diff --git a/web/scripts/signin-form.test.mjs b/web/scripts/signin-form.test.mjs
index a776cae..df71793 100644
--- a/web/scripts/signin-form.test.mjs
+++ b/web/scripts/signin-form.test.mjs
@@ -86,3 +86,39 @@ test("the dialog is named by the form's heading", () => {
     "the dialog is unnamed; a modal with no name announces only 'dialog'",
   );
 });
+
+test("the dialog answers Escape itself, because the browser's own will not", () => {
+  // <actor-typeahead> wraps the handle field and preventDefaults every Escape
+  // it sees, and a prevented keydown never becomes the dialog's `cancel`. The
+  // field is focused the moment the dialog opens, so relying on the browser
+  // meant Escape did nothing from the one control a player was already in.
+  //
+  // Nothing about that is visible from the source of this repo alone — it
+  // reads as a plain <dialog>, and plain <dialog> closes on Escape — so the
+  // handler is the sort of thing a tidy-up removes.
+  // The call spans several lines and its own body contains a `);`, so it is
+  // read to the closing paren at this call's indent rather than by a lazy
+  // regex — which stops inside the handler.
+  const start = modal.indexOf('dialog.addEventListener(\n    "keydown"');
+  assert.notEqual(
+    start,
+    -1,
+    "the dialog no longer handles Escape, and the typeahead eats it",
+  );
+  const end = modal.indexOf("\n  );", start);
+  assert.notEqual(end, -1, "the keydown listener has no end");
+  const listener = modal.slice(start, end);
+
+  assert.match(
+    listener,
+    /event\.key !== "Escape"/,
+    "the keydown handler is not about Escape any more",
+  );
+  // Capture. In the bubble phase the typeahead has already had the key.
+  assert.match(
+    listener,
+    /\n {4}true,\s*$/,
+    "the Escape handler is not in the capture phase, so it runs after the " +
+      "typeahead has already prevented the key",
+  );
+});
diff --git a/web/src/signin-modal.ts b/web/src/signin-modal.ts
index 79f203a..32f2caf 100644
--- a/web/src/signin-modal.ts
+++ b/web/src/signin-modal.ts
@@ -9,8 +9,8 @@
  * A modal rather than an inline panel: neither caller has room to grow. The
  * editor is a grid of blocks sized to each other and shifts everything the
  * player is looking at if one of them gets taller; the masthead is a 3.5rem
- * bar. `<dialog>` also brings focus trapping, Escape and the backdrop for
- * free.
+ * bar. `<dialog>` brings focus trapping and the backdrop for free. Escape is
+ * the one it does not — see below.
  *
  * Loaded on demand — the form pulls in a handle typeahead that is a chunk of
  * its own, and nobody who does not click Login should pay for either.
@@ -58,7 +58,38 @@ export function openSignIn({ onBeforeConnect }: SignInOptions = {}): void {
     dialog.remove();
   };
   cancel.addEventListener("click", close);
-  // Escape closes a dialog on its own, but leaves the element in the document.
+
+  /**
+   * Escape, which a dialog would answer on its own if nothing inside it wanted
+   * the key.
+   *
+   * `<actor-typeahead>` wraps the handle field and calls preventDefault() on
+   * every Escape it sees — unconditionally, to clear a suggestion list it does
+   * not first check for — and a prevented keydown never becomes the dialog's
+   * `cancel`. The field is focused the moment this opens, so what a player
+   * actually got was a modal that ignored Escape from the one control they
+   * were already in. Tabbing to "Not now" first made it work, which is not
+   * something anyone would think to try.
+   *
+   * Capture, so this runs before the typeahead rather than after it has eaten
+   * the key. The cost is that Escape with suggestions showing now closes the
+   * whole dialog instead of dismissing just the list: the component keeps that
+   * state in a closed shadow root, so there is no way to ask. A modal that
+   * cannot be dismissed with Escape is the worse of the two, and the list goes
+   * with it either way.
+   */
+  dialog.addEventListener(
+    "keydown",
+    (event) => {
+      if (event.key !== "Escape") return;
+      event.preventDefault();
+      close();
+    },
+    true,
+  );
+
+  // The backdrop and "Not now" both go through close(); this catches any other
+  // way the dialog ends, and stops a closed one being left in the document.
   dialog.addEventListener("close", () => dialog.remove());
   dialog.addEventListener("click", (event) => {
     if (event.target === dialog) close();