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Message: <blockquote data-quote="prabe" data-source="post: 8130148" data-attributes="member: 7016699">Session 20: Vengeance Is Another Word for PainDramatis Personae:Mo - Goliath Bard (College of Lore)Orryk - Forest Gnome Monk (Way of the Four Elements, variant)Fiona - Half-Elf Wizard (Evoker)Taman - Human (variant) Rogue (Inquisitive)/RangerJoybell - Forest Gnome Paladin (Oath of the Ancients)Imaktis - Tortle Cleric (Nature)/Shadow SorcererGM - Everyone Else7 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 38)In our room before heading out for the day, we discussed both our immediate plans for the day and sort of intermediate-term plans about what our next steps would be.We hoped that Tulmor would come to Pelsoreen, take the Book of Madness back to Embernook, and then we’d head out east of Rodzun to see about meeting up with the mysterious N. and learning about things there. None of us were keen on taking the Book of Madness that killed two people just by reading it to the Person Who Wanted it without a lot more information about what they wanted it for and why. (Joybell continued to hold out hope that N. wants to take the Book of Madness out of circulation and is really a good person.)Mo suggested hiring the Cracked Shield to go deal with N. Imaktis suggested talking to some clerics about the Servants of the Hunger (and the Hunger Between Worlds) and what they know about the various Books of Madness.Fiona used a sending spell to ask Tulmor when she could come to Pelsoreen to get the Book. Tulmor responded that she’d come to Pelsoreen around dinner time but can’t take the book for reasons she’d explain when she got here.Before we left, Orryk took out the Orrery and let it spin. After a few moments, it settled that it was wavering in an arc that pointed toward the Heights district of the city -- where the libraries and universities are.Mo suggested that he and Imaktis should go sneak around in the Heights and find where the Orrery is pointing to on the grounds that they were very stealthy.Orryk: Sure. <as he put the Orrery back in the bag of holding>So the plan for the day had Fiona and Orryk doing research on the Masks at Urlott’s. Possibly also on the Books of Madness if Urlott’s will let them do side research that wasn’t included in the gorgon head contract.Joybell (with Taman as a minder) wanted to do 3 things: talk to the Cracked Shield to warn them that the Masks were back in town and see how they were doing; talk to Black Irnod about who could do something with the gorgon sinus material and if he knows anyone out in the mountains who might be N.; and to find a nice present for Ammoch, the halfling with the teleportation circle in Pelsoreen.Mo wanted to talk to the Cracked Shield about how much it would cost to hire them to go deal with N. and then he and Imaktis planned to talk to some clerics about the Hunger Between Worlds and the Books of Madness.Imaktis: It’s really sad when the orcs are the high moral compass in this town.As we left the inn, Taman noticed, sort of in passing, that we had two groups of tails. He noticed initially one set, but then he noticed that they were avoiding being noticed by someone else and that cued him to spot the other group. We dropped FIona and Orryk off at Urlotts and continue on to the Cracked Shields.Taman, as we were walking: We need to take on all five corporations and take down Pelsoreen.Mo: I’ve been saying that since we got here!At the Cracked Shield, Joybell knocked then backed away from the door so that the orc looking through the priest hole could see her.Joybell: The Masks are back in town.Orc: We know. They’ve been here about five days.Joybell: You haven’t had any problems with them? Do your healers and clerics know the right magics?Orc: We’re working on that.Joybell: Good. How are the children?Orc: They’re good.To emphasize his point, we heard happy kid noises from behind the compound fence -- squealing and running and laughter.Then Mo started talking to them about if they could be hired to go and kidnap N. He made it clear that he was just gathering information at this time, not making an agreement or contract. The orc at the door went to get Rask, the leader of the Cracked Shield. Rask said that because we know so little about N. and what N. is capable of, he would not be comfortable agreeing to kidnap or kill N. But for 5 gp a day, he’d send a group out to get information. Mo suggested that perhaps, in addition to the 5 gp a day, there could be a bonus of 300 gp if the team felt they could take the person and they brought the person back. Rask suggested that, depending on the difficulty of kidnapping the person and transporting him or her that bonus might appropriately be more or less than 300 gp. Mo accepted that and said we’d let them know if we were going to hire them.Once done at the Cracked Shield, Joybell and Taman went to Black Irnod’s. He did not