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<blockquote data-quote="Delemental" data-source="post: 2847312" data-attributes="member: 5203"><p>Violet returned in the night to report that Razael was almost certain the children had been brought to the mine. There were recent tracks of people carrying burdens heading for the mine, and the guards had been greatly increased and were now more alert. Razael said he would wait there for the rest of them. Kyle’s spell revealed all three children, asleep in the same cell. In the morning, Kyle gathered the adult members of his family together and told them what had happened. He saw panic in their faces, but it was far less than he would have expected.</p><p></p><p> “I know you’ll get them back, Kyle,” his sister Pella said. “After all, you brought Bryant back from the dead, this will be easy.”</p><p></p><p> The others nodded their agreement with Pella’s sentiment. Kyle had to fight the urge to scream. Instead, he handed a large sack of coins to Pella.</p><p></p><p> “Take this,” he said. “Buy horses and wagons, and supplies. Don’t haggle, just get what you need quickly and leave town. Take the main road to Trageon. If we can, we’ll catch up to you. Otherwise, keep going east to Fingol, then cross to Aleppi, and go north from there to Vargas. Present yourselves at the home of Duchess Autumn Verahannen, tell them who you are, and what’s happened. She’ll take care of you.”</p><p></p><p> The party, along with Togusa and Gil, left shortly afterward, heading for the mine. When they were within a half-hour of the location, Xu ran ahead of the group to tell Razael they were coming.</p><p></p><p> The tracker spotted the monk approaching, and motioned her over. “How far behind are the others?”</p><p></p><p> “Twenty minutes,” Xu said.</p><p></p><p> Razael nodded toward the cave entrance, which Xu could barely see through the tall grass. “There’s ten sentries patrolling the area. Two stay near the entrance, the others stay within sight of each other in pairs. They don’t come out this far, so we’re safe here. You wait here for everyone else – I’m going to go clear out the guards before they get here.”</p><p></p><p> Razael crept around the perimeter of the patrol area, until he was crouched atop the entrance to the iron mine. Two of Barrai’s guards waited below, scanning the clearing around them. He pulled out a cluster of arrows, and examined the dark stain on the tips. Ten arrows, ten sentries. It’d be close, but then again, dragon bile was very effective. Too bad it would be difficult to find more to replace it.</p><p></p><p> Notching an arrow, Razael suddenly stood up, aiming for the back of one of the sentry’s neck. He let loose just as a cry went out from the other sentry, which was cut short by Razael’s second arrow. As the other guards began to rush back to the mine, Razael let his arrows fly.</p><p></p><p> By the time the rest of the group arrived, Razael was sitting outside the mine entrance, with ten dead sentries scattered at his feet, the broken stumps of arrows still protruding from their bodies, and their throats slit open.</p><p></p><p> “Thought I’d warm up a bit before you came along,” Razael said.</p><p></p><p> Everyone prepared spells and weapons for the upcoming assault. Razael went in first, taking about a thirty-second lead in order to scout the opposition. Gil seemed to fade out of view as soon as the group entered the mine, blending in with the surrounding stone.</p><p></p><p> The only opposition they encountered through the top levels of the mine was the undead workers Razael had described before, and the old elf dispatched most of them before the rest of the party even saw them. Those he didn’t kill, he slipped by quietly, leaving them for either Togusa or Xu to tear apart. The group caught up to Razael about five minutes in, waiting in a corridor just before a bend.</p><p></p><p> “This is about as far as I got the last time,” he whispered as the party gathered around. “Around the bend it opens up into a chamber – roundish, about fifty or sixty feet across, thirty foot ceiling at the center, with a big iron door on the other side. Last time there was an ogre guarding the door. I just checked, and the ogre’s been joined by a couple of thugs and a couple of mages.”</p><p></p><p> “We will want to take them out quickly,” Togusa said, “before they can raise an alarm or flee through the door.”</p><p></p><p> “It’s a big door,” Razael said. “I reckon it’d take that ogre to pull it open.”</p><p></p><p> Kyle turned to Lanara. “I know you can manipulate sound with magic. Could you mask the sound of the fight?”</p><p></p><p> “For one side or the other, but not both,” Lanara said. “Anyone on the other side of that door would hear something not right.”</p><p></p><p> “I can take care of the door problem, then,” Kyle said, “no one will go through it, and no one on the other side will hear what we’re doing.”</p><p></p><p> “Great,” Razael said, “then on three everyone pick something to kill.”</p><p> The party rushed around the corner, startling the guards in the chamber. Kyle put a <em>wall of force</em> across the door, sealing it off. Razael put a poisoned arrow into the ogre, while Togusa moved to the center of the room and took up a fighting stance, offering a silent challenge. Xu dashed around the room toward one of the thugs, stopping short to avoid overextending herself. The guards quickly overcame their surprise and responded; one of the mages tried to entrap Razael in a <em>resilient sphere</em>, but the elf was able to dive out of the way just in time. The other mage tried to inflict fear into Razael, Togusa, and Xu, but his spell was similarly ineffective. The ogre roared and began to lumber forward, but his charge was arrested when Kyle blasted it with a <em>lightning bolt</em> that also caught one of the mages. The stroke of lightning seemed to fill the room with a shockwave of force that threw the mage to the floor, a smoking hole in his chest, and caused the ogre to stagger back.</p><p></p><p>The thug closest to Xu moved in to attack the monk, but spent the rest of his life regretting that decision. Fortunately, it was only three or four seconds. The other thug fired arrows at Kyle, but they were deflected by his protective spells. Gil seemed to almost step out of the rough stone walls of the chamber and impale the second mage from across the room with a thrown blade of energy. Togusa felled the ogre with two swift strokes. The remaining guard quickly surrendered.</p><p></p><p>Lanara stepped up to the trembling guard, with Togusa glowering behind her. “What’s behind the door?”</p><p></p><p>“It’s our secret base!” the man screeched.</p><p></p><p>“Not so secret any more,” Razael commented.</p><p></p><p>“Where are the children?” Lanara continued.</p><p></p><p>“They would have been taken in there!” the rogue said, whimpering, “I don’t know where… probably the holding cells!”</p><p></p><p>“What else is down there?”</p><p></p><p>“Lots of people?”</p><p></p><p>“How many are dangerous to us?”</p><p> “Well, besides the slaves, a lot.”</p><p></p><p>“Give us numbers, you worthless slime!” Lanara shouted.</p><p></p><p>“I don’t know! I’m just a door guard! I don’t go down there much! Anywhere from twenty to a hundred, I’d guess!”