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<blockquote data-quote="Cafu" data-source="post: 6911895" data-attributes="member: 6692807"><p>And with that, she and the others began to take up guard positions near the entrance to the Sky Walk. We flew up the stairs and John moved down the corridor until he reached the door at the far end. Felix, in the meantime, was doing a little healing on Victor, who had suffered badly against the dragons, so John waited a few moments and then, as Longhelim positioned himself, opened the door. </p><p> </p><p>Inside, there was a group of figures dressed in fine shirts and red trousers. They had daggers, which they threw skillfully at John and then slammed the door shut. Victor also moved forward at that point as John scurried back; I was getting ready to intervene when Longhelim motioned me to be still. I heard the door open again and the thunk of daggers hitting something; I assumed it was Victor. </p><p> </p><p>Another moment and then I heard a shout from Victor: </p><p> </p><p>“Go!”</p><p> </p><p>I saw Longhelim fly forward and I looked around the corner. The warrior had wedged himself in the doorway as Longhelim went through the space and began to engage the guards. More importantly, Drudge had also stepped forward and I saw him fire a volley of arrows at an enemy inside. I didn’t see the results but I suspected that they were not very good for his target; they never were. I followed up, to see only a couple of the guards left and both Longhelim and Victor were mopping them up. It was a very unequal battle. </p><p> </p><p>Time was of the essence now; we move through the guard post and opened the opposite door into another corridor. Quickly, the warriors moved to a corner and glanced left; then both Victor and Longhelim moved down the corridor, quickly followed up by Felix and Drudge and finally myself. John stayed behind and in fact went back; then I remembered that Victor had had to drop the Living Blade of Innenotdar in the corridor and no doubt the rogue was going back to get it. </p><p> </p><p>I moved down to the corner and saw a long corridor, as we had been told by Jorine; simultaneously, as we suspected, I saw that the two warriors had been engaged by two enormous statues of golden bears. Having said that, they were beginning to lose their tarnish under Longhelim and Victor’s blows but they still looked like formidable opponents. Irritatingly, if they were like most magical constructs, then they would be immune to most magic; which meant that there was very little I could do against them. Still, the warriors seemed to have it under control. </p><p> </p><p>Until suddenly a hidden door opened in the corner of the corridor right opposite and a stream of Ragesian guardsmen began trying to surround us in the corridor. Thankfully, I managed to get a magical wall in front of them, to block the door. That led to the first door opening and another stream of guardsmen appeared; this was quickly followed by the opening of another door and they were joined by another squad. </p><p> </p><p>There was a huge group of people in the corridor already when other doors began opening and there was as shout from the front of the corridor: Longhelim’s voice: </p><p> </p><p>“There’s another bunch down here!” </p><p> </p><p>It was getting dangerously crowded but it suddenly occurred to me that I couldn’t see the statues any more. Drudge shot a volley of arrows and figures fell; many, many figures. It seemed as if every time he shot an arrow, one of the guardsmen died. Victor stepped in and in a series of complicated steps and maneuvers sliced his way through one of the squads; where he went, soldiers fell. That was fortunate as another two squads suddenly appeared in the corridor ahead, running towards us. This palace must have been guarded by veritable regiments.</p><p> </p><p>Suddenly, I saw a column of fire behind us, hitting another of the squads; I looked around, since Felix was next to me and he seemed to be doing something else; then I saw John wave his hands around and the light glinted off his new ring. Handy piece of jewelry that; it certainly seemed to have toasted that squad. </p><p> </p><p>The squads to the rear seemed to be getting their bows out and a rain of arrows flew through the corridor. Some of them struck their own men but that did not seem to trouble them; of more concern was the fact that I was their main target. However, we had our own archer and he seemed to be the equivalent of one of those squads on his own – only better. As Drudge shot volley after volley, men, orcs and half orcs fell. </p><p> </p><p>I was badly hurt and Felix poured healing magic into me, which was lucky as yet another squad unloaded, with again me being their main target. I could see that Longhelim was retreating from around the corner and drawing another squad after him. This one was obviously hurt as it had been fighting the paladin but it was still attempting to cut him down. Fortunately, my defensive spell, which toughened the skin, was still active both on the warriors and I. </p><p> </p><p>As soon as Victor and Longhelim managed to combine their fighting styles and attack the squads as a pair, they began carving their way through the guards at a frightening rate. This, in combination with Drudge’s devastating archery proceeded to rapidly cull the onrushing guardsmen. </p><p> </p><p>Finally, there were none left. </p><p> </p><p>We did a little re-organising; Victor collected the Living Blade from John and found that his ability to magically summon it did not work within the palace. I suspected that transportation magic was similarly curtailed. Those who could were doing some general healing but the key was speed and we moved down the corridor. As we arrived at the end, we were in a quandary. The corridor turned to the left but there were a pair of doors in front of us; as it continued to the left, there it also ended in a pair of doors. </p><p> </p><p>As Longhelim and Victor led, the former spoke: </p><p> </p><p>“Faden, which doors?”