Several goblins pop out of the darkness, scurrying across the way and taking pot shots, before hiding again. It's hard to keep track of where they are, or how many, but Caio is struck by a second arrow.

Caio takes another 5 damage.

Alaris's action.

"Oh son of a... no they did not!" Alaris grumbles, unable to respond in time to the ridiculous goblins and their arrows.

Drawing their saber, the shadowhunter moves to a central position, ready to strike if a goblin shows its nasty face again.

As the warrior steps forward, their witchlight brings into view the horrible faces of one... two... three... FOUR of the unseelie cretins.

"Two ahead, and one to each side!" Alaris calls back to the rest of the group.

Ling hisses in pain as an arrow clips her thigh. She feels a brief sting, but nothing more. Not fey bolts then, that's lucky. We did not bring any antidotes; they must be unseelie. Alaris runs right into the hall and holds up their witch light, illuminating the hall. The team go into fighting mode and work as one. Alaris draws her saber and indicates with her other hand while holding the witchlight. One west, two north, one east. Got it! Ling indicates at Caio and Alaris that she will take the one closest to her and runs east, charging into the tunnel. She draws her Jian and drives it right into the unsuspecting goblin's chest. The unseelie howls like an animal and falls to the ground, blood pooling around it. Ling spins around and tries to jump across, but she loses her footing on the slippery stones and falls into the sewer trench. JUCK! She quickly pulls herself out of the thigh-deep water and darts around the corner, going for the other two goblins Alaris pointed out. She channels her anger about the disgusting, super disgusting!! dirty water and takes the head off the next goblin with her seraph blade.

Ling smiles at Alaris as she catches her breath, sharing the battle high -  momentarily forgetting to be disgusted by the sewage water dripping off her leather pants.

Caio lets out a grunt as one arrow jabs into his thigh, but now alert to the threat he easily snatches the next shot as he looks up from his wound. As the battle begins, Caio's face is a silent mask of focus. He darts forward into Alaris' light, reading his comrade to know the enemies are hidden right around the corner. Without even looking at the goblin he twists back, his chain swinging around him to send the blunt metal shooting into where he knows the creature stands. The hammer knock's the goblin's head back into the stone wall, and Caio continues his pivot to send his shin sailing towards the creature. The first strike misses, causing Caio's foot to smack painfully against the stone. He doesn't seem to notice though, as he places it down next to the creature, stepping forward and driving with his other hip to send his right knee into the fey's face with a sickening crunch.

Nikolai instinctively throws out his hands, sending two rays of eldritch energy streaking towards the goblin beyond Ling, but the reaction is too sudden and they splash ineffectively off of the stonework. He curses, fishes a potion from his pockets and downs it.

The goblin facing Ling hurls a javelin at her that barely scrapes the shadowhunter's cheek, before scampering away into the darkness of the tunnel.

Another, to the left, shoots an arrow at Caio, but he snatches it out of the air with a spin and hurls it back. The goblin squawks and ducks before also scuttling away into the shadows.

For a moment it seems like the fey have been routed, but then the witchlight dims unnaturally and the tunnels begin to rumble on all sides. The viscous, green waters of the sewer ripple and with a splashing wave of filth two enormous fists reach up out of it to slam down on the pathway above. What looks like a hulking orangutan with a gruesome, drooping visage and tusks jutting from its jaw pulls itself impossibly up out of the shallow trench.

Julia's eyes go wide and she immediately leans forwards and begins to shift as the hair stands up on the back of her neck.

Alaris's action.

Alaris snarls as the huge demon drags its orange-pelted body out of the vile sewage! Leaping over the sewer and to their right, Alaris barks out a guttural oath in a voice choked with bitter emotion. "For the nephilim who have fallen under your fists, I make this oath: I swear on my own lifeblood -- You Will NEVER fell another!"

Alaris stabs twice with their rapier, burying it in the thick abdomen of the massive oranga-demon!

"Nice catch, Caio!" Ling shouts. About to complain when the javelin scrapes her face, Ling abruptly shuts her mouth again when the giant demon emerges from the water. "That's a barlgura! Watch out, they're reckless and can sense where their prey are!" All those demonology lessons were not for nothing. I think they had some minor magic as well... no time for that now. 

Alaris is first to react and begins attacking the demon. Ling falls in line beside her and deals two heavy blows with her Jian, leaving the creature bleeding heavily. "Ithuriel" she whispers, awakening her seraph blade's angelic energy. The demon recoils at the mention of the angel and pulls back, narrowly avoiding her third attack. She glances over at Alaris for a second, their pale hair a stark contrast against their leathers and the specks of blood down in the dark sewer. If I were the barlgura, I'd be scared of us! Or into us, who knows what barlguras like - shit, focus, focus!

Caio is about to give Ling a snarky reply when the infernal beast bursts forth from the sewage. "****." as all he mutters as he pulls out his stele. With a sweeping motion he taps the four acceleration runes on his body, one on each wrist and one above each knee. An almost visible buzz begins around his body as the angelic magic activates, sending Caio into overdrive. Like lightning he shoots forwards, joining his comrades in melee against the beast. In these tight quarters, he wields his meteor hammer more like a flail by swinging it in a vertical arc down. The blessed metal explodes in sparks as it collides with the demon's flesh. "Miniel!" he shouts next as he activates his seraph blade and plunges it into the Balruga, the rapid strike looking like a flash of light and blood.