</p><p></p><p>“What do they do down there?” Togusa asked.</p><p></p><p>“Lots of things. There’s alchemical equipment down there, beakers and tubes and stuff, and there’s the forges. I guess they make weapons for the guild down there from the iron we mine here.”</p><p></p><p>“Does Barrai come down here?”</p><p> “Sometimes.”</p><p></p><p>Razael came over to Lanara and Togusa. “We’re wasting time here.”</p><p> Lanara looked at Razael, nodded, and walked away. Togusa drew his katana.</p><p></p><p>“For the crimes of attempted murder and conspiracy, I find you guilty. The sentence is death.”</p><p></p><p>Togusa came over to the iron doors a moment later, and brought his adamantine weapon down between the narrow crack between them, slicing through the double bars holding it closed. They heard large sections of the locking mechanism fall away on the other side of the door with a loud crash. The party quickly pulled the doors open and stepped through.</p><p></p><p>They were hit with a wave of intense heat as soon as they stepped into the next room, and the smell of charcoal and sulphur burned their nostrils. The light had a reddish tone, and the air shimmered from heat. They were at the top of a cylindrical vertical shaft, which dropped forty feet to an area where several people were toiling. There was a pool of molten metal in the center of the room, with spigots leading off the cauldron. The workers were filling molds with the spigots, then taking them to be pressed and tempered. The molds produced several hollow metal tubes, about three feet long and the width of a table leg. A ramp went down from the door to the floor of the forge, spiraling down about three-quarters of the way around. They caught a glimpse of another door at the bottom, similar to the one they had just come through. Most of the workers seemed oblivious to their presence, but a couple of guards seemed to have heard the noise of the door being broken open, and were starting to collect together to investigate.</p><p></p><p>Razael used his cloak to transform himself into a raven, and began to fly down to scout out the bottom levels. As a squad of four guards began to march up the ramp, Xu also scrambled down the wall to get to the bottom. Togusa looked down, and took a step back.</p><p></p><p>“We should make sure that we discourage anyone from going for more help,” he said.</p><p></p><p>Kyle remembered the last time they’d seen Togusa, in the city of Miracle when he’d jumped through a second-story window trying to capture Neville’s assistant. He quickly cast a spell and touched Togusa on the shoulder as the samurai began his run. The magic enhanced his jump, and Togusa landed safely, if heavily, at the bottom of the room.</p><p></p><p>The guards began to move quickly up the ramp, seeing that there were definitely intruders. Down below, three more heavily armed men approached Togusa and Xu. Togusa and two of the warriors exchanged blows for a while before the samurai got the upper hand and cut one of them down, while Xu simply stunned her opponent with a quick nerve strike. Lanara tossed a thunderstone into the approaching squad, blasting them and causing them to stumble a bit before proceeding. Kyle did one better, summoning a <em>defenestrating sphere</em> that flung one of the warriors over the side of the ramp to land on the hard floor below.</p><p></p><p>Down below, Togusa was dealing with the second warrior, while Razael turned back into an elf and shot the man Xu was fighting, helping her dispatch him. The monk then began to run up the ramp, while Razael kept a watchful eye on the guard who’d fallen off the ramp and was beginning to rise. Lanara, who was singing, stepped back through the iron door as the squad of three warriors approached and took a swing at her, and Gil, who’d stabbed at the lead guard with his mindblade and was now visible, also withdrew, his cloak swirling around him. Kyle, now facing down three warriors alone, quickly blasted the closest one with <em>magic missiles</em> while moving his <em>defenestrating sphere</em> on top of him as well, pushing the guard back and blocking their progress, though this time the whirling ball of air did not push the guard off the side. By this time Togusa and Razael had dispatched the remaining opposition at the ground level.</p><p></p><p>“Perhaps you could oblige us and send more down?” Togusa called out.</p><p></p><p>“Working on it!” Kyle shouted back, as he moved the air sphere into another guard and slammed him against the outside wall, causing him to bounce over to the edge of the ramp. Lanara cast a spell and paralyzed one of the other warriors, while Xu, running up from behind, caught the last one and knocked him senseless. Gil helped Kyle dispatch the last guard, and the battle was over.</p><p></p><p>Collecting themselves at the bottom, they tried to question the workers, who were huddled in a far corner. But they seemed to know little of the complex beyond the next set of doors, and were not even certain if Kyle’s nephew and nieces had been brought through there. After being threatened by Togusa to remain where they were, the party pressed forward, allowing the samurai to again carve through the door’s locks with his adamantine blade.</p><p></p><p>They entered a series of rough tunnels, which seemed to be used mostly for storage. They encountered some token resistance here that was swiftly removed. Many of the tunnels had rooms off of them, with a variety of materials. One small side chamber contained more of the strange metal tubes, as well as a much larger tube constructed from a hollowed-out log reinforced with iron bands. The room also contained several small casks. Razael was almost tempted to open a cask, but was reminded by an increasingly agitated Kyle that they could spend all the time they wanted looking at the thieves’ stuff after his nieces and nephews were safe.</p><p></p><p> The tunnels led deeper underground, and they noticed that the air had become moist. They stopped at another set of the large doors, though these were made of wood rather than iron.</p><p></p><p> “What’s that sound?” Lanara asked. “It sounds like the ocean.”</p><p></p><p> “Air currents, maybe,” Kyle said, clearly getting impatient. “Are we going through?”</p><p></p><p> Expecting more resistance beyond the door, Kyle and Lanara renewed their defensive spells, and then Togusa opened the door with a single downward stroke. The samurai and Razael kicked it open, ready for whatever lay beyond.</p><p></p><p> Well, almost ready. What they saw beyond the doors gave them a moment’s pause, which may have been why they weren’t able to react quickly enough to the men waiting for them.</p><p></p><p> A line of four armored men stood on a platform at the end of a long wooden dock leading out over an underground lake. Two lightly-armored men and two mages stood right behind them. Each of the four armored men was pointing one of the strange metal tubes at the party, which looked as though they’d been mounted to a crossbow stock. As soon as they stepped into the room, there was a tremendous noise and flash, and white smoke blasted out of the hollow ends of the tubes. Togusa and Razael felt something hit them in the chest; small lumps of iron that seemed like sling stones but hit much, much harder. However, the metal lumps seemed to just bounce off Togusa’s adamantine armor, and Razael’s enchanted leather defelcted most of the impact. When the smoke cleared, there was little clear effect.