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[Let's Read] Nyambe: African Adventures
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<blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 7634982" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/GRZslT0.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p></p><p>It just wouldn’t be a D20 game without feats, and while we do have new modes of combat and skills they do not occupy the lion’s share of this chapter.</p><p></p><p></p><p>We have a new <strong>skill,</strong> Natural Medicine, which is basically a variant of Alchemy but reflavored to be less chemistry/laboratory-related. It is more a combination of wilderness lore, knowing the languages of features in the natural world, and such. It’s rather superfluous in that it does and crafts everything Alchemy does, although it has new rules for foraging material components in the wilderness. We get a new use for the Scry skill,* the ability to read omens based on the preponderance of specific colors. We have a brief table explaining what things are associated with which colors and whether they’re good or bad: blue can mean either loyalty or envy, pink power or poverty, etc.</p><p></p><p></p><p>*which was its own skill in 3.0 and interfaced with the spell of the same name</p><p></p><p></p><p>Speak Language details the languages of Nyambe. The three major ones of the continent are Kordo (the “common” tongue which originated in Nibomay), Daka-Alif (Kordo/Near Eastern common in the north), and Daka-Kara (Kordo/Far Eastern common in the east and coastal settlements). We also have Daka-Dia, the extinct hieroglyphic language of the Water People, Daka-Kosa of the Kosan Empire which is often used in arcane rites, and finally the unique Talking Drum Language. Talking Drum is a kind of morse code where you can transmit information over long distances with wind and percussion instruments. Some particularly large and stationary drums can carry for miles, but most handheld instruments can carry anywhere from a half mile to 2 miles depending on whether they’re masterwork and the loudness of a particular instrument. The Near Easterners and Far Easterners have their own languages, and the standard D&D ones (Abyssal, Celestial, Draconic, etc) all exist save for Common.</p><p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/6nUMQcI.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><strong>Feats</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p>Now we’re in the meat of the chapter. We technically have 59 new feats, and for obvious reasons I’m not going to go over all of them. Rather, I’ll highlight the most interesting ones. A fair amount are +2/+2 to 2 skills, a tried and true way for D20 books to extend their own word count. The book does mention that for the sake of balance that the DM should make the Skill Focus feat grant +3 to a single skill instead of the standard +2. Yup, back in 3.0 days Skill Focus was worse than most skill feats unless you took it in conjunction with Alertness/Persuasive/etc.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Sanguar:</em> This one is put first for special reasons. First off, it’s a bonus feat for all native Nyambans to reflect the development of martial arts dodging developed to compensate for lack of heavier armor. If you’re a foreigner you need to have the Dodge feat in order to qualify, and it grants you a Dodge bonus to Armor Class based on your Base Attack Bonus: +1 with 1-5 BAB, +2 6-10, +3 11-15, and +4 16-20. Wearing armor reduces this dodge bonus by one point per weight quality (light/medium/heavy).</p><p></p><p></p><p>This feat is extremely underpowered even if you do not use armor (only the gamba core class has light armor proficiency); even light chain shirt armor grants a +4 armor class bonus, and that’s not getting into magical enhancements and special qualities. Personally I’d recommend enhancing the dodge bonus by far higher, perhaps +4 minimum and +8 at the highest levels to make up for the lack of armor.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Rogue Class Features:</em> Due to the nanala variant, a lot of rogue class features are now feats. Some require you to be a nanala to qualify, but there’s no “X level” gatekeeping and some you don’t even need to be of that class at all! This really opens up some of the cooler abilities, like Skill Mastery and Slippery Mind who end up with more generous prerequisites. One of the truly new feats is Analyze Unliving, which allows one to make Sneak Attack damage against creatures normally immune to it but with d4 damage die.