

Season: 1

GM: DeyDey

Hunters: Em, Selene and Lev, Claire

Setting: Carson Creek, CO

Synopsis: The hunters rescued badass trucker Penelope from the ESI facility. They wrecked one of the computers that was mind controlling the ESI employees, but were forced to retreat without fully understanding the computers' plans.

The hunters found themselves, once again, in the microscopic town of Carson Creek, Colorado, where they met with Antonio Armas. His daughter Gina recently disappeared (in S1E20), and his wife Penelope went to search for her at the local creepy research company, ESI. They're creepy because their employees always wear sunglasses, rarely leave the plant, and move in a jerky, marionette-like manner. Antonio had been able to locate surveillance footage of his wife being dragged into a cell in their basement, so clearly a rescue was needed.

Em could tell from the surveillance footage that the sunglasses-wearing employees were under the control of outside entities. Claire made an attempt to psychically contact the outside entities, and learned that they planned to take control of Penelope and use her trucking skills to transport boxes of sinister merchandise to some out of town location. Realizing they had little time to waste, the team went directly to the ESI facility.

Em's job was to create a distraction. Her approach, as is so often the case, was violence. She shot open some of the sinister merchandise boxes, revealing that they were full of calculators. A swarm of puppeteered guards came out to stop her, and she drove off into the woods to escape. They followed her, and she was able to double back to ESI, giving the other two hunters time to infiltrate.

Selene handled the infiltration, guiding Claire past the security cameras using blueprints she found online. They made it to the basement stairs, which Claire sealed by magic so they wouldn't be interrupted. Unfortunately, four guards were down there already, preparing to assimilate Penelope.

With little time for subtlety, Claire and Selene attacked, keenly regretting the fact that they had used the only person with combat training as a distraction. They had been reluctant to use deadly violence, but once one of the guards tased Claire, the angry ghost inside her pushed her toward brutality. She killed three guards while Selene subdued the other, though both Claire and Selene nearly died in the process.

Em rejoined the team, and helped carry an exhausted Penelope outside. On the way, they found a room with a gigantic computer, which they suspected was one of the entities controlling the guards. Em and Selene destroyed it, but not before it could infect Selene's laptop with a copy of itself.

The team made it to the front door, but were confronted by guards returning from their wild goose chase. Selene, recognizing they were outnumbered and cornered, made a deal with the entity infecting her laptop, in return for an unspecified future favor. It used its puppets to subdue the remaining guards, and the team were finally able to escape.

No firing range was involved at any point. That, as well as the purpose of the sinister merchandise, remains a mystery for the future.