</p><p></p><p> “What the…?” was all Razael said, before drawing his bow and planting arrows into one of the mages.</p><p></p><p> All Kyle said was to shout out a few arcane phrases, and a <em>fireball </em>detonated in the midst of the enemy group. Like the lightning bolt before, the spell seemed to carry an unusually strong concussive force, and several people were knocked to their feet. Both of the mages were burned to a crisp, and several others were severely burned.</p><p></p><p> “I’m unimpressed with your technology!” Kyle shouted.</p><p></p><p> The battle was joined. Xu slipped quietly into the water, hoping to come up behind and surprise the enemy. Togusa moved up to engage the armored men, who were dropping the tubes and drawing swords. One of the lightly-armored rogues pulled out a fist-sized metal ball and twisted it, then threw it at Togusa and Razael. The sparking ball hit the dock, bounced, and then exploded, shooting flames everywhere and scorching both of them. In response, Kyle killed one of the warriors with <em>scorching rays</em>, while Lanara cast a <em>hold person</em> on the rogue throwing the metal balls, freezing him in place.</p><p></p><p> All in all, it was a brief battle. The enemy was quickly overwhelmed, and the held rogue questioned briefly just to confirm that the children had been taken exactly where they thought they had.</p><p></p><p> The party turned to regard the structure that had first caught their attention. At the very end of the dock was anchored one of the largest ships they’d ever seen. The ship was unusually tall, and the sides were festooned with small openings. Sticking out from the openings were dozens of the hollow logs they’d seen in the storage room.</p><p></p><p> “What in blazes does Barrai expect to do with that thing?” Gil asked, speaking to no one in particular.</p><p></p><p> “Who cares?” Lanara said, “I’m not going anywhere near it.”</p><p></p><p> “Fine,” Kyle said, “I am. Gil, stay with Lanara. Razael, find the children. Togusa, break things, kill thieves. Xu and I will find Barrai.”</p><p></p><p> Kyle, Xu, and Togusa proceeded up the dock toward the gangplank, with Lanara and Gil remaining back close to the entrance to the cavern. Razael turned into a raven again, and flew in through one of the holes in the side of the ship. Two guards at the top of the gangplank proved barely a distraction.</p><p></p><p> They separated and began searching the strange ship. Most of the people on board fled rather than confront the party; those who did quickly perished. Togusa spent most of his time on the outer decks, slicing through the large hollow logs.</p><p></p><p> Razael proceeded into the inner portions of the ship. He presumed that, even with its odd design, that the brig of the ship would be located roughly where it was on a normal galleon. Sure enough, he came upon a guarded area, and after dispatching the sentries, he began searching the cells. Toward the end of the row, he heard the distinct sound of crying children.</p><p></p><p> Razael unlocked the door, and found three children huddling in the corner; Connor, Anjele, and Sariah. Throwing the door open wide, he went over and knelt down in front of them. The children, finally recognizing the elf, scrambled to get to their feet and clutch onto him, crying.</p><p></p><p> “Shh,” he said, surprisingly gently. “You’re safe now, younglings. Let’s get you back to your folks.”</p><p></p><p> Meanwhile, Xu and Kyle proceeded to climb up to what they presumed was the captain’s cabin. Xu kicked open the door, and they saw a dozen people in the room, all heavily armed. Standing behind them was a sour-looking dwarf that could only be Barrai.</p><p></p><p> “So,” Barrai growled, “you must be the ones behind the lies. Well, I don’t know how you made it this close to me, but you’ll get no closer. These are my personal bodyguards. This will prove a minor setback at most – soon I’ll have enough weapons to arm the populace and begin the uprising!”</p><p></p><p> “Are you referring to those metal tubes?” Xu asked. “We found them to be an ineffective deterrent at best.”</p><p></p><p> “You mock me!” Barrai shouted. “I’ll have you killed slowly!”</p><p></p><p> “I’m tired of this banter,” Kyle growled. “You threatened my family. No one. Threatens. My. Family.” Kyle glanced at Xu. “Kill them.”</p><p></p><p> The monk exploded into motion before anyone had a chance to blink. In mere moments, two of Barrai’s bodyguard were down, clutching their smashed throats, while a third gasped for air, holding his stomach. The bodyguards drew their weapons and charged, but their progress was halted when rubbery black tentacles erupted out of the floor and ensnared them. Seeing this, Barrai retreated through a back door along with four of his men.</p><p></p><p> “You got this?” Kyle asked Xu, nodding toward the remaining bodyguards.</p><p></p><p> “Go.” Xu was making good use of the tentacles, grabbing people and carrying them into the spell’s area. Her magical ring rendered her immune to the tentacle’s grasp.</p><p></p><p> Kyle proceeded past the melee and through the door, walking down a small corridor before coming to another door. He used a <em>mage hand</em> to pull the door open, and was unsurprised when crossbow bolts came flying out. The bolts scattered against his protective spells. Casting another spell, Kyle walked in.</p><p></p><p> A few moments later, as Xu dispatched the last of the bodyguard, she saw Kyle walk out of the door. “Is everything all right?” she asked.</p><p></p><p> “I’m fine,” Kyle said. “I’m going to go find the others. Just to warn you, the four guards are still alive back there. But I think that once they can move, they might not have much fight left in them.”</p><p></p><p> Xu turned toward the back door, curious, as Kyle exited. She walked down the corridor and pushed open the door.</p><p></p><p> Inside, she saw the four guards, weapons drawn as if about to charge the door. Two crossbows had been dropped to the floor nearby. The four men seemed frozen in place; not magically paralyzed, as Lanara had done to the other rogue outside, but somehow held rigid with cold fear, unwilling to move a single muscle. There was no sign of Barrai at first, but then Xu saw something sticking out from behind a desk in the back of the room. She walked back, and took a look. Lying on the floor was the desiccated corpse of a dwarf, still spasming slightly. Xu regarded the body for a moment, then walked out of the room.</p><p> </p><p style="text-align: center">* * *</p><p></p><p> It was another two days before the party left Delgan. With Barrai dead, Gil was able to return to his position without fear. He was also able to use information gathered from Barrai’s secret lair to incriminate several other members of the guild, spreading some of the information to the city watch, and some to rival guilds. With his reputation secure with both the public and the underworld, Gil felt confident that within three years he’d be elected mayor of Delgan.