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Trouble at the Tunnel is the fifth episode of season 7, The Unsleeping City: Chapter II.
Recap[]
"Gang, it's the middle of November, a crisp New York City evening here in the Unsleeping City as thunder rumbles in the distance and a threat arrives from the far western shores of the Hudson River. For indeed, the patron devil of our knight of darkness Cody Walsh, AKA the Night Angel, Bazathrax, bound by Pete the Vox Phantasma into a sick-ass chest piece that says ‘Redemption.’ Bazathrax reached out thinking that his dark master — or dark employee I guess is the better, the better term? — would dig a bunch of devils running around and causing chaos in New York City. And even though Cody got on it right away, apparently those RSVPs got a little too far afield and the Jersey Devil discovered that it was open season on the island of Manhattan and they are on their way. Oh no. Numerous other things are also in the works that have been discussed."
"Last time we ended, Kingston was hot on the tail of some horrifying real estate shenanigans going on in the Waking World. While Sofia and Esther were covering their tracks from the other side of things, looking into the nature of Nod. Iga Lisowski was exploring the mythic castle within the ancient chest, kept in her bedroom in Greenpoint. While Ricky was keeping an eye on the new kid, Cody, to make sure he didn't get up to too much trouble. Looks like it didn't quite work out that way."
"We had a little bit of down time, and Pete used the two weeks of down time to get settled in Astoria and take care of himself, which we love to see. We also met some new cadets of the Gramercy Occult Society. We met JJ, short for Joe Jacobs, who is a new apprentice wizard at the Gramercy Occult Society. We also met a returning member of the Order of the Concrete Fist, Tony Simos, a former First Fist of the Order and dealt with the aftermath of the appearance of raw Umbra itself in the Waking World. All of that covering our bases. Lightning sort of crackles. And in the middle of their conversation you see Sofia. You're at the New York Public Library talking with Esther."
Synopsis[]
At the Gramercy Occult Society, the ward alarms at the border of the city go off. New York is under attack on the Holland Tunnel. Esther Sinclair finds out that the Umbral Engine is operating at 150%. Esther explains that there should not be devils traveling through the city because the Umbral Arcana only extends through the five boroughs, so devils should not be able to freely travel through Jersey City, but all of the wards around the city are down. Because Ana and Amelia Ortiz are vampires and can’t be around running water, Esther must go beneath the bridge to fix the wards. Ana and Amelia must tend to the Umbral Engine, and new member JJ Jacobs must go with Sofia Lee.
In Washington Heights, Kingston Brown and Iga Lisowski are at Lowell Masters’ apartment for their meeting regarding the Lisowski box. After receiving a message from Sofia, they both agree to go help out at the Holland tunnel. Iga shrinks the box down as small as possible and gives it to Lowell to do his work with. Pete Conlan also decided to go immediately after receiving Sofia’s message.
Ricky Matsui and Cody Walsh are reeling from their current predicament (that Cody's patron, Bazathrax, summoned the Jersey Devil) and agree to meet with the group on the New York Side of the Holland Tunnel.
As the group meets at the Holland Tunnel, JJ introduces himself to the group and explains the situation to them all: that they’re not sure how monsters are freely moving around the waking world, but their job is to hold them off from entering New York long enough so that Esther can replace the wards.
Sofia feels the weight of the golden nunchucks from Dale in her pocket. She realizes that these are a formation of the Questing Blade, and that this is how Dale has been escaping heaven all this time. She tries to give it to Ricky, but it freely floats above her hands and chooses Cody as its new owner, taking the shape of a barbed two-handed greatsword. Cody, excited at the possession of the questing blade, offers the Peasant Sword from the Lisowski Box to Ricky, who reluctantly accepts. Ricky gets visibly upset and is comforted by Kingston and Pete.
They begin to walk down the Holland Tunnel. Kingston feels himself getting close to the border of New York. They get nearer to the border and Sofia realizes that the devils are getting in through a vein of raw umbra forming a sort of land bridge, and hundreds of devils are about to enter New York City. JJ checks for the runes on the bridge and finds that something has erased them.
Sofia sees a silhouette on a billboard. As she tries to investigate further, she finds that it is flat, but it looks right at her and then instantly disappears.