know anyone out east of Rodzun whose name begins with N. who might be interested in books. He did, however, recommend an alchemist in the Stonetree neighborhood, a rock gnome named Burnocka. This is the same alchemist who was recommended to Mo by the cleric at the Purveyors and Wrights we spoke to when we first arrived in Pelsoreen.While that was happening, Mo and Imaktis shopped around and bought a wooden box with a lead lining that would hold the Book of Madness. They met up with Taman and Joybell again at the temple of the Joyful.Meanwhile, Team Library was figuring out the system at Urlott’s. Unlike the other libraries they’ve researched at, Urlott’s doesn’t allow direct access to the stacks. There is, however, an excellent catalog and the librarians will bring you the books that you want. With the help of the thoroughly indexed catalog (and some great rolls) Fiona and Orryk found their way to some records, including a hand-written journal, from a group of soldiers at the end of the Fiend Wars who’d gone down into the underdark to the cities of the Duergar and Drow to close gates to the Abyss. While there, they found some Illithid hives. The hives were in the process of being abandoned, perhaps because demons and devils had started occupying the underdark.These soldiers found that the Illithid had sort of techno-magical (or magical-techno) machines that could modify their slaves physically -- making them more useful or more suited to specific purposes. Some of those modifications seem to be like what has happened to the children who become the Masks. It’s possible that someone found or took one of those machines and made it so that it would make the Masks.These reports and journal entries were from near the end of the Fiend Wars, and therefore 800 or so years old, so there’s not likely a direct line from the writers to whoever might currently have one of those machines. However, they were found in the Dunnimar Mountains (the ones to the west of Pelsoreen in the southern part of Urnod). When we talked about this later, Joybell noted that the Wold was located at the northern edge of the Dunnimar Mountains, which is broadly in the same area. (On the other hand, Barnett’s encounter with the Masks was up near Auriqua, a long way away.)Unfortunately there were no names associated with these journals and reports. And, according to the reports, they broke up and destroyed the machines they found.The only Illithids reported by any of the expeditions into the underdark were those in the Dunnimar Mountains.After that tremendous success, they looked into the Crazy Books and the Hunger Between Worlds, but didn’t learn much that they didn’t already know.While they were in the library (in the Heights), Orryk took out the Orrery to see what would happen. It spun freely.Team Not-Library rejoined at the temple of the Joyful to talk to Tormaz the cleric. As we entered, Mo dropped a couple hundred copper pieces in the poor box outside the door. As they have before, someone from the temple came by and collected most of it, leaving some for the poor to take if they needed it.Mo: We found an artifact and are looking for information about the Hunger Between Worlds.Tormaz, with a knowing nod: You found a book.Mo: Yes. Do you know anyone who would be interested in one? Or why someone would be interested in having one brought to him?Tormaz: Someone might be trying to keep it out of circulation.Joybell, satisfied that someone else mentioned her theory: Thank you!Tormaz: Some of the books are rumored to have power that doesn’t make you mad. But I’ve never known it to happen. Also, a member of a cabal may be trying to move it from where no one is reading it to where people can.Joybell: That makes sense. It was in a library -- maybe the librarians were keeping it safe. So removing it got it out into circulation.Imaktis: Do they affect everyone the same? Can some people control what happens to them?Tormaz: The results can be unpredictable. Different readers get turned into different things.Imaktis: Can people control the chaos?Tormaz: I suppose it’s possible. But I’ve never heard of it happening. Someone who’s already corrupted might get something other than more corruption.Joybell: Do you know of anyone whose name begins with N. who might be looking for a book like this?Tormaz: Not in Pelsoreen.Joybell: What about out of Pelsoreen?Tormaz: I don’t know anyone.Imaktis: Is it possible to track or detect the corruption?Tormaz: It might be detectable.Mo: What are they getting out of this? The books kill people.Joybell: They’re increasing the chaos in the world. Think about what happened in Tummeleen.After that we left the temple of the Joyful and went to the alchemist in Stonetree, Burnocka. On the way, Joybell found a nice tea set for Ammoch (the halfling with the teleportation circle) as a present for letting us use his place as a transit hub.The alchemist, Burnocka, was very gnome and he and