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Message: <blockquote data-quote="helium3" data-source="post: 4449957" data-attributes="member: 31301">If she were fully grown, you'd be hard pressed to keep up with her. As it is, the young girl is easy to keep pace with as she leads you through the dark streets of Helen's Reach. The nightly storms have nearly disgorged their entire burden for the evening, and the rain has dwindled to a slow drizzle. Small patches of stars show in a few places and my morning the sky will be clear but for a few small puffs of cloud. The moon, halfway between new and full, is nowhere to be seen.She leads you a section of town halfway between Sailor's Hope and the Vault of Years. As she described, the area is in a serious state of disrepair. Helen's Reach is larger than its population needs it to be, and with more folk dying each year of disease, tragedy and despair than are born to replace them, every generation or so a new section of town is abandoned and left to brigands, street scum and vermin. This is such a place. Many of the abandoned buildings are burned out wrecks, the fires set by accident or intention.The old house she takes you to is in the middle of a small raft of structures untouched by the flames. From its size and  the obvious quality of construction, it was probably commissioned by a now extinct family line from the upper strata of the social order. Even now, buried as it is under years of neglect and abuse, the aura of lucrative domesticity the house was meant to convey still shines through.Little Tatiana brings you all to a nearby spot where she promises you can observe the immoral occupants without,  in turn, being observed. She makes good on her promise. From your vantage point deep within the cloaking shadows of an alley across the street you can see the front of the building.At the top of a wide set of stairs leading up to a sagging wrap-around porch, two guard drakes lay chained to nearby support posts. Beyond them is an empty doorway, the doors long lost to thieves or dry rot. Through the doors you can see a small portion of what appears to be a large room. The room is fitfully lit, perhaps by the guttering flames cheap candles or an oil lamp. You can hear voices and careful attention leads you the conclusion that there are at least four inhabitants. An occasional clattering noise, followed by satisfied laughter, mutters of discontent and the clink of coins leads you to believe that they are playing dice.Little Tatiana looks up at you, a shark-like grin brimming with wrathful expectation marring the candlekeep's otherwise innocent face. She points at the open doorway, "That's them."As promised, you don't appear to have been noticed.[sblock=ooc]Go ahead and roll initiative. Please note that as of now you have the element of surprise.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The online initiative board can be found <a href="http://www.strombolicusrex.com/img/pbp/initiative_board.jpg" target="_blank">here</a>.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The online conditions tracker is <a href="http://www.strombolicusrex.com/conditions_board.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The encounter map (800 X 600) is <a href="http://www.strombolicusrex.com/img/pbp/sitting_on_the_porch_lr.jpg" target="_blank">here</a>.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The encounter map (1667 X 1254) is <a href="http://www.strombolicusrex.com/img/pbp/sitting_on_the_porch.jpg" target="_blank">here</a>.</li> </ul>Place yourselves wherever you want in the section of the alley I've marked with the green stripes. If there are any other actions you want to take such as scouting and the like, please tell me after I've got your initiative and the square you're starting in.Also, if you experienced PbP folks have some suggestions on how to handle encounters, post 'em to the OOC thread.[/sblock]</blockquote>

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