The group has six rounds of combat before the attack begins. In this time, Kingston and Ricky cast Sanctuary, Death Ward, and Protection from Evil and Good on JJ, who stands on top of a railing outside of the tunnel to fix the runes. Iga disguises herself to look like a traffic cop so that she can regulate the traffic at the tunnel. Sofia casts Pass Without Trace on the group and tries to investigate the billboard with Pete.
Iga convinces the toll workers to shut down the bridge and all of the people abandon their cars to run from Cody, who has terrified them all. Kingston casts Enhance Ability on JJ to help him with his work on the runes. Pete and Sofia are investigating the billboard. Pete momentarily sees Nod, the Grey Orphan, looking at him before instantly disappearing. Sofia tells Pete about an arcane book she read that describes Nod not as The Monarch of Dreams, but only as "A Monarch of Dreams."
The devils now arrive at the scene, with the Jersey Devil at the front of the charge. He greets Bazathrax, and the whole team rolls initiative.
Kingston is first to act, but misses his spell. Pete kills several members of the Jersey devil’s posse and also makes it so that it is harder for any members to move through a portion of the bridge. Iga kills the remaining devils that survived Pete’s attack just beforehand and also attacks a few of the larger siege devils. Cody flips off the Jersey Devil and moves past them, angering them a lot. The devil takes the opportunity of Cody moving away to punch him in the back of his head. Several devils begin to attack Cody as he drives away and seem to follow him. Ricky and Ox hop inside of an abandoned cab and backs it up, crushing a swarm devil. A swarm devil picks up Ricky’s cab and throws it, hurting him, but not Ox. Another swarm devil brutally attacks Cody, hurting him badly, but Ricky casts a spell and takes the hit for him. The Jersey Devil, still angry at Cody for flipping him off, casts a Finger of Death spell. Cody falls unconscious. A Siege Devil charges a truck, throwing it out of the way, and begins clearing the path for its friends. Sofia teleports into the middle of the battlefield on the back of a car. She punches a siege devil, jumps over it to get to Cody, picks him up, and begins running with him on her back as other siege devils continue clearing the pathway for the rest of the devils, who begin making their way forward. JJ summons a rune of light from the magic of the waking world.
Kingston moves up to Cody and heals him, bringing him back from his unconscious state. Kingston then obliterates a swarm devil that is standing right next to Iga. Pete dashes over to JJ and casts Greater Invisibility on him. Ox bites a Siege Devil while Ricky, blinded by his anger at the situation with the Questing Blade, fails to hit anything. Iga casts Eldritch Blast, successfully killing two swarm devils. Cody, realizing he’s in over his head, charms a siege devil into attacking its allies. Several siege devils surround Sofia, but the charmed siege devil charges up on another siege devil that is by Cody. More swarm devils begin to arrive on the scene. The Jersey Devil begins to cast a spell but is counter spelled by Ricky. Angry at Ricky, a siege devil attacks him very hard. Sofia decides that it’s time to handle the Jersey Devil, so she jumps right on top of him, sustaining some attacks of opportunity. She begins attacking the Jersey Devil. Burning through her Ki Points, she attacks the Jersey Devil in flurries of blows. A car is thrown at Sofia, who backflips into the air and dives through its open doors before it lands across the opening, crushing anything it lands on while Sofia lands on top of the Jersey Devil again. Iga is attacked by a siege devil. JJ, now invisible, once again successfully summons the second layer of runes.
Kingston uses his Remote Access spell to commandeer a Tesla nearby to get it to go rescue Ricky and Ox. Ricky and Ox get inside the Tesla. Pete casts Cone of Cold, killing several swarm devils and badly hurting more. Iga casts Synaptic Static, killing many more swarm devils. Cody freaks out on a siege demon. After casting on his sword, he fully decapitates it. The siege devil that is under control by Cody kills another one, but not before that same one also attacks and kills it. The Jersey Devil, stunned by Sofia, loses its turn. Sofia curses the Jersey Devil heavily hurting it, and then continues to attack it once more against the cab. She also maintains a stunning strike against it, and the Jersey Devil remains stunned, unable to act once more. A siege demon smashes a bottle over Kingston’s head, but Kingston maintains enough concentration to keep his Enhance Ability spell on JJ. Regardless of his help, JJ fails his third round of wards. JJ now only has one more chance to try the spell before it fully fails and the demons get through, and The Battle of the Holland Tunnel remains unresolved.