Joybell had a very gnome conversation of hepped-up, fast talking, the upshot of which was that he’s going to work on the gorgon snot (and sinus material) and see what he can make out of it. He’s excited to work on it. Joybell is excited to have him work on it. There was much excitement all around. He should have something in a couple of days and will know how much it will cost when he’s done. He’ll hold whatever he comes up with for a month after he’s done and then he’ll sell it or whatever to cover his costs.After that, we all met up at the inn. On the way from Urlott’s to the Iron Steed, Orryk sold the random swords and armor and bows and crap that had accumulated in the bag of holding. (Treasure disbursement is at the end of the notes.)Once we were assembled, we went together to Ammoch’s so that we would be there when Tulmor arrived. She showed up a little bit before dinner, looking a bit harried and haggard. Over dinner (location undetermined, but possibly back at the Iron Steed), she explained to us that Barnett had been wearing himself thin working to restore Harl’s library. As a result of that, he’d been spending more time in Kalmarn than she anticipated, which was taking time and energy away from other things. And she was having to shoulder more of the load of their operations in Embernook.We asked her how Barnett was doing and she said that he’d doing better than when we left, which is good because he was bad then. However, their library is shared and she wasn’t going to put a Book of Madness in it where he could stumble over it unawares.Joybell: We got a lead box for it and could put a lock on that. I understand that your library is shared and you don’t want to put a dangerous book in it. But could you have a box in your room?That just got her a look from Tulmor.Tulmor: How did you come to have this?Orryk: One thing led to another...there was screaming and we investigated.Joybell then gave her the full story.At that time we slipped the Book out of the bag of holding and directly into the lead-lined box. Orryk took out the Orrery to see what it would do - as it had in the Iron Steed before, it pointed generally toward the Heights again, swinging slowly back and forth in an arc.We talked a bit about the little we know of N. and Jorlas, the courier/procurer of books.Mo: What do you think?Tulmor: I wish I knew more about this person.Joybell: That’s why we want to go see who wanted it.Fiona: But we don’t want to deliver the book to him or her.Joybell: But there’s a chance it’s a good person who wants to take the book out of circulation. It’s not likely but it could be.Tulmor thought for a little bit then said she had an idea about where we could take the book.We followed her to Thani-Breel, past the library and into the faculty lodging in the magical college. She was able to walk through the faculty lodging, which had a sort of upscale hotel feel, without anyone stopping her -- she was walking like she belonged there.She knocked on a door and was greeted by a very old looking dwarf, who looked both surprised and happy to see her. We were all introduced to Amlorr.Tulmor, to Amlorr: We need to use your safe safe for a while.He looked at her for a second then nodded. Standing on a chair he reached into a painting over the fireplace that flickered as he passed his hand through. Taman could hear the sound of clicking tumblers in a combination lock. Then there were some other noises and he opened the safe behind the illusory painting. When he opened it the whole room got a little dimmer, like the interior of the safe was absorbing the light.Amlorr: What needs to go in?Orryk, to Tulmor: You trust him?Tulmor: He’s saved Barnett’s life several times.Orryk, to Amlorr: A book of the Outer Darkness.Amlorr: Ah.Joybell: We have it in a lead-lined box.Amlorr: That probably made it safer for you to carry.Orryk: In the bag of holding.Joybell: Belt and suspenders.Joybell told him that it was in the library of the School of the World in New Arvai. An elf librarian there, Elledrian, gave it to the courier/procurer. Amlorr knew that librarian and was surprised that he gave the book to someone -- Elledrian is a sensible librarian, quiet and bookish. We mentioned that the letter told Jornas to ask Elledrian about the Raven Queen. Orryk was sure that was some sort of threat, and that’s the explanation that makes the most sense.Amlorr asked to look at the letters so we showed them to him. After reading them he told us that he believed that N. is one of the youngest fey, a woman known as the Keeper of Secrets.We speculated for a bit about why she might want it. Taman knows a bit about the fey but not tons and mostly about the Tundra Queen. But if she’s the Keeper of Secrets, she’s probably not going to be sharing it or giving it to others. Secrets are only secrets if they’re kept hidden.Joybell: So she would take it out of circulation.Amlorr: You night be able to negotiate with her to get information. Maybe about other fey, including her mother, the Tundra Queen.As we were talking, Orryk took out the Orrery to see what it would do. It spun for a bit then settled down to pointing in three different directions in turn.Amlorr, noting the Orrery: There might be some things in less safe storage. There are many who use some of the storage here in the university and the library. They may not all be books. There may be other magic items connected to the Hunger Between Worlds in personal collections.