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Magic Item Variants:</em> First off, there’s no Scribe Scroll or Brew Potion. Both feats are replaced with Create Gris-Gris and Culinary Ashe, respectively. Gris-Gris are small bags whose trinkets are brewing with mystical energy, while culinary ashe imbues food and drink of all kinds with one-use magical properties that trigger when consumed. The mchawi and mganga get Create Gris-Gris as bonus feats, and any class or feature which would ordinarily grant the PHB equivalent feats are substituted with these.</p><p></p><p></p><p>That’s enough about the special variants. Now on to the rest!</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Astrological Magic:</em> If you succeed a DC 20 Knowledge (Astrology) check that can be made once per day, your Caster Level increases by 1 for 24 hours. Very nice.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Breath Weapon:</em> Unthlatu only. You can breathe out a cone or line of energy dealing 3d6 damage. It has a long recharge time ranging from 8 to 32 hours depending on a 1d4 roll, and taking this feat multiple times reduces the waiting period by half. Good for low levels, but is quickly eclipsed by most damaging spells.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Fated:</em> Can only take this at 1st level. You’re blessed with good fortune, and if you lose against a Save or Die spell you can reroll a second saving throw. If you succeed, you lose a level (or 2 points of Constitution drain if 1st) but otherwise remain alive. Can be great to have if you’re playing in more lethal campaigns or Killer DMs, especially so given that resurrection magic is less reliable in Nyambe. The reverse-leveling requires quite a bit of paperwork as a downside.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Fire Blood:</em> Another 1st-level only feat, you have +4 on saves vs hot things and cast fire-related spells at +1 Caster Level which can stack with Astrological Magic. You’re born with red hair, a sign of efreeti heritage.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Foreign Weapon Proficiency:</em> Select Northern, Near Eastern, or Far Eastern. You no longer treat their weapons as Exotic but rather as their appropriate category of Simple or Martial. The Northern equipment is the standard Player’s Handbook, while Far Eastern is implied to be 3rd Edition’s Oriental Adventures.</p><p></p><p></p><p>So this is covered in the next chapter, but Nyambans use a mixture of common generic weapons (daggers) and ones specific to their culture. Those not on said list from other sources are considered Exotic, such as the Longsword and Greatsword.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Impulsive:</em> On the first round of combat you can charge and make a full attack. Requires only Improved Initiative as a prerequisite, but it’s quite powerful. You may ask if it’s superfluous with the Nibomay Amazon, but said Prestige Class allows you to move normally rather than charging, which has to be done in a straight line. It’s still a very good feat.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Parrying Shield:</em> Basically Deflect Arrows, but stacks with it (deflect two projectiles per round) and you can do so with a shield. Unlike Deflect Arrows it is not automatic: you must succeed on a DC 20 Reflex Save to bat it out of the air.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Ritual Cannibalism:</em> Associated with the utuchekulu dwarves but can be taken by anyone of non-good alignment, you regain hit points when you consume the heart of a living being equal to 1d8 + the creature’s Hit Dice. It’s usable a number of times per day equal to the amount of times you take this feat. Creepy and thematic, but a Wand of Cure Light Wounds outstrips it in usefulness.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Ritualistic Combat:</em> You’re trained at inflicting grazing blows in combat. You no longer take a -4 penalty on attacks when inflicting nonlethal damage regardless of the weapon you wield. It cannot make spells nonlethal, however.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Scent:</em> Ngoloko only. You gain the scent quality common to monsters, allowing you to detect and track other creatures. A great means of foiling invisible and hidden foes.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Shadow Dodge:</em> Kitunusi only. Three times per day you can wrap yourself in shadows, imposing 20% miss chance on attacks directed against you for 3 rounds. A pretty good defensive boon.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Shadow Sight:</em> Kitunusi only. You can see into the Shadow World at will, and thus ethereal creatures and objects. You can activate or deactivate this ability as a full-round action.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Strong-Arm:</em> Substitute your Strength or Constitution for Charisma when making Intimidate checks. Most groups I know already use something like this as an automatic house rule.