</p><p></p><p> The information about Barrai that was not made public was far more unnerving. Barrai had wanted nothing less than to lead a revolution against the leaders of Targeth and their archmages. They’d discovered that the underground lake fed into a river that emerged onto the surface several miles away from Delgan, into a larger river that led straight to Trageon. They had been developing the strange explosive weapons to counteract the effectiveness of arcane magic on the field of battle, trying to even the playing field. Though the smaller, personal versions (which were called ‘muskets’) were still rather crude and inefficient, the larger ship-mounted ‘cannons’ seemed capable of causing a great deal of structural damage. The party found copies of the plans for the weapons, and formulas to create the explosive powder used. They’d brought along a cask of the powder, a bag of shot, and one of the muskets; a gift for Arrie.</p><p></p><p> It took almost a month for the party to reach the other side of Targeth in order to make the crossing into Tlaxan; while escorting Kyle’s family, they didn’t have the option of using magic to enhance their speed. Kyle spent as much time as he could with his family, trying to catch up on old times and get any clues he could about the whereabouts of his remaining family. Lanara noticed that in some ways, Pella and Bryant were able to pick up with their older brother as if no time at all had passed; in other ways, there was an unseen, insurmountable wall between them. Kyle had evolved nearly beyond their capacity to accept; they were used to wizards being in charge, not to inviting wizards over for a Festival banquet and to check out the new foals. Pella seemed a little more comfortable around him, but not completely. With the in-laws, it was worse; Bryant’s wife Felia looked on him with something close to awe (Kyle had given up trying to explain that he, personally, had not brought her husband back from the dead), while Vigo, Pella’s husband, regarded Kyle with narrow-eyed mistrust. Thus Lanara was not very surprised to see a look resembling relief cross Kyle’s face as their ferry passed under Targeth’s barrier and they crossed into Tlaxan.</p><p></p><p> “How long until Vargas?” Pella asked, as they were unloading their wagons in Aleppi.</p><p></p><p> “About ten days,” Razael said. He looked down at the children at Pella’s feet, and saw that their faces were streaked with soot. He was about to say something harsh when he suddenly realized what day it was. Today was the first day of the Time of Burning, Grabâkh’s festival; the children were observing the Blessing of Ash*. He’d been living in Tlaxan so long that he’d forgotten that people observed this particular holiday, but realized it made sense for Pella and her family. They lived in western Targeth, much closer to the border to the Haran and the Western Expanse, and so naturally orcish traditions would have seeped into human cultures there.</p><p></p><p> “What blessing did you ask for?” Razael asked Nathan, the oldest.</p><p></p><p> “That we find a safe home, and that no one will try and hurt Mommy or Uncle Bryant again,” he said.</p><p></p><p> Razael found he had no words for a reply. <em>I hope you get your wish, youngling, I really do. I just don’t think you will.</em></p><p></p><p> His thoughts were interrupted by the sight of a silver speck in the sky, which was growing in size rapidly as it descended straight toward them. As he watched, the speck became a bird shaped object, and as it slowed and landed on Kyle’s shoulder, he saw it was a silver raven. A familiar one.</p><p></p><p> “What is that, Kyle?” Felia asked, pointing at the silver raven that now sat on Kyle’s left shoulder, opposite Violet. “Is it some sort of message from Erito?”</p><p></p><p> “No, Felia,” Kyle said, almost able to keep the sigh out of his voice. “It’s a message, but not from Erito. She’s not really in the habit of writing me.”</p><p></p><p> “Kyle, blasphemy!” Pella scolded, covering Nathan’s ears.</p><p></p><p> Kyle shook his head and smiled a little. “I’ll have to introduce you to Tolly one of these days.” He plucked the silver raven off his shoulder. “No, this is a magical device, one used to send messages long distances. Like a carrier pigeon, except you can send it anywhere you want. And you don’t have to feed it.”</p><p></p><p> Kyle held the raven in both hands, and pressed the latch on the back that opened its message compartment. He removed the neatly folded parchment inside and shook it open, reading it quickly.</p><p></p><p> “It’s from Arrie, of course,” he said to his companions. “It says, ‘Everyone, glad you made it back safe. Kyle, hope you found what you were looking for. Please get to Vargas as fast as you can. Autumn needs our help. City’s in bad shape.”</p><p></p><p> “You think she’s in danger?” Razael asked.</p><p></p><p> “I don’t think so,” Kyle said. “If she was, Arrie would have done more than have her raven parked in Aleppi waiting for us to get back.”</p><p></p><p> “Any chance we can get there faster that ten days?” Lanara asked.</p><p></p><p> “Not with these people along,” Razael said, jerking a thumb back at Kyle’s relatives.</p><p></p><p> “Kyle,” Bryant said, “if we’re slowing you down, then go with your friends. We’ll catch up.”</p><p></p><p> “No,” Kyle said flatly, “I’m not leaving you undefended.”</p><p></p><p> “But Kyle,” whispered Lanara, “We’re out of Targeth now. Isn’t that safe enough?”</p><p></p><p> “My cousin was killed in Tlaxan,” he hissed back. “Autumn and I were attacked in the damned Imperial Palace. At best, Tlaxan is safer only because the Scion-Watchers won’t expect the Goodsons to leave Targeth. But it’s not safe. And there are threats out there besides Scion-Watchers.”</p><p></p><p> “So, then, I guess we do our best and hope Arrie understands,” Lanara sighed.</p><p></p><p> “Not quite.” Kyle motioned for everyone to come in closer so they could talk. “Okay, I’m not going to just leave my family behind. End of story. But what I can do is get some of you there faster. I have my <em>shadow walk</em> spell ready; I can put my family up in an inn here in Aleppi for the night, and get the rest of you to Vargas in about half a day. Then I’ll <em>shadow walk</em> myself back and bring my family in overland.”</p><p></p><p> “Kyle,” Togusa said, “allow me to remain here to protect your family, and then escort you to Vargas.”</p><p></p><p> “Sure, Togusa,” Kyle said. “I’d appreciate it.”</p><p></p><p> “I would like to remain as well,” Xu said. “In Delgan, we erred in underestimating our enemy’s resolve and willingness to sacrifice so many lives to strike at us. That will not happen again.”</p><p></p><p> “Well, I’ll go to Vargas,” Lanara said. “I’ll probably be more use up there than I would here anyway.”</p><p></p><p> “I’ll go with the lass,” Razael said. “I do still have a duty to watch over the princess and the duchess, and if Arrie’s calling everyone in, chances are Madrone’ll be showing up at Vargas any day now.”</p><p></p><p> “All right, then,” Kyle said, “let’s get moving, then. I, for one, am ready to put Targeth and the Scion-Watchers behind me for a while. I never thought I’d say it, but in some ways I’m looking forward to just dealing with some simple politics for a while.”