(GM: Or in warehouses waiting to be looked at by Top Men.)Joybell: When we want to collect the book, can we just come to get it? Will we need Tulmor?Amlorr: I can make arrangements for you to come in without her.Before Tulmor left, we asked how Embernook is doing. She said that the city is fine.Orryk: Of course. We’re not there.She also said that there were rumors that Administrator Alighieri was looking into installing scorpion pits.Just before she left she handed Fiona a card with a series of symbols on it.Tulmor: It’s best if no one else sees this. This is the sigils for the teleportation circle in Barnett’s room in Embernook. We rebuilt it.Then she left and we made our goodbyes with Amlorr.We proceeded to walk around the Heights, attempting to triangulate the locations of the three things the Orrery was pointing at. Orryk and Fiona tried to figure it out but were having trouble working out the locations. Fortunately Taman’s knowledge and understanding of geography and spatial relations gave him an edge on figuring the three locations. One of the sources was in Carveen’s, the library that deals with summonings (and requires blood samples as payment for entry). One was in the headquarters of the office of the city government responsible for sewage and water. And the third was in one of the buildings of the college of Thani-Breel.After that, we went back to the Iron Steed, making our usual preparations (a tiny hut and an alarm spell) and rested for the night. It passed without incident.8 Sicklin 748 (Campaign day 39)The next morning, our plan was to head back to Rodzun when the causeway came up in the evening. So Taman, Fiona, and Mo worked on getting the wagon and Secretariat (Horse2) and Mr. Ed (Horse1) ready for the journey -- getting supplies as needed.While they were doing that, Orryk, Joybell and Imaktis went back to Thani-Breel to talk to Amlorr about the three points we had mapped using the Orrery. He was amused that we triangulated those locations and told us a little bit about them. He also reminded us that the Orrery doesn’t only point to books -- apparently, it points to all manner of things connected to the Hunger Between Worlds.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">One point is in a classroom in Thani-Breel. It’s a summoning stone that summons starspawn. It is used as part of teaching a class on Really Bad Ideas as a sterling example of one. It is harmless unless someone is handling it and it is kept in a locked and sealed cabinet.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Carveen’s may have intact specimens of monsters from the Hunger Between Worlds. Or they may have means to summon things that they can then examine.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">He had no idea why one might be in the sewers. No idea at all.</li> </ul>He told us that the Orrery would point to the monsters as well as the book. Also to other types of items, like the summoning items.We thanked him for the information and then left, heading back to hook up with the others at the Iron Steed and finalize preparations to head out to meet with N. to see if we could get information about the Tundra Queen and Ildna, the rogue dilyarli that killed Taman’s family, from her.That plan was entirely derailed, because as we were approaching the Iron Steed, we heard a some commotion and saw people running. They said something about things happening at the Cracked Shield. (Note: They must have been coming to find us specifically because we’re known to have a connection to the Cracked Shield -- otherwise Pelsoreen is big enough and the Iron Steed is far enough away from the Cracked Shield that people wouldn’t be screaming and running and stuff from something happening way over there.)Orryk and Imaktis stopped at the inn to get the others, but Joybell continued riding Scooby hard to get there as quickly as possible. Because of that she got to the street outside the Cracked Shield’s compound with the rest of the party 300 feet or so behind her.When we got there the fence surrounding the Cracked Shield’s compound had 12 Masks (eep!) along the whole street facing side, with six of them near the end with the entrance (a little cubicle area that jutted out from the rest of the fence, and the others in groups of two ranged out about 30 feet further along.Taman, seeing the situation from a distance, took a shot at the nearest one and hit it, doing a nice bit of