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Trailblazing:</em> You and fellow party members gain a faster overland speed, and treat the quality of the terrain (trackless/road/highway) as one category higher. A bit situational save in games where time is of the essence to get somewhere.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Weapon Display:</em> When in combat you can add your Base Attack Bonus to Intimidate, provided you spend a full-round action doing sweet-ass battle moves. Can be good in conjunction with fear-based debuff builds like the infamous <a href="http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?274243-Zhentarim-Fighter" target="_blank">Zhentarim Fighter.</a></p><p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/S5hS1N5.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><strong>Combat</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p>We get some brief new rules for specific kinds of combat in Nyambe as well as some conventional rules of warfare. This section is brief, only two pages long, so I can sum up most of them here.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Brush Fires</em> are a tactic in savannahs and grasslands where someone lights a patch of dry grass on fire. It can spread further by wind, covering a lot of ground quickly as a means of battlefield control. Basically you make a Wilderness Lore skill check (Survival in 3.5/Pathfinder) as a full-round action to create a fire and have it spread in a compass point direction. There’s a 10% chance each round the wind shifts and the fire spreads in another direction. Most brush fires last 1d10 rounds, although certain fuels and circumstances can make them burn faster and longer (DM’s discretion). Given that fires can create smoke which can suffocate or grant concealment, this can be more useful for those effects than the otherwise weak damage of mundane fire. <a href="http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/pyrotechnics.htm" target="_blank">Not only that, the fact that the fire is growing means that it can create a larger AoE for the Pyrotechnics spell.</a></p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Ritual Warfare</em> is basically a mock battle where two opposing groups line up in opposite parallel rows, armed with only shields and blunt throwing weapons. All damage is nonlethal and spells and melee weapons are forbidden, although critical hits deal lethal damage meaning that death is possible. The battle ends when all members of one side fall unconscious, surrender, run out of ammunition, or run (this part is considered cowardly and unsportsmanlike). This is done as a means of resolving disputes between groups with a minimum of casualties, usually over land rights.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Cattle Raids</em> have no set game rules, but is when one group attempts nonlethally to break through a fort or village’s defenses in order to abscond with their cattle. This is common among the Shombe, although any group with herds animals has been known to practice it. It is most commonly done due to an affront to a rival clan or group’s honor, but not egregious enough for blood to be spilled. As a result, cattle raids are considered a gentlemanly sort of warfare where there’s cultural expectations to not shed blood but still threatens a stake in losing. Those captured in a raid are returned to their host clan minus equipment and clothes which are taken as ransom.</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Nuba Matches</em> are where two wrestlers enter a circular ring and grapple each other until one is either thrown out of the ring or loses their footing and collapses. Direct hits are banned, and the match is conducted with maneuvers such as bull rushes, trips, grapples, etc. Although non-lethal, such matches are popular, meaning that the victor gains Experience as though they defeated their opponent in a real fight...and do not have to share the Experience Points with the rest of the party! A great way for a PC to level up quickly!</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Engolo Duels</em> are illegal, more dangerous version of a Nuba match where more lethal strikes, small weapons, and sometimes even firing arrows and poisonous snakes into the ring by onlookers is employed! But despite the risk, there is a great amount of money to be made as well as bragging rights for surviving such a deadly sport. Engolo matches often have a prize of 100 to 1,000 gold pieces depending on the lethality and the infamy of the contestants.