</p><p> </p><p>I cast my mind back and replied: </p><p> </p><p>“Jorine said doors at the end of the corridor, through the harem.”</p><p> </p><p>Without hesitation, the paladin shouted: </p><p> </p><p>“John, doors ahead!”</p><p> </p><p>John sped ahead of us and reached them just as we turned the corner. He began to crouch down until trying to see if they were locked or trapped when they suddenly opened and a group of the same guards was behind them; those with the flamboyant red trousers, impressive physiques, a lot of daggers and not much else; they proceeded to lob the daggers into John; and as before, these knives returned to them as soon as they were thrown. Poor John was hit several times and then the doors shut. </p><p> </p><p>Thankfully, or not so, we also managed to catch of a glimpse of the room beyond; it was full of bookshelves and books; it certainly didn’t look like a harem. </p><p> </p><p>Longhelim obviously realised the same thing as he shouted: </p><p> </p><p>“Wrong door!”</p><p> </p><p>That left the door at the back of our group which was being guarded by Drudge at the rear. </p><p> </p><p>As we turned to this door, I had a thought: </p><p> </p><p>“John, you know those wands from the Inquisitors? The ones that have the locking magic……?”</p><p> </p><p>As soon as I said it, he was already taking one out of his backpack; he knew exactly what was needed as he pointed it at the door to the library and locked it. At least we would not be disturbed from that source for the near future as John then advanced to the new door and began his usual fiddle. </p><p> </p><p>As the door was opened, it revealed a warm, humid room full of more guards with red trousers. They began to try to throw daggers but both Victor and Longhelim were standing in the doorway. I also cast a spell which caused a series of magical tentacles to sprout from the floor; this certainly made their lives more difficult but the most effective person against them was Drudge who picked out his targets and began to decimate the guards. They tried to cast a couple of spells but they were unable to cross the line made by Longhelim and Victor. </p><p> </p><p>Beyond the guards, we saw another group of people who seemed to be cowering but they offered little resistance. Under our combined assault, these new guards did not offer a great deal of resistance and they soon perished. </p><p> </p><p>I dismissed the magical tentacles and we moved through the hot room. Judging by the decorations on the walls, the gold on the floor and the state of undress of some of the courtiers, this was far more likely to be the harem. As we were walking through, I noticed that there was a beautiful, highly detailed map of the world carved on the floor. </p><p> </p><p>There was little time to look at much else as we moved swiftly across the room to another closed door. Every moment counted at this stage; John sped to this door and declared it safe and Longhelim stepped forward, opened it moved into the corridor, only to be met by a hail of arrows; quickly he staggered back, his armour, equipment and torso pierced; it was only his extraordinary stamina that was keeping him upright.</p><p> </p><p>“More guards,” he gasped as Felix stepped forward and healed him. The torrents of blood stopped and the arrows fell out of his flesh while he swept those sticking out of his equipment. Drudge sped out of the corridor and let loose a volley of his own before sprinting back into the room: </p><p> </p><p>“Four squads,” he whispered, “two to the left and two to the right. Faden, where do we need to go?”</p><p>I cast my mind back: </p><p> </p><p>“Jorine said to go right here, past two double doors and that should take us to Imperial throne room; the ritual is being held in one of the wings off it.”</p><p> </p><p>Victor spoke: </p><p> </p><p>“We need to deal with all the squads.”</p><p> </p><p>I had a thought: </p><p> </p><p>“Longhelim, the fire spell from the Torch would be most effective against the squads. It would affect all of them.”</p><p> </p><p>He nodded thoughtfully: </p><p> </p><p>“Yeeees. I was hoping to save it but we have to get through these squads quickly.”</p><p> </p><p>John then stepped forward to the doorway and cast a spell, which I recognised. It was like a barrier of wind; it did not hinder movement or spells going through it but it was very effective against arrows, rendering hem useless. I whispered to the others what he was doing just as he finished casting the spell and the warriors grinned and nodded approvingly at him. </p><p> </p><p>Then, Longhelim stepped through. More volleys of arrows sped towards him but this time, the volleys from the left were deflected into the ceiling and an enormous column of fire engulfed the two squads in that direction, rendering them into cinders. Simultaneously, Drudge moved in and let loose a devastating volley before the squads to the right could reload. One of these was understrength, having suffered before and after this latest attack it dissipated into individuals that ran back down the corridor. The other kept its discipline and Victor moved towards it, where he engaged; that did not last long either. </p><p> </p><p>As we moved around the corner, the corridor became an opening which led to large pair of double doors, presumably the first pair that Jorine had instructed us to go through. John examine them and declared them safe and unlocked. Upon opening them, we saw a sumptuous waiting area. It was sumptuously furnished, with large art works on the wall, beautiful if barely used furniture. As an aside, I thought that if you were waiting here to see the Ragesian emperor, it was unlikely you would be relaxed enough to sit down. The floor was carpeted. Basically, the room reeked to wealth and splendor, in a very intimidating way. </p><p> </p><p>A second pair of double doors was situated on the same wall as that which we had entered.