</p><p></p><p> ---------------------------------</p><p></p><p>* Since Grabakh is an evil god, most people outside of the orcs are reluctant to honor him directly. However, the Time of Burning comes in the middle of winter, and since Grabakh is a god of fire, many people tend to emphasize his elemental nature over his moral stance. The fact that Grabakh's planetary domain lies within the system's sun also gives him a leg up with the public.</p><p></p><p>The Blessing of Ash is a ritual where a person writes down their hopes and wishes for the coming year on a piece of parchment (or has it written for them if they aren't literate). The parchment is burned, and the ash spread on your face - the orcs tend to paint elaborate designs with the ash, but other races don't go to that much trouble. You are supposed to wear the ash markings for the entire two-day festival, and by doing so your desires are supposed to be granted.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Delemental, post: 2847312, member: 5203"] Violet returned in the night to report that Razael was almost certain the children had been brought to the mine. There were recent tracks of people carrying burdens heading for the mine, and the guards had been greatly increased and were now more alert. Razael said he would wait there for the rest of them. Kyle’s spell revealed all three children, asleep in the same cell. In the morning, Kyle gathered the adult members of his family together and told them what had happened. He saw panic in their faces, but it was far less than he would have expected. “I know you’ll get them back, Kyle,” his sister Pella said. “After all, you brought Bryant back from the dead, this will be easy.” The others nodded their agreement with Pella’s sentiment. Kyle had to fight the urge to scream. Instead, he handed a large sack of coins to Pella. “Take this,” he said. “Buy horses and wagons, and supplies. Don’t haggle, just get what you need quickly and leave town. Take the main road to Trageon. If we can, we’ll catch up to you. Otherwise, keep going east to Fingol, then cross to Aleppi, and go north from there to Vargas. Present yourselves at the home of Duchess Autumn Verahannen, tell them who you are, and what’s happened. She’ll take care of you.” The party, along with Togusa and Gil, left shortly afterward, heading for the mine. When they were within a half-hour of the location, Xu ran ahead of the group to tell Razael they were coming. The tracker spotted the monk approaching, and motioned her over. “How far behind are the others?” “Twenty minutes,” Xu said. Razael nodded toward the cave entrance, which Xu could barely see through the tall grass. “There’s ten sentries patrolling the area. Two stay near the entrance, the others stay within sight of each other in pairs. They don’t come out this far, so we’re safe here. You wait here for everyone else – I’m going to go clear out the guards before they get here.” Razael crept around the perimeter of the patrol area, until he was crouched atop the entrance to the iron mine. Two of Barrai’s guards waited below, scanning the clearing around them. He pulled out a cluster of arrows, and examined the dark stain on the tips. Ten arrows, ten sentries. It’d be close, but then again, dragon bile was very effective. Too bad it would be difficult to find more to replace it. Notching an arrow, Razael suddenly stood up, aiming for the back of one of the sentry’s neck. He let loose just as a cry went out from the other sentry, which was cut short by Razael’s second arrow. As the other guards began to rush back to the mine, Razael let his arrows fly. By the time the rest of the group arrived, Razael was sitting outside the mine entrance, with ten dead sentries scattered at his feet, the broken stumps of arrows still protruding from their bodies, and their throats slit open. “Thought I’d warm up a bit before you came along,” Razael said. Everyone prepared spells and weapons for the upcoming assault. Razael went in first, taking about a thirty-second lead in order to scout the opposition. Gil seemed to fade out of view as soon as the group entered the mine, blending in with the surrounding stone. The only opposition they encountered through the top levels of the mine was the undead workers Razael had described before, and the old elf dispatched most of them before the rest of the party even saw them. Those he didn’t kill, he slipped by quietly, leaving them for either Togusa or Xu to tear apart. The group caught up to Razael about five minutes in, waiting in a corridor just before a bend. “This is about as far as I got the last time,” he whispered as the party gathered around. “Around the bend it opens up into a chamber – roundish, about fifty or sixty feet across, thirty foot ceiling at the center, with a big iron door on the other side. Last time there was an ogre guarding the door. I just checked, and the ogre’s been joined by a couple of thugs and a couple of mages.” “We will want to take them out quickly,” Togusa said, “before they can raise an alarm or flee through the door.” “It’s a big door,” Razael said. “I reckon it’d take that ogre to pull it open.” Kyle turned to Lanara. “I know you can manipulate sound with magic. Could you mask the sound of the fight?” “For one side or the other, but not both,” Lanara said. “Anyone on the other side of that door would hear something not right.” “I can take care of the door problem, then,” Kyle said, “no one will go through it, and no one on the other side will hear what we’re doing.” “Great,” Razael said, “then on three everyone pick something to kill.” The party rushed around the corner, startling the guards in the chamber. Kyle put a [I]wall of force[/I] across the door, sealing it off. Razael put a poisoned arrow into the ogre, while Togusa moved to the center of the room and took up a fighting stance, offering a silent challenge. Xu dashed around the room toward one of the thugs, stopping short to avoid overextending herself. The guards quickly overcame their surprise and responded; one of the mages tried to entrap Razael in a [I]resilient sphere[/I], but the elf was able to dive out of the way just in time. The other mage tried to inflict fear into Razael, Togusa, and Xu, but his spell was similarly ineffective. The ogre roared and began to lumber forward, but his charge was arrested when Kyle blasted it with a [I]lightning bolt[/I] that also caught one of the mages. The stroke of lightning seemed to fill the room with a shockwave of force that threw the mage to the floor, a smoking hole in his chest, and caused the ogre to stagger back. The thug closest to Xu moved in to attack the monk, but spent the rest of his life regretting that decision. Fortunately, it was only three or four seconds. The other thug fired arrows at Kyle, but they were deflected by his protective spells. Gil seemed to almost step out of the rough stone walls of the chamber and impale the second mage from across the room with a thrown blade of energy. Togusa felled the ogre with two swift strokes. The remaining guard quickly surrendered. Lanara stepped up to the trembling guard, with Togusa glowering behind her. “What’s behind the door?” “It’s our secret base!” the man screeched. “Not so secret any more,” Razael commented. “Where are the children?” Lanara continued. “They would have been taken in there!” the rogue said, whimpering, “I don’t know where… probably