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>Thoughts So Far:</strong> The skills are a bit unnecessary: the omen-reading can be made into a flavor thing while Natural Medicine is already served by (Craft) Alchemy. The feats range from blah to useful, and few of them felt overpowered save Astrological Magic. I did like the opening up of Rogue class features for others to use, and some of the racial ones were quite useful in utility. The alternate combat contests were short and thematically interesting ways in providing rules for sports and conflict resolution besides “kill ‘em all.” The Nuba and Engolo sports I have mixed feelings on, as in most group games only one PC will participate while the others sit around and watch. The brush fire rules are perhaps my favorite due to their tactical potential.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>Join us next time as we scour the marketplaces in Chapter Seven: Nyamban Equipment!</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libertad, post: 7634982, member: 6750502"] [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/GRZslT0.png[/IMG][/CENTER] It just wouldn’t be a D20 game without feats, and while we do have new modes of combat and skills they do not occupy the lion’s share of this chapter. We have a new [B]skill,[/B] Natural Medicine, which is basically a variant of Alchemy but reflavored to be less chemistry/laboratory-related. It is more a combination of wilderness lore, knowing the languages of features in the natural world, and such. It’s rather superfluous in that it does and crafts everything Alchemy does, although it has new rules for foraging material components in the wilderness. We get a new use for the Scry skill,* the ability to read omens based on the preponderance of specific colors. We have a brief table explaining what things are associated with which colors and whether they’re good or bad: blue can mean either loyalty or envy, pink power or poverty, etc. *which was its own skill in 3.0 and interfaced with the spell of the same name Speak Language details the languages of Nyambe. The three major ones of the continent are Kordo (the “common” tongue which originated in Nibomay), Daka-Alif (Kordo/Near Eastern common in the north), and Daka-Kara (Kordo/Far Eastern common in the east and coastal settlements). We also have Daka-Dia, the extinct hieroglyphic language of the Water People, Daka-Kosa of the Kosan Empire which is often used in arcane rites, and finally the unique Talking Drum Language. Talking Drum is a kind of morse code where you can transmit information over long distances with wind and percussion instruments. Some particularly large and stationary drums can carry for miles, but most handheld instruments can carry anywhere from a half mile to 2 miles depending on whether they’re masterwork and the loudness of a particular instrument. The Near Easterners and Far Easterners have their own languages, and the standard D&D ones (Abyssal, Celestial, Draconic, etc) all exist save for Common. [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/6nUMQcI.png[/IMG] [B]Feats[/B][/CENTER] Now we’re in the meat of the chapter. We technically have 59 new feats, and for obvious reasons I’m not going to go over all of them. Rather, I’ll highlight the most interesting ones. A fair amount are +2/+2 to 2 skills, a tried and true way for D20 books to extend their own word count. The book does mention that for the sake of balance that the DM should make the Skill Focus feat grant +3 to a single skill instead of the standard +2. Yup, back in 3.0 days Skill Focus was worse than most skill feats unless you took it in conjunction with Alertness/Persuasive/etc. [I]Sanguar:[/I] This one is put first for special reasons. First off, it’s a bonus feat for all native Nyambans to reflect the development of martial arts dodging developed to compensate for lack of heavier armor. If you’re a foreigner you need to have the Dodge feat in order to qualify, and it grants you a Dodge bonus to Armor Class based on your Base Attack Bonus: +1 with 1-5 BAB, +2 6-10, +3 11-15, and +4 16-20. Wearing armor reduces this dodge bonus by one point per weight quality (light/medium/heavy). This feat is extremely underpowered even if you do not use armor (only the gamba core class has light armor proficiency); even light chain shirt armor grants a +4 armor class bonus, and that’s not getting into magical enhancements and special qualities. Personally I’d recommend enhancing the dodge bonus by far higher, perhaps +4 minimum and +8 at the highest levels to make up for the lack of armor. [I]Rogue Class Features:[/I] Due to the nanala variant, a lot of rogue class features are now feats. Some require you to be a nanala to qualify, but there’s no “X level” gatekeeping and some you don’t even need to be of that class at all! This really opens up some of the cooler