3536/Tall Tales among the Narrows I

Tall Tales among the Narrows I
Date of Scene:	24 September 2020
Location:	St. Francis Church, The Narrows
Synopsis:	No description
Cast of Characters:	Phoebe Beacon, Tim Drake, Roy Harper

---

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    The Saint Francis Church was a derelict hulk of what it used to be. Once upon a time a place where the poor of the Narrows could find succor and relief, it was disenfranchised some time in the 80's, and briefly spent time as a tourist attraction, a brief stint as a homeless shelter, and finally was one of the buildings caught in the Great Blaze three years ago.

    Many of its faceted stain glass windows were broken, either from fire or from stones and flotsam. The remains of pews are piled to one side, some of them torched and broken. The saints in this church had been removed, but the stands with the names of martyrs and patron saints of the poor still stand. Needles, old blankets, newspapers and cast-offs of yesteryear litter the inside of the Sanctum.

    It's here that Balm lands. She has no cape, but is wearing the familiar, close kevlar armor that many Gotham superheroes use. She has a hood pulled over her head, and wears a gray domino beneath.

    "So, from what I heard at school," the highschooler recounts, "some teens snuck in to have a night of urban exploration, and ran into a ghost. This is pretty near one of the camps I help, I would like to see if it's one of the men from the camp that's gone missing." she states.

Tim Drake has posed:
So normally, non-Bats investigating things in Gotham would be a non-starter. However, Red Robin already knows Batman looks the other way on Balm (and in fact, plans to talk to her personally at some point when he isn't dealing with the Court), and Arsenal?

Well, come on, dad, it's not like bringing CONNER around to do sneaky Bat-things. Arsenal is just like a Bat, but an... arrow-y Bat. Or something. Whatever. If Batman finds out and takes umbrage with it, Red Robin's already decided he'll take whatever heat there is. Though he doubts there'll be any, given that Arsenal is the protégé of Batman's Arrow-bro, Green Arrow.

Speaking of that, "So, why Arsenal and not Red Arrow?" Red Robin asks idly as he glances around the dilapidated church. "And yeah, Balm, that's far more likely than a ghost. I've seen weird stuff in Gotham, but ghosts I'm still pretty sure are in the realm of 'not real'."

Sweet summer child, Tim. If only you knew what was in store for you soon enough. But that's another plot.

Roy Harper has posed:
Roy could be a bat! If the OTHER broody rich guy hadn't found him first.. His own dark red costume actually blends fairly well in the darkness, making him difficult to see with its matte coloration and its hood. He wears the usual domino mask as well, quiver on his back and armed with his usual selection of arrows depending on his need. "I was Red Arrow for a while, and Speedy before that," he admits. "But then Green Arrow and I kind of had a split, and I picked up a lot more than just the bow. So it was kind of a -- this is me on my own thing. But.. things are better now. I'm back with the team. But I'm keeping the name. It's mine. I chose it."

He takes a look around the church and upon seeing the needles and blankets, unconsciously rubs the inside of one of his arms, not even aware he's doing it, as though there's an itch he could scratch through his suit. "Never seen a real haunting. Shoulda brought an EMF meter. We could go all Ghost Hunters in here."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    The question truly is, how long has the Batman looked the other way?

    (Probably as long as Balm has been sneaking out of her house to bring fresh socks and heals to the homeless).

    "Isn't Red Arrow a diner on the corner of 15th and North?" Balm replies, conversationally as she turns over some magazines, and apparently finding something not to her liking, her lips twisting into a grimmace before she flips the magazine back over.

    "I beleive in ghosts -- there is a certain energy to a person, and since I beleive in an afterlife -- oooof sorts -- there must be something that should go on, but sometimes doesn't." she gives a wry grin back to the two.

    "But I agree, it's probably one or two of the men from the camp." -- she spots the rubbing on Arsenal, but chooses to overlook it, for n ow -- instead moving closer to him as if her mere presence could comfort.

    "This is built on the same plan as Our Lady of the Cypress; there should be--" she begins, walking towards a corner "... a stairway to the organ and to the basement --"

    There's a soft 'thud' -- and a mighty wheezing sound. The organ above, its pipes decript but still erect, begins to notelessly hum. A Creepy Cacaphony as a few disturbed birds -- and a couple of Gotham's non-crime-fighting-bats, flitter around the inside of the sanctum, below its ruined roof.

Roy Harper has posed:
"I don't know, is it?" Roy asks Phoebe. To be honest, he has no idea. Could be! "I think there's someone else using that name now, anyway." Though he couldn't tell you by who. He just doesn't pay attention to that much, either way. He doesn't seem to mind Phoebe's presence at all, though he also doesn't seem to realize why she's moved closer either.

"I like old churches," Roy opines as they make their way through it. "The stone ones especially. Organs are kind of interesting." He glances up at the thud and the noise from the organ. "Something fall on the keys?" he wonders idly as he looks about for the stairs.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "... ah, as far as I know you have to start up the bellows... and there's no electricity to the church... I think...." Phoebe states, clearly a little unnerved. She grabs a small flashlight from ber bag, and ticking it on, checks where she was placing her hand "And this is the door to the organ seat -- but the bellows control isn't here." she breathes out, peering up into the darkness.

    "Paul? Are you up there?" she calls out.

    And just as suddenly as the tuneless, noteless cacaphony decrecendos into nothing, and the wheezing ebbs off.

    There is not, however, movement from the top.

Roy Harper has posed:
Roy has no idea how organs work. They are not one of the many things that he has tinkered with or read up on, so this falls outside of even his weird random jack-of-all-trades knowledge. He tilts his head a little to one side as she calls out and then he shrugs, "May as well go up and see." Because they're there, and maybe it's a very talented organ playing squirrel -- and who would want to miss that?