Nikolai grasps at the empty scabbard at his hip, weaving together threads of shadow to create a sword of solidified gloom in his hand. With a gliding motion he slides forwards, sweeping the shadow blade up and under into the barlgura's gut. It freezes and twists in anger for a moment, before dissipating into black smoke.

"Yeah! Take that, monkey demon!" Ling jabs her seraph blade upwards to accentuate her point. "You picked the wrong shadowhunters to mess with!" She laughs and returns her blades to their sheaths. Using the back of her hand, she wipes the blood off her cheek - that's when she notices it. Her hand is trembling slightly. Quickly, she cleans off the blood against her clothes and tries to focus on something else beside the trembling. Get your act together, everyone is going to notice. Just get out of here, get home, top up, everything will be fine. Suddenly, the darkness, the closeness of the walls in these tunnels, it all seems utterly suffocating to Ling. She maintains a smile and asks chirpily: "Ready to get out of here, right? We can chat as we walk, obviously these goblins were down here for us, so we better not stick around." Before taking off, she briefly searches the goblins' bodies, but finds nothing that would help them in figuring out who sent them. Scanning the walls, she sees the now familiar claw mark in the middle, northern passage.

Nikolai nods to Ling. "Yes, we need to hurry. I'm concerned that this may have been a setup, Julia. Maybe not Alexi, but what our your fellow that delivered the warning? Could he have gone turn-coat? There is an awful lot of enemies in your safe tunnels and no sign of him."

Julia simply shakes her head as they hurry on down the tunnel.

"Goblins are nothing new to the sewers. Unseelies thrive in the filth. It's the demon that concerns me."

As they hurry down the tunnel, Ling turns to Julia: "I do hope Maxim is alright. I'm no expert, but I don't think these goblins could have summoned that demon all by themselves. I mean, fey have magic of course, but it's not exactly common for them to summon demons, is it? At least I don't think it is. I think someone must have put them up to it... my bets are on a warlock" She glances over at Nikolai and gives him an apologetic smile "Not you of course. Any idea whom we might be looking for? It would need some power to summon all those strixes, control the goblins and now this demon. Or maybe some warlock working alongside the fey?" Ling keeps talking and coming up with different theories on who could be behind the summonings, covering a variety of combinations of downworld and fey involvement. She goes on and on to focus on something beside the shivering in her hands and the increasing feeling of needing to urgently leave these tunnels.

As they walk, Caio will move behind Ling, putting a hand on her shoulder and giving a gentle squeeze. He looks at her with open concern, glancing pointedly down to her trembling hands. He seems to not want to make a big deal or say something to embarrass her.

Ling's prattle comes to a sudden stop when she turns and looks at Caio. Her features fall and the colour drains from her face. She waits a few seconds to create some space between them and the others, and then whispers quickly: "Please, please don't say anything." She steadies her breathing, clasping her hands to stop the shivering. Glancing back and forth, she hopes that the others haven't noticed anything. Oh God, what am I going to say? How do I explain this? Could I say I'm just claustrophobic or something? But even if Caio believes it, if Nikolai or Anatoly overhear, they'll know it's a lie. I have to think of something...

"Well I don't really know what I would say, but don't worry." he looks even more concerned at her response. Caio glances back towards the others, then back to Ling. "Maybe we should talk once we're out of here."

Eventually the grimy tunnel finally passes a ladder and Nikolai spots one final claw mark, pointing up a narrow shaft to a manhole cover.

Strength check to lift the heavy manhole cover. There's only room for one person to try at a time.

Ling nods quietly, grateful. She is about to whisper something else when she sees the ladder. With an audible sigh of relief, she climbs up and gives the manhole cover a tentative push. She grins down, all but posing on the ladder: "I think that's a job for one of you, boys!" Having climbed back down, she expectantly looks at Caio and Nikolai.

Nikolai glances at Caio, who seems to be preoccupied with other things and shrugs as he climbs up towards the man-hole cover. Whether he had a hidden strength that he had not let the other witness or just the fact that he was tired of being in the sewers... Nikolai puts his shoulders into the steel cover and pushes with all his might and a solid grunt of effort! There’s a grinding sound of metal on metal as the cover gives way and Nikolai pushes it to the side. He winks down below and pokes his head up to look around...

This sewer access shaft is located in an out-of-the-way alley behind a Japanese restaurant by the name of 'Tokyo City'. Home to the St. Petersburg werewolf pack.

Once the shadowhunters and their warlock friend have clambered up the rusty iron ladder and finally escaped the sewers, Julia knocks on a steel service door. A few moments later it’s opened from the opposite side by a nervous-looking, very muscular man, who quickly ushers the group into the building. It's around ten in the evening by now and the sounds of the busy restaurant can be heard coming through from front-of-house. The smell of soy sauce and noodles fills the air. Nobody ate much at Koreana, if anything at all, and the omnipresent aroma sets everyone's stomachs rumbling.

"Evgeny. Any news?" Julia asks quietly once they're inside.

"Nothing good," the man replies gruffly, beckoning to everyone to follow.