abilities, like Skill Mastery and Slippery Mind who end up with more generous prerequisites. One of the truly new feats is Analyze Unliving, which allows one to make Sneak Attack damage against creatures normally immune to it but with d4 damage die. [I]Magic Item Variants:[/I] First off, there’s no Scribe Scroll or Brew Potion. Both feats are replaced with Create Gris-Gris and Culinary Ashe, respectively. Gris-Gris are small bags whose trinkets are brewing with mystical energy, while culinary ashe imbues food and drink of all kinds with one-use magical properties that trigger when consumed. The mchawi and mganga get Create Gris-Gris as bonus feats, and any class or feature which would ordinarily grant the PHB equivalent feats are substituted with these. That’s enough about the special variants. Now on to the rest! [I]Astrological Magic:[/I] If you succeed a DC 20 Knowledge (Astrology) check that can be made once per day, your Caster Level increases by 1 for 24 hours. Very nice. [I]Breath Weapon:[/I] Unthlatu only. You can breathe out a cone or line of energy dealing 3d6 damage. It has a long recharge time ranging from 8 to 32 hours depending on a 1d4 roll, and taking this feat multiple times reduces the waiting period by half. Good for low levels, but is quickly eclipsed by most damaging spells. [I]Fated:[/I] Can only take this at 1st level. You’re blessed with good fortune, and if you lose against a Save or Die spell you can reroll a second saving throw. If you succeed, you lose a level (or 2 points of Constitution drain if 1st) but otherwise remain alive. Can be great to have if you’re playing in more lethal campaigns or Killer DMs, especially so given that resurrection magic is less reliable in Nyambe. The reverse-leveling requires quite a bit of paperwork as a downside. [I]Fire Blood:[/I] Another 1st-level only feat, you have +4 on saves vs hot things and cast fire-related spells at +1 Caster Level which can stack with Astrological Magic. You’re born with red hair, a sign of efreeti heritage. [I]Foreign Weapon Proficiency:[/I] Select Northern, Near Eastern, or Far Eastern. You no longer treat their weapons as Exotic but rather as their appropriate category of Simple or Martial. The Northern equipment is the standard Player’s Handbook, while Far Eastern is implied to be 3rd Edition’s Oriental Adventures. So this is covered in the next chapter, but Nyambans use a mixture of common generic weapons (daggers) and ones specific to their culture. Those not on said list from other sources are considered Exotic, such as the Longsword and Greatsword. [I]Impulsive:[/I] On the first round of combat you can charge and make a full attack. Requires only Improved Initiative as a prerequisite, but it’s quite powerful. You may ask if it’s superfluous with the Nibomay Amazon, but said Prestige Class allows you to move normally rather than charging, which has to be done in a straight line. It’s still a very good feat. [I]Parrying Shield:[/I] Basically Deflect Arrows, but stacks with it (deflect two projectiles per round) and you can do so with a shield. Unlike Deflect Arrows it is not automatic: you must succeed on a DC 20 Reflex Save to bat it out of the air. [I]Ritual Cannibalism:[/I] Associated with the utuchekulu dwarves but can be taken by anyone of non-good alignment, you regain hit points when you consume the heart of a living being equal to 1d8 + the creature’s Hit Dice. It’s usable a number of times per day equal to the amount of times you take this feat. Creepy and thematic, but a Wand of Cure Light Wounds outstrips it in usefulness. [I]Ritualistic Combat:[/I] You’re trained at inflicting grazing blows in combat. You no longer take a -4 penalty on attacks when inflicting nonlethal damage regardless of the weapon you wield. It cannot make spells nonlethal, however. [I]Scent:[/I] Ngoloko only. You gain the scent quality common to monsters, allowing you to detect and track other creatures. A great means of foiling invisible and hidden foes. [I]Shadow Dodge:[/I] Kitunusi only. Three times per day you can wrap yourself in shadows, imposing 20% miss chance on attacks directed against you for 3 rounds. A pretty good defensive boon. [I]Shadow Sight:[/I] Kitunusi only. You can see into the Shadow World at will, and thus ethereal creatures and objects. You can activate or deactivate this ability as a full-round action. [I]Strong-Arm:[/I] Substitute your Strength or Constitution for Charisma when making Intimidate checks. Most groups I know already use something like this as an automatic house rule. [I]Trailblazing:[/I] You and fellow party members gain a faster overland speed, and treat the quality of the terrain (trackless/road/highway) as one category higher. A bit situational save in games where time is of the essence to get somewhere. [I]Weapon Display:[/I] When in combat you can add your Base Attack Bonus to Intimidate, provided you spend a full-round action doing sweet-ass battle moves. Can be good in conjunction with fear-based debuff builds like the infamous [URL="http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?274243-Zhentarim-Fighter"]Zhentarim Fighter.