And so Roy heads on up the stairs toward the organ nest to see what he can see, moving carefully and quietly so as not to simply go barreling out there.

Tim Drake has posed:
Red Robin flinches from the sound of the massively out of tune organ. He follows Arsenal in silence, a frown on his face.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    The stairway is very narrow; Balm brings up the rear. The stairs are also steep, with very narrow treads. There are two turns in the stairs as they double back on each other and then open to the platform of the console -- three layers of keyboards and the footpedals. It's a mess up here.

    There are ancient beer cans -- and not even a good beer brand. There's suspicious stains of yellowish in the corners, and it stinks of ammonia up here as Arsenal and Red Robin make their way into the console area. There is certainly signs of creatures -- the keys are chewed up, and in some cases missing entirely. The bench is gone. The carpet has been pulled up in places and there is the sign that once upon a time, hornets made a nest here under the console -- thankfully they appear to have vacated!

    The two young men would find themselves at once looking over the sanctum from the front, where the altar would be below them, and amongst the wreckage there is someone standing there, near the front where the three teens had gone up the stairs.

Roy Harper has posed:
Arsenal takes a look around the balcony, taking it all in. He's been places that smell worse, but not a lot worse. He makes a point of trying not to /breathe/ too much as he examines the organ, but doesn't see anything immediately noteworthy about the instrument itself. It's instead, the figure on the ground floor that draws his attention. One brow goes up a little as he turns in that direction and studies the figure, trying to make out who or what it might be from their current position. He doesn't call out or say anything immediately, instead asking Phoebe, "Is that who you are looking for?"

Tim Drake has posed:
Red Robin is quick to pull a batarang out, eyes narrowing as he scans the form below. "Not a ghost," he murmurs quietly to Balm and Arsenal, not that he expected otherwise. He nods to Arsenal's question, having the same one.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    The figure's indistinct; the hood they wear is long, stretching down past their back, like some sort of monk. The hood is pulled forward, hiding their face as they stand, near the doorway, as if blocking the escape back to the sanctum.

    As Red Robin and Arsenal turn to look for Balm, they would find where she would have been standing, closest to the doorway, completely empty.

    Her little flashlight was still on, though on the floor.

    The figure does not appear to make any sound, though the head tilts, regarding the two young men up on the console platform.

Roy Harper has posed:
It's a whole lot faster to go down than it is to go up. Roy plants one hand on the railing of the balcony and vaults over it onto the floor below with practiced ease before beginning an approach on the hooded figure. "So, you're not a ghost. Who are you, then? You been staying here? Because your interior decorating could use a little work."

Tim Drake has posed:
"Balm?" Red Robin scans the area looking for additional heat signatures, trusting Arsenal to handle the 'monk' below. He picks up the flashlight, flicking it off... his scanners and low light vision in his domino mask work better than a flashlight anyway.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    The monk below takes a few steps back away from Arsenal, the head tilting a little more, the slight shine of the low light bouncing, briefly, off an eye beneath the hood.

    "Je promets que je ne veux pas de mal--" he speaks, voice gravelly, deep, sounding like something bouncing out of a well, " -- qu'est-ce que tu promets, je me demande?"

    Another step back, and there's a 'thump' sound. The organ behind Red Robin wheezes to life again, and the monk's robe collapses in on itself!

    Balm is nowhere to be seen. The flashlight turned off, the low light vision in Robin's domino would pick up disturbances in the dust -- his footsteps and Arsenal's reach the top of the stairs. Balm's -- her feet smaller than Tim's or Roy's -- reaches very nearly to the top stair, and then there's a scrape off to the side. The wood on the pannel near where that scrape is... is shinier than the rest of the water damaged wood. As if it had recently been replaced.

Roy Harper has posed:
"Aw fuck, I knew I shoulda paid more attention in French," Arsenal says as he stares at the gravelly-voiced figure. "You promise nothing.. bad? I promise.. you ask? Tim, do you speak French? This guy's speaking..." And then there's a thump and the dude vanishes. Well, that's just rude! "Oh come on," he mutters. "You find anything up there? Where's Balm?" He takes another look around the lower level, moving over to where the robe collapsed to see if there's anything under it -- some kind of trap door, secret passage, magician's cabinet, fancy hoodoo veve or whatnot.

Tim Drake has posed:
In French, Red Robin replies, "We mean no harm either, just looking for our friend." Then in English, he translates to Arsenal, both what he said and the monk. He begins climbing up and inspecting the new wood panel, then pushes it gently to see if it's loose or opens.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    The organ, again, dies down. The sound ebbs off in an exhausted fashion.

    Though Balm would have given Roy a look over his language, she's not here right now to police the four letter words. Shifting the monk's robe to the side, Roy would find that -- yes indeed! -- a TRAP DOOR. Because what church doesn't have trap doors built into its ruined floor? Isn't it standard?

    Tim's investigations would turn up that the panel, indeed, is a little bit loose. A couple of pushes on the side, and it opens into a dark hole!

     -- which curves downward, coated in tough plastic, like a slide. Nothing to grab onto, too narrow for more than one person to fit down. Anyone too big and bulky would probably end up getting caught.

    But wherever this leads, Balm's probably down there!

Roy Harper has posed:
Poor Balm, there are many habits that Arsenal is trying to break but cussin' isn't one of them. He drags up the trap door if he can manage to open it, and then, after peering down where it goes, decides to follow into the rabbit hole. "I'm going to check out this hole and see what's down it," he tells Tim before doing just that. Because if Balm's down there, no time like the present to go find her. God help us if he has to speak French to whoever is at the bottom.