314: The Siege

Synopsis

The episode picks up where 313: The Arrival left off. Denny's Tavern is in chaos, with a defender firing from every barricaded window. Dom and Billy have just slammed the front door and are trying to wedge a table against it while creatures batter it from outside. Billy throws Ike Watson to the floor, and Ezra Denny takes Delilah and Zachary to a corner by the bar, away from the doors and windows. Tallahassee waits by his fuses at the back door, still protected by his Flesh Ward.

From the window beside the front door, Dr. Simeon targets a massive adult creature, eleven to twelve feet tall, as it lumbers toward the door. He casts Smiting Blast of the Foul One, a spell from the books. He spends four magic points and four Sanity, then burns 51 Luck to succeed. His shimmering blast hits the creature, and it collapses face-first into the street, unconscious. Moments later, an even louder and deeper roar sounds in the distance.

Dom jams the flamethrower through the barricade beside the front door but rolls a 98, a fumble in the weapon's malfunction range. A creature slashes the barrel and bends it, and the leaking fuel sprays fire up the front of the building. Dom drops the flamethrower and stumbles back, and Denny's begins to burn. The creatures shy away from the flames, but they break through the barricades on the north and front windows, killing several defenders. Tallahassee lights a fuse and pulls a rope that he had secretly run outside. He announces that he has released the dead light from the bushes and orders everyone upstairs. Billy and Dr. Simeon drag Ike toward the stairs as a sacrifice, and Ezra moves Delilah and Zachary to the stairwell. Percival covers the retreat with a Tommy gun, swears that whether he lives or dies will not come down to fate, and declares that his name is William James Henry. Goodman Gray points at a creature in a window, mutters a few words and drops it, then leads his men up the stairs.

Dom fires three blind shots through the splintering back door and wounds a creature behind it. When the door gives way, Tallahassee spends Luck to put two shots into an adolescent creature and drives it back. Out past the tree where he saw the squirrels explode, he watches the dead light pour from one creature's mouth and burn it away, then dive into the next. Billy reports that nobody has seen Mayor Marsh or Constable Zeke Dawkins in some time, and Robert Morgan is drinking behind the bar with his Colt in hand. Billy wounds one of the small creatures crawling through the north windows. At the back door, two infant creatures attack Tallahassee. One bites down on his gun hand but cannot break his Flesh Ward, and he cuts the other with his cavalry saber. Dr. Simeon casts Command on one of the creatures, ordering it to attack its smoothie brother. Nearby, two infant creatures drag down the general store owner Abraham Harvey and devour him. Then the front of the building gives way, and the alpha creature appears. Its body is covered in carved runic symbols, and the sight shakes everyone so badly that the Keeper calls for Sanity rolls.

Funny Moments

• Dr. Simeon's smiting blast is narrated as a "kamehame" and a shouted "Hadouken."
• Someone taunts the headless creatures by offering to play "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes," then remembers that they can only play "knees and toes."
• Dom's flamethrower fumble sets Denny's on fire, and he yells "I regret nothing," then claims that at least he didn't start the fire before admitting that he did.
• The table panics as the Keeper keeps rolling dice ("That's how many of us are going to die").
• Tallahassee reveals that he released the dead light with the instruction "Make like a tree and get upstairs."
• Billy drags Ike off with "here's our sacrifice," and Dr. Simeon nearly throws a Molotov at Goodman Gray's men before the others point out that they are allies for now.
• Tallahassee shoots a creature and quips "No diamonds for dinner tonight."

Notable Quotes

• "I regret nothing." —Dom Druncard
• "Make like a tree and get upstairs." —Tallahassee Turner
• "Say hello to my little friend." —Tallahassee Turner
• "I don't believe in fate." —Percival Warthrop
• "At least my enemies will remember my name. My name is William James Henry." —Percival Warthrop
• "Attack your smoothie brother." —Simeon Kantstandyerbitz