[/URL] [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/S5hS1N5.png[/IMG] [B]Combat[/B][/CENTER] We get some brief new rules for specific kinds of combat in Nyambe as well as some conventional rules of warfare. This section is brief, only two pages long, so I can sum up most of them here. [I]Brush Fires[/I] are a tactic in savannahs and grasslands where someone lights a patch of dry grass on fire. It can spread further by wind, covering a lot of ground quickly as a means of battlefield control. Basically you make a Wilderness Lore skill check (Survival in 3.5/Pathfinder) as a full-round action to create a fire and have it spread in a compass point direction. There’s a 10% chance each round the wind shifts and the fire spreads in another direction. Most brush fires last 1d10 rounds, although certain fuels and circumstances can make them burn faster and longer (DM’s discretion). Given that fires can create smoke which can suffocate or grant concealment, this can be more useful for those effects than the otherwise weak damage of mundane fire. [URL="http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/pyrotechnics.htm"]Not only that, the fact that the fire is growing means that it can create a larger AoE for the Pyrotechnics spell.[/URL] [I]Ritual Warfare[/I] is basically a mock battle where two opposing groups line up in opposite parallel rows, armed with only shields and blunt throwing weapons. All damage is nonlethal and spells and melee weapons are forbidden, although critical hits deal lethal damage meaning that death is possible. The battle ends when all members of one side fall unconscious, surrender, run out of ammunition, or run (this part is considered cowardly and unsportsmanlike). This is done as a means of resolving disputes between groups with a minimum of casualties, usually over land rights. [I]Cattle Raids[/I] have no set game rules, but is when one group attempts nonlethally to break through a fort or village’s defenses in order to abscond with their cattle. This is common among the Shombe, although any group with herds animals has been known to practice it. It is most commonly done due to an affront to a rival clan or group’s honor, but not egregious enough for blood to be spilled. As a result, cattle raids are considered a gentlemanly sort of warfare where there’s cultural expectations to not shed blood but still threatens a stake in losing. Those captured in a raid are returned to their host clan minus equipment and clothes which are taken as ransom. [I]Nuba Matches[/I] are where two wrestlers enter a circular ring and grapple each other until one is either thrown out of the ring or loses their footing and collapses. Direct hits are banned, and the match is conducted with maneuvers such as bull rushes, trips, grapples, etc. Although non-lethal, such matches are popular, meaning that the victor gains Experience as though they defeated their opponent in a real fight...and do not have to share the Experience Points with the rest of the party! A great way for a PC to level up quickly! [I]Engolo Duels[/I] are illegal, more dangerous version of a Nuba match where more lethal strikes, small weapons, and sometimes even firing arrows and poisonous snakes into the ring by onlookers is employed! But despite the risk, there is a great amount of money to be made as well as bragging rights for surviving such a deadly sport. Engolo matches often have a prize of 100 to 1,000 gold pieces depending on the lethality and the infamy of the contestants. [B]Thoughts So Far:[/B] The skills are a bit unnecessary: the omen-reading can be made into a flavor thing while Natural Medicine is already served by (Craft) Alchemy. The feats range from blah to useful, and few of them felt overpowered save Astrological Magic. I did like the opening up of Rogue class features for others to use, and some of the racial ones were quite useful in utility. The alternate combat contests were short and thematically interesting ways in providing rules for sports and conflict resolution besides “kill ‘em all.” The Nuba and Engolo sports I have mixed feelings on, as in most group games only one PC will participate while the others sit around and watch. The brush fire rules are perhaps my favorite due to their tactical potential. [B]Join us next time as we scour the marketplaces in Chapter Seven: Nyamban Equipment![/B] [/QUOTE]
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