damage. Then he moved and dashed.In the nearer group of Masks (1-6) half of them started working on dismantling the doors and the other half drew their swords and turned to face Joybell and the rest of the party.Fiona cast flying on herself and took off. Orryk took two shots with his shortbow, but because of the distance he missed with both. Then he went back to running forward.Joybell, on Scooby, suddenly realized that she was a long way ahead of the rest of the party and there were a whole lot of Masks there. She decided against riding right into the middle of them -- so she stopped in the road and threw a javelin at the same one Taman had shot at, missing.Joybell: Hey! Stop that!The Masks from the other end of the building (7-12) started moving toward this end, but were still a ways off.Mo, running, paused for a moment to cast haste on Orryk.Mo: Go get ‘em!Imaktis and Taman decided that Taman would use the Cape of the Mountebank to dimension door both of them into a closer position. So Imaktis cast spirit guardians, calling up his cloud of protective flying turtles, and otherwise kept pace with Taman. Taman then grabbed a hold of him and bamfed both of them to a point a few feet in front of Joybell. Then Taman moved back some, not really wanting to be in the front lines against the Masks again.The Masks that had drawn their swords (1, 3, and 4) moved to a position just outside of Imaktis’ cloud of Spirit Guardians and waited, though we weren’t sure for what.Fiona continued flying closer, still working to get into spell range. Orryk, crazy fast anyway and hasted thanks to Mo, closed a lot of the distance and took two more shots with his shortbow, hitting Mask 3. Joybell moved up to a position where she was inside the cloud of spirit guardians but could attack Mask 3 then she cast wrathful smite and hit it for a pretty modest amount of damage but, importantly, stunning it and knocking out its regeneration for the round. Then she stepped further back into the cloud of spirit guardians.Masks 7, 8 and 9 moved up, drawing their swords and taking up positions to sort of surround Joybell and Imaktis, boxing them in. However, they wouldn’t enter the guardians.Mo continued running as fast as he could. Everyone else had taken off and left him behind. (Literally -- Fiona flew away, Orryk was off like a hasted cheetah, and Taman and Imaktis bamfed away with the dimension door.)Imaktis moved 10 feet forward, to get some Masks into the spirit guardian range, then he cast shillelagh on his staff and started to dodge -- nimble tortle evasive maneuvering.Taman took a shot with his longbow at Mask 3 (already injured and stunned) and got a nice hit for a good deal of damage. He was also keeping an eye on a group of Masks that was coming along the fronts of the buildings across the street from the Cracked Shield compound -- sort of approaching the party from the flank.Masks 1 and 4 moved past Imaktis and into the cloud of spirit turtles to attack Joybell. Mask 1 hit twice and Mask 4 hit once and with the three hits she took 38 points of damage (and was down by almost 2/3ds in one round). Eep. Those two Masks did take some damage from the spirit turtles. Unfortunately, at the end of the round Mask 3 came un-stunned.Fiona flew up and cast fireball on the cluster around Imaktis and Joybell, catching Masks 1, 3, 4,7, and 8. Mask 3, which had been unable to regenerate the damage it had already taken, dropped, but was going to come back if it didn’t get some psychic or necrotic damage on it.Orryk took three shots with his shortbow, thanks to being hasted, hitting with all of them. Nice! Then he moved around the side of the cluster of Masks, staying out of the group, and used a bonus action to dodge. Joybell cast wrathful smite again and hit Mask 1 with both of her attacks, dropping it for good.The Masks (from the far end) coming around the flank of the party moved toward Taman, but didn’t get all the way to him.Mo kept on chugging.Imaktis tolled the dead on Mask 3, killing it for real. Then he cast healing word on Joybell to her great relief. Taman moved around toward where Orryk was, off to the side and out of easy range, then used insightful fighting to try and get a read on Mask 9, which worked, but then he missed with his longbow.Mask 4 attacked Imaktis, who used a Shield spell to protect himself from the attack. Then the Mask took damage from the spirit guardians. Masks 2, 5, and 6, which had been working on the gates this whole time broke through into the fenced compound of the Cracked Shield and whatever the orcs had waiting for them.Fiona cast a fireball that caught Masks 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. (Literally all of them that were still standing, except the three at the gates to the compound, were in range of the fireball.)Orryk took a shot at Mask 4, hitting it and dropping it, but it was going to regenerate without the right kind of damage to keep it down. Then