the holding cells!” “What else is down there?” “Lots of people?” “How many are dangerous to us?” “Well, besides the slaves, a lot.” “Give us numbers, you worthless slime!” Lanara shouted. “I don’t know! I’m just a door guard! I don’t go down there much! Anywhere from twenty to a hundred, I’d guess!” “What do they do down there?” Togusa asked. “Lots of things. There’s alchemical equipment down there, beakers and tubes and stuff, and there’s the forges. I guess they make weapons for the guild down there from the iron we mine here.” “Does Barrai come down here?” “Sometimes.” Razael came over to Lanara and Togusa. “We’re wasting time here.” Lanara looked at Razael, nodded, and walked away. Togusa drew his katana. “For the crimes of attempted murder and conspiracy, I find you guilty. The sentence is death.” Togusa came over to the iron doors a moment later, and brought his adamantine weapon down between the narrow crack between them, slicing through the double bars holding it closed. They heard large sections of the locking mechanism fall away on the other side of the door with a loud crash. The party quickly pulled the doors open and stepped through. They were hit with a wave of intense heat as soon as they stepped into the next room, and the smell of charcoal and sulphur burned their nostrils. The light had a reddish tone, and the air shimmered from heat. They were at the top of a cylindrical vertical shaft, which dropped forty feet to an area where several people were toiling. There was a pool of molten metal in the center of the room, with spigots leading off the cauldron. The workers were filling molds with the spigots, then taking them to be pressed and tempered. The molds produced several hollow metal tubes, about three feet long and the width of a table leg. A ramp went down from the door to the floor of the forge, spiraling down about three-quarters of the way around. They caught a glimpse of another door at the bottom, similar to the one they had just come through. Most of the workers seemed oblivious to their presence, but a couple of guards seemed to have heard the noise of the door being broken open, and were starting to collect together to investigate. Razael used his cloak to transform himself into a raven, and began to fly down to scout out the bottom levels. As a squad of four guards began to march up the ramp, Xu also scrambled down the wall to get to the bottom. Togusa looked down, and took a step back. “We should make sure that we discourage anyone from going for more help,” he said. Kyle remembered the last time they’d seen Togusa, in the city of Miracle when he’d jumped through a second-story window trying to capture Neville’s assistant. He quickly cast a spell and touched Togusa on the shoulder as the samurai began his run. The magic enhanced his jump, and Togusa landed safely, if heavily, at the bottom of the room. The guards began to move quickly up the ramp, seeing that there were definitely intruders. Down below, three more heavily armed men approached Togusa and Xu. Togusa and two of the warriors exchanged blows for a while before the samurai got the upper hand and cut one of them down, while Xu simply stunned her opponent with a quick nerve strike. Lanara tossed a thunderstone into the approaching squad, blasting them and causing them to stumble a bit before proceeding. Kyle did one better, summoning a [I]defenestrating sphere[/I] that flung one of the warriors over the side of the ramp to land on the hard floor below. Down below, Togusa was dealing with the second warrior, while Razael turned back into an elf and shot the man Xu was fighting, helping her dispatch him. The monk then began to run up the ramp, while Razael kept a watchful eye on the guard who’d fallen off the ramp and was beginning to rise. Lanara, who was singing, stepped back through the iron door as the squad of three warriors approached and took a swing at her, and Gil, who’d stabbed at the lead guard with his mindblade and was now visible, also withdrew, his cloak swirling around him. Kyle, now facing down three warriors alone, quickly blasted the closest one with [I]magic missiles[/I] while moving his [I]defenestrating sphere[/I] on top of him as well, pushing the guard back and blocking their progress, though this time the whirling ball of air did not push the guard off the side. By this time Togusa and Razael had dispatched the remaining opposition at the ground level. “Perhaps you could oblige us and send more down?” Togusa called out. “Working on it!” Kyle shouted back, as he moved the air sphere into another guard and slammed him against the outside wall, causing him to bounce over to the edge of the ramp. Lanara cast a spell and paralyzed one of the other warriors, while Xu, running up from behind, caught the last one and knocked him senseless. Gil helped Kyle dispatch the last guard, and the battle was over. Collecting themselves at the bottom, they tried to question the workers, who were huddled in a far corner. But they seemed to know little of the complex beyond the next set of doors, and were not even certain if Kyle’s nephew and nieces had been brought through there. After being threatened by Togusa to remain where they were, the party pressed forward, allowing the samurai to again carve through the door’s locks with his adamantine blade. They entered a series of rough tunnels, which seemed to be used mostly for storage. They encountered some token resistance here that was swiftly removed. Many of the tunnels had rooms off of them, with a variety of materials. One small side chamber contained more of the strange metal tubes, as well as a much larger tube constructed from a hollowed-out log reinforced with iron bands. The room also contained several small casks. Razael was almost tempted to open a cask, but was reminded by an increasingly agitated Kyle that they could spend all the time they wanted looking at the thieves’ stuff after his nieces and nephews were safe. The tunnels led deeper underground, and they noticed that the air had become moist. They stopped at another set of the large doors, though these were made of wood rather than iron. “What’s that sound?” Lanara asked. “It sounds like the ocean.” “Air currents, maybe,” Kyle said, clearly getting impatient. “Are we going through?” Expecting more resistance beyond the door, Kyle and Lanara renewed their defensive spells, and then Togusa opened the door with a single downward stroke. The samurai and Razael kicked it open, ready for whatever lay beyond. Well, almost ready. What they saw beyond the doors gave them a moment’s pause, which may have been why they weren’t able to react quickly enough to the men waiting for them. A line of four armored men stood on a platform at the end of a long wooden dock leading out over an underground lake. Two lightly-armored men and two mages stood right behind them. Each of the four armored men was pointing one of the strange metal tubes at the party, which looked as though they’d been mounted to a crossbow stock. As soon as they stepped into the room, there was a tremendous noise and flash, and white smoke blasted out of the hollow ends of the tubes. Togusa and Razael felt something hit them in the chest; small lumps of iron that seemed like sling stones but hit much, much harder. However, the