203: A Night with No Moon

Synopsis

The episode picks up inside Dr. Webb's cottage, right where 202: The Good Doctor ended. The glow of the silvery light that began dancing along the hallway doorway is growing brighter. Tallahassee Turner is in the study and uses a framed picture as a makeshift mirror, angling it around the door frame to see into the hall. In the glass he sees a floating, flowing mass of silver-white, like spilled ink, that seems to be searching the house for something. Nobody in the study has any idea how to fight it. Tallahassee considers hiding in the roll-top desk and then sneaking out of a window, but his stealth is poor, and a creaking floorboard gives him away to Billy McConnell, who is in Dr. Webb's bedroom next door going through the pocket Bible. Billy opens the connecting door and pulls Tallahassee in, and the two close the door and wait. The Keeper points out that there is no moon tonight, and no lake in the hallway to explain the shimmer on the wall. Tallahassee whispers a frantic account of what he saw in the woods, and the two crouch behind the bed.

Tallahassee throws open the bedroom window, and the wind and rain come pouring in. Billy turns just in time to see a silver-white tendril push in around the door frame and feel its way around the room, soundless, like a mix of liquid and mist, or molten metal. This is the first time he has seen the dead light, and it costs him a point of Sanity. The two climb out into the muddy back yard, where Tallahassee tumbles out badly and Billy lands on top of him. Billy takes off around the house toward the front, shouting for everyone to run, hoping he can reach the silver box. Tallahassee presses himself against the wall under the window, but the light slides out and turns straight toward him. Instead of running, he draws his gun and his folding briefcase camera, aims at the thing and photographs it, and the flash blinds him for a moment. Under a penalty die he spends Luck on his Dodge. He slips in the mud, and the slip happens to carry him out of the way of the tendril. He scrambles up and sprints after Billy. Lightning strikes in the woods near him as he runs.

In the basement, Dom Druncard, Simeon Kantstandyerbitz and Major Bakersfield have been trying to restart the generator. They have found an empty kerosene can and conclude it is out of fuel. They hear the shouting from upstairs and outside, and the Major leads the way up the stairs with his Colt M1911 drawn. At the top he sees the dead light come racing back through the window of Dr. Webb's room just as the lightning goes off outside, and he slams the door in its face. The light begins to flow out under the door like a slug. The Major shouts for everyone to get outside and then, when the light does not respond, fires a shot into the ceiling and shouts at it to draw it off. Simeon loses a point of Sanity and tries to run past it in the hall. He spends Luck on a Dodge against two tendrils, slips on the hardwood floor and scrapes by while the tendrils leave scorch marks on the wall behind him. Dom fails his Sanity check, loses two points and falls on the stairs, then retreats to the basement and tries to escape through a window. The wet frame makes him lose his grip and slip back down, and the light pours down the stairs behind him. The Major fires one shot from the top of the stairs, which goes through the light like mist, and shouts at it. Dom makes his Luck roll, and the noise makes the light hesitate for a moment.

Billy, running up to the front of the house, sees a pair of hands scrabbling at the basement window and hauls Dom out as Dom boosts himself off a crate. The light catches Dom's ankle, which first feels cold and then burns through his pants for four points of damage. He dodges a second tendril, rolls onto the gravel driveway and gives the dead light two middle fingers. The window frame behind them is turning black as though it were burning, though there is no flame. The players start to theorize that the light does not pass through walls, only through open doors and windows, and that it may be afraid of lightning, since it ran back inside when the bolt struck. Dom and Billy run for the truck, and Dom heads for the supplies in the back. He asks about a flamethrower, but the Keeper says the investigators do not have one. Simeon goes to the truck for dynamite and then for Dom's liquor, hoping to build a Molotov cocktail. Tallahassee shouts that the silver box is the answer and runs back into the house with the Major to get it. Tallahassee grabs the coffer, throws it to the Major, and tells him to open it and try to get the light to go inside. The Major sprints out with it. Tallahassee stops to open the journal and skim the long entry that follows the pages he already read.

The recording ends there: the Major is outside with the box, Tallahassee is reading, Simeon is searching the back of the truck, and the dead light is flowing out of the house after them.

Funny Moments

• Tallahassee's plan for hiding from a cosmic horror is to stuff himself into the roll-top desk and roll it shut. A player suggests he just play dead, and he decides to sneak out the window instead.
• After throwing open the window, Tallahassee remembers that there is a violent storm outside. When another player asks which he fears more, the storm or the light, he insists he is not afraid of the storm at all. His 95 on the Climb roll then sends him flopping out like a fish, with Billy landing on top of him, and he decides the mud is Predator-style camouflage.
• Facing the dead light, Tallahassee asks whether he should shoot it or photograph it. The table says do both, so he does, and the flash blinds him. He also announces that he will fart on it before running, and the Keeper asks for a roll.
• Simeon rolls a 96 after spending Luck to make a Dodge, and the table declares him the luckiest man alive when it comes to monsters. He gives the light the bird as he goes.
• Dom heads for the back of the truck to fetch a flamethrower that the Keeper has to point out does not exist. Earlier his two 69s in a row, on a Sanity check and then a Climb roll, drew jokes that his skill levels never matter.
• The Major claims that before leaving Arkham a priest blessed his net, calling it "the holy net of Antioch", and adds that he brought spares.

Notable Quotes

• "Guys, how the heck are we going to even stand a chance against this thing?" —Tallahassee Turner
• "I'm not afraid of the storm, you idiots." —Tallahassee Turner
• "Go, go Tallahassee. I'm out of here." —Billy McConnell
• "Hey, light. Come get me." —Major Bakersfield
• "I'm looking for Dom's alcohol to try to make a Molotov cocktail." —Doctor Simeon Kantstandyerbitz