he shot at Mask 8, hitting it as well. Then he backed off a bit to stay out of range.Player: Orryk is basically a machine gun of arrows.All of the Masks that weren’t already surrounding Joybell and Imaktis moved in -- Imaktis was in melee with Masks 4, 7, 8, 10, 11 and 12 and Joybell was in melee with Masks 4, 10, and 9. Imaktis was almost completely surrounded. Mask 9 hit Joybell, not quite hard enough to drop her, but oh so close (3 hp left).Imaktis got critted by the first of the Masks to attack him (54 points of damage) and was dropped on the first swing. The others surrounding him attacked as well, and in the space of a few seconds Imaktis was dead, slashed into ribbons by the Masks’ brutal attacks.We didn’t have time to react, because there were still seven Masks alive, and they were all going to be surrounding Joybell (who was hanging on by a thread) any second now.Mo moved forward and, finally in range, cast hypnotic pattern right on top of Joybell. Everyone had to save against the mesmerising effect of the pretty lights. Fortunately, Joybell had no trouble with the save. Even more fortunately, most of the Masks were stunned by the pattern (Masks 4, 7, 9, 10, and 12), leaving only two un-stunned.The three Masks at the gate had gone inside the compound and we could hear combat and the ringing of bells.Taman moved around so he could get a good shot on one of the Masks that wasn’t stunned by the hypnotic pattern. After using insightful fighting, he was able to do a lot of damage to Mask 8 and dropped it.Mask 4 regenerated some of the damage it had taken, but it was still stunned by the pretty lights.Fiona cast magic missile on the only one still standing that wasn’t stunned by the hypnotic pattern and did 11 points of damage. Orryk moved around to attack Mask 11 with daggers from the belt, doing 9 points of damage. He then tried to do a stunning strike but the Mask saved. His flurry of blows both missed.Joybell moved and attacked the same one (Mask 11) with a wrathful smite -- hitting and stunning it and leaving it afraid of her (and therefore at disadvantage when attacking).Mask 8 regenerated and stood up. It was at that point the only one not stunned by one effect or another. Instead of attacking it turned and headed toward its colleagues in the compound -- where we could still hear the sound of combat and the ringing of spiritual bells.Mo continued his advance and used the wand of magic missiles on Mask 11, hoping to drop it before it shook off the stunned effect from Joybell’s wrathful smite. But it stayed up. Then Taman drew his rapier and attacked the same one, hitting it for a lot of damage (22 points) but still not dropping it.Mask 4, which had been dropped at one point, kept on regenerating, Fortunately, it was watching the lights and didn’t take any action.Fiona cast magic missile at Mask 11, finally dropping it for real! Because of the wrathful smite it was going to stay down.Orryk moved so he could see through the broken doorway into the compound. He could see two dead Masks, really dead (of the four that had gone that way). He also saw a few downed orcs and a lot of orcs fighting. He could hear someone that sounded like Rask giving orders. The Masks had gone deeper into the compound, past the vestibule which is all we’d ever seen of it. He then moved back to where the party was with the stunned Masks in the hypnotic pattern and held his action to punch anything that got viciously mocked by Mo.With the situation at least temporarily in stasis and no opponents able to attack her, Joybell laid hands on herself giving herself all the healing energy she could muster.Then the injured Masks regenerated.Mo moved up and viciously mocked Mask 9 -- which broke the stun from the hypnotic pattern but stunned it from the psychic damage. Orryk then took his held action to attack and got a hit himself. Taman attacked and hit with a sneak attack. Fiona used a magic missile, but because it had been regenerating the damage it had taken from the fireballs, it was still up. Finally Orryk dropped it.Proceeding thusly -- dog-piling all together on one Mask at a time and with Mo’s vicious mockery to provide the requisite psychic damage we dropped all the Masks out in the street before the hypnotic pattern ended.When the last one dropped, Joybell ran into the compound to see how the orcs had fared and if they needed help. She found 4 dead Masks and 4 dead orcs. The survivors inside were very grateful we showed up, because without us all 12 of the Masks would have gotten into the compound.She acknowledged that with a distant nod and went back out to where the party was clustered around Imaktis’ fallen body. She sat down near Imaktis’ body, next to Taman, and cried.Imaktis is dead.Treasure (from the sale of the bows and swords and crap in the bag of holding)53gp, 8sp and 5 cp per person (including Imaktis)</blockquote>

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