metal lumps seemed to just bounce off Togusa’s adamantine armor, and Razael’s enchanted leather defelcted most of the impact. When the smoke cleared, there was little clear effect. “What the…?” was all Razael said, before drawing his bow and planting arrows into one of the mages. All Kyle said was to shout out a few arcane phrases, and a [I]fireball [/I]detonated in the midst of the enemy group. Like the lightning bolt before, the spell seemed to carry an unusually strong concussive force, and several people were knocked to their feet. Both of the mages were burned to a crisp, and several others were severely burned. “I’m unimpressed with your technology!” Kyle shouted. The battle was joined. Xu slipped quietly into the water, hoping to come up behind and surprise the enemy. Togusa moved up to engage the armored men, who were dropping the tubes and drawing swords. One of the lightly-armored rogues pulled out a fist-sized metal ball and twisted it, then threw it at Togusa and Razael. The sparking ball hit the dock, bounced, and then exploded, shooting flames everywhere and scorching both of them. In response, Kyle killed one of the warriors with [I]scorching rays[/I], while Lanara cast a [I]hold person[/I] on the rogue throwing the metal balls, freezing him in place. All in all, it was a brief battle. The enemy was quickly overwhelmed, and the held rogue questioned briefly just to confirm that the children had been taken exactly where they thought they had. The party turned to regard the structure that had first caught their attention. At the very end of the dock was anchored one of the largest ships they’d ever seen. The ship was unusually tall, and the sides were festooned with small openings. Sticking out from the openings were dozens of the hollow logs they’d seen in the storage room. “What in blazes does Barrai expect to do with that thing?” Gil asked, speaking to no one in particular. “Who cares?” Lanara said, “I’m not going anywhere near it.” “Fine,” Kyle said, “I am. Gil, stay with Lanara. Razael, find the children. Togusa, break things, kill thieves. Xu and I will find Barrai.” Kyle, Xu, and Togusa proceeded up the dock toward the gangplank, with Lanara and Gil remaining back close to the entrance to the cavern. Razael turned into a raven again, and flew in through one of the holes in the side of the ship. Two guards at the top of the gangplank proved barely a distraction. They separated and began searching the strange ship. Most of the people on board fled rather than confront the party; those who did quickly perished. Togusa spent most of his time on the outer decks, slicing through the large hollow logs. Razael proceeded into the inner portions of the ship. He presumed that, even with its odd design, that the brig of the ship would be located roughly where it was on a normal galleon. Sure enough, he came upon a guarded area, and after dispatching the sentries, he began searching the cells. Toward the end of the row, he heard the distinct sound of crying children. Razael unlocked the door, and found three children huddling in the corner; Connor, Anjele, and Sariah. Throwing the door open wide, he went over and knelt down in front of them. The children, finally recognizing the elf, scrambled to get to their feet and clutch onto him, crying. “Shh,” he said, surprisingly gently. “You’re safe now, younglings. Let’s get you back to your folks.” Meanwhile, Xu and Kyle proceeded to climb up to what they presumed was the captain’s cabin. Xu kicked open the door, and they saw a dozen people in the room, all heavily armed. Standing behind them was a sour-looking dwarf that could only be Barrai. “So,” Barrai growled, “you must be the ones behind the lies. Well, I don’t know how you made it this close to me, but you’ll get no closer. These are my personal bodyguards. This will prove a minor setback at most – soon I’ll have enough weapons to arm the populace and begin the uprising!” “Are you referring to those metal tubes?” Xu asked. “We found them to be an ineffective deterrent at best.” “You mock me!” Barrai shouted. “I’ll have you killed slowly!” “I’m tired of this banter,” Kyle growled. “You threatened my family. No one. Threatens. My. Family.” Kyle glanced at Xu. “Kill them.” The monk exploded into motion before anyone had a chance to blink. In mere moments, two of Barrai’s bodyguard were down, clutching their smashed throats, while a third gasped for air, holding his stomach. The bodyguards drew their weapons and charged, but their progress was halted when rubbery black tentacles erupted out of the floor and ensnared them. Seeing this, Barrai retreated through a back door along with four of his men. “You got this?” Kyle asked Xu, nodding toward the remaining bodyguards. “Go.” Xu was making good use of the tentacles, grabbing people and carrying them into the spell’s area. Her magical ring rendered her immune to the tentacle’s grasp. Kyle proceeded past the melee and through the door, walking down a small corridor before coming to another door. He used a [I]mage hand[/I] to pull the door open, and was unsurprised when crossbow bolts came flying out. The bolts scattered against his protective spells. Casting another spell, Kyle walked in. A few moments later, as Xu dispatched the last of the bodyguard, she saw Kyle walk out of the door. “Is everything all right?” she asked. “I’m fine,” Kyle said. “I’m going to go find the others. Just to warn you, the four guards are still alive back there. But I think that once they can move, they might not have much fight left in them.” Xu turned toward the back door, curious, as Kyle exited. She walked down the corridor and pushed open the door. Inside, she saw the four guards, weapons drawn as if about to charge the door. Two crossbows had been dropped to the floor nearby. The four men seemed frozen in place; not magically paralyzed, as Lanara had done to the other rogue outside, but somehow held rigid with cold fear, unwilling to move a single muscle. There was no sign of Barrai at first, but then Xu saw something sticking out from behind a desk in the back of the room. She walked back, and took a look. Lying on the floor was the desiccated corpse of a dwarf, still spasming slightly. Xu regarded the body for a moment, then walked out of the room. [CENTER]* * *[/CENTER] It was another two days before the party left Delgan. With Barrai dead, Gil was able to return to his position without fear. He was also able to use information gathered from Barrai’s secret lair to incriminate several other members of the guild, spreading some of the information to the city watch, and some to rival guilds. With his reputation secure with both the public and the underworld, Gil felt confident that within three years he’d be elected mayor of Delgan. The information about Barrai that was not made public was far more unnerving. Barrai had wanted nothing less than to lead a revolution against the leaders of Targeth and their archmages. They’d discovered that the underground lake fed into a river that emerged onto the surface several miles away from Delgan, into a larger river that led straight to Trageon. They had been developing the strange explosive weapons to counteract the effectiveness of arcane magic on the field of battle, trying to even the playing field. Though the smaller, personal versions (which were called ‘muskets’) were still rather crude and inefficient, the larger ship-mounted ‘cannons’ seemed capable of causing a great deal of structural damage. The party found copies of the plans for the weapons, and formulas to create the explosive powder used. They’d brought along a cask of the powder, a bag of shot, and one of the muskets; a gift for Arrie. It took almost a month for the party to reach the other side of Targeth in order to make the crossing into Tlaxan; while escorting Kyle’s family, they didn’t have the option of using magic to enhance their speed. Kyle spent as much time as he could with his family, trying to catch up on old times and get any clues he could about the whereabouts of his remaining family. Lanara noticed that in some ways, Pella and Bryant were able to pick up with their older brother as if no time at all had passed; in other ways, there was an unseen, insurmountable wall between them. Kyle had evolved nearly beyond their capacity to accept; they were used to wizards being in charge, not to inviting wizards over for a Festival banquet and to check out the new foals. Pella seemed a little more comfortable around him, but not completely. With the in-laws, it was worse; Bryant’s wife Felia looked on him with something close to awe (Kyle had given up trying to explain that he, personally, had not brought her husband back from the dead), while Vigo, Pella’s husband, regarded Kyle with narrow-eyed mistrust. Thus Lanara was not very surprised to see a look resembling relief cross Kyle’s face as their ferry passed under Targeth’s barrier and they crossed into Tlaxan. “How long until Vargas?” Pella asked, as they were unloading their wagons in Aleppi. “About ten days,” Razael said. He looked down at the children at Pella’s feet, and saw that their faces were streaked with soot. He was about to say something harsh when he suddenly realized what day it was. Today was the first day of the Time of Burning, Grabâkh’s festival; the children were observing the Blessing of Ash*. He’d been living in Tlaxan so long that he’d forgotten that people observed this particular holiday, but realized it made sense for Pella and her family. They lived in western Targeth, much closer to the border to the Haran and the Western Expanse, and so naturally orcish traditions would have seeped into human cultures there. “What blessing did you ask for?” Razael asked Nathan, the oldest. “That we find a safe home, and that no one will try and hurt Mommy or Uncle Bryant again,” he said. Razael found he had no words for a reply. [I]I hope you get your wish, youngling, I really do. I just don’t think you will.[/I] His thoughts were interrupted by the sight of a silver speck in the sky, which was growing in size rapidly as it descended straight toward them. As he watched, the speck became a bird shaped object, and as it slowed and landed on Kyle’s shoulder, he saw it was a silver raven. A familiar one. “What is that, Kyle?” Felia asked, pointing at the silver raven that now sat on Kyle’s left shoulder, opposite Violet. “Is it some sort of message from Erito?” “No, Felia,” Kyle said, almost able to keep the sigh out of his voice. “It’s a message, but not from Erito. She’s not really in the habit of writing me.” “Kyle, blasphemy!” Pella scolded, covering Nathan’s ears. Kyle shook his head and smiled a little. “I’ll have to introduce you to Tolly one of these days.” He plucked the silver raven off his shoulder. “No, this is a magical device, one used to send messages long distances. Like a carrier pigeon, except you can send it anywhere you want. And you don’t have to feed it.” Kyle held the raven in both hands, and pressed the latch on the back that opened its message compartment. He removed the neatly folded parchment inside and shook it open, reading it quickly. “It’s from Arrie, of course,” he said to his companions. “It says, ‘Everyone, glad you made it back safe. Kyle, hope you found what you were looking for. Please get to Vargas as fast as you can. Autumn needs our help. City’s in bad shape.” “You think she’s in danger?” Razael asked. “I don’t think so,” Kyle said. “If she was, Arrie would have done more than have her raven parked in Aleppi waiting for us to get back.” “Any chance we can get there faster that ten days?” Lanara asked. “Not with these people along,” Razael said, jerking a thumb back at Kyle’s relatives. “Kyle,” Bryant said, “if we’re slowing you down, then go with your friends. We’ll catch up.” “No,” Kyle said flatly, “I’m not leaving you undefended.” “But Kyle,” whispered Lanara, “We’re out of Targeth now. Isn’t that safe enough?” “My cousin was killed in Tlaxan,” he hissed back. “Autumn and I were attacked in the damned Imperial Palace. At best, Tlaxan is safer only because the Scion-Watchers won’t expect the Goodsons to leave Targeth. But it’s not safe. And there are threats out there besides Scion-Watchers.” “So, then, I guess we do our best and hope Arrie understands,” Lanara sighed. “Not quite.” Kyle motioned for everyone to come in closer so they could talk. “Okay, I’m not going to just leave my family behind. End of story. But what I can do is get some of you there faster. I have my [I]shadow walk[/I] spell ready; I can put my family up in an inn here in Aleppi for the night, and get the rest of you to Vargas in about half a day. Then I’ll [I]shadow walk[/I] myself back and bring my family in overland.” “Kyle,” Togusa said, “allow me to remain here to protect your family, and then escort you to Vargas.” “Sure, Togusa,” Kyle said. “I’d appreciate it.” “I would like to remain as well,” Xu said. “In Delgan, we erred in underestimating our enemy’s resolve and willingness to sacrifice so many lives to strike at us. That will not happen again.” “Well, I’ll go to Vargas,” Lanara said. “I’ll probably be more use up there than I would here anyway.” “I’ll go with the lass,” Razael said. “I do still have a duty to watch over the princess and the duchess, and if Arrie’s calling everyone in, chances are Madrone’ll be showing up at Vargas any day now.” “All right, then,” Kyle said, “let’s get moving, then. I, for one, am ready to put Targeth and the Scion-Watchers behind me for a while. I never thought I’d say it, but in some ways I’m looking forward to just dealing with some simple politics for a while.” --------------------------------- * Since Grabakh is an evil god, most people outside of the orcs are reluctant to honor him directly. However, the Time of Burning comes in the middle of winter, and since Grabakh is a god of fire, many people tend to emphasize his elemental nature over his moral stance. The fact that Grabakh's planetary domain lies within the system's sun also gives him a leg up with the public. The Blessing of Ash is a ritual where a person writes down their hopes and wishes for the coming year on a piece of parchment (or has it written for them if they aren't literate). The parchment is burned, and the ash spread on your face - the orcs tend to paint elaborate designs with the ash, but other races don't go to that much trouble. You are supposed to wear the ash markings for the entire two-day festival, and by doing so your desires are supposed to be granted. [/QUOTE]
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