</p><p> </p><p>Again, using speed rather than stealth, we moved to the door, but this time the doors were locked. As we approached them, everyone was healing; as soon as they had finished, everyone made ready and John initially tried a magical chime to open the door; this failed, so he had to do it the old fashioned way. He must have been truly inspired as he negotiated what looked like an enormous lock in almost no time at all and the door swung open to reveal an enormous room with an vast throne to the left as one looked in. Opposite was a circle etched on the floor, obviously meant to allow magical transport. However, that was as much as we could ascertain at this time as there was a group of strange humanoids in front of us. They may have been human once but now they were truly bestial with snarling faces, claws and no clothes but many glowing runes and sigils etched or tattooed on their bodies. They also wielded huge long spears, again etched in runes. As the warriors engaged, it quickly became obvious that they were heavily warded, incredibly fast and after one powerful spell from me, possibly not even alive. </p><p> </p><p>Both Longhelim and Victor suffered heavily against their spears while their own weapons seemed to have difficulty in penetrating their skin. Even more disturbing was that every time they struck one of the warriors, it seemed to energise them, to keep them fighting. Longhelim cast one of his hugely powerful columns of fire from the Torch but even that seemed to do far lest hurt than it should have done. I did something a little more effective than previously and managed to trap two of them in a magical small jail cell with unbreakable walls and that seemed to turn the tide until suddenly another squad appeared behind us. </p><p> </p><p>Unfortunately, we had forgotten to lock the door.</p><p> </p><p>I was only aware of this new development but the shouting of swear words from John and Drudge who were still out there. We had our own trouble past the threshold. The humanoid creatures – whatever they were – were still hurting the warriors badly, so much so that Victor was swaying. I cast small spells at them, very much aware that they were little more than the guard and that the main enemy, the Inquisitors conducting the ritual, were still ahead of us. Thankfully, Felix managed to cast a powerful healing spell which not only helped us but seemed to hurt the creatures as well. That suggested that they were some sort of undead. Then Victor felled on followed very quickly by Longhelim felling another. They had been rocked by Felix’s spell. </p><p> </p><p>Moments after that, John ran into the room calling out that Drudge had decimated one group of guards but that another was following up. </p><p> </p><p>“I can’t reach that far door to lock it!”</p><p> </p><p>Drudge ran in just as Longhelim knocked over the last creature and we slammed the door shut. As soon as that happened, John used his wand to lock it. Almost simultaneously, we heard several thumps as many bodies crashed into it. </p><p> </p><p>Rapidly, we took a look around but saw little except the throne and a circle which could be used for magical transport. I took a mental note of that, in case we had to use it. Then we moved rapidly to the throne and the doors behind it. I already knew it was covered with a magical wall but thankfully, I had the spell to deal with that. Various spells were being cast as we moved, including a flying spell on Longhelim and healing on the warriors as they were still badly abused from the fight against the strange undead for want of a better term. </p><p> </p><p>Victor tried the doors after John had checked them, but found they were locked. We heard enormous crashes from the door behind us and just as John was unlocking the doors behind the throne, those behind us burst open and a squad streamed in. </p><p> </p><p>Felix however had stayed behind and shouted a powerful spell at them; I had never heard him use the words of power but this one had all the might of his faith behind it and it caused devastation to the group of guards, who collapsed as if they had been slain…….only to be replaced momentarily by yet another group of guards who fired at Felix, just as he was getting to us.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cafu, post: 6911895, member: 6692807"] And with that, she and the others began to take up guard positions near the entrance to the Sky Walk. We flew up the stairs and John moved down the corridor until he reached the door at the far end. Felix, in the meantime, was doing a little healing on Victor, who had suffered badly against the dragons, so John waited a few moments and then, as Longhelim positioned himself, opened the door. Inside, there was a group of figures dressed in fine shirts and red trousers. They had daggers, which they threw skillfully at John and then slammed the door shut. Victor also moved forward at that point as John scurried back; I was getting ready to intervene when Longhelim motioned me to be still. I heard the door open again and the thunk of daggers hitting something; I assumed it was Victor. Another moment and then I heard a shout from Victor: “Go!” I saw Longhelim fly forward and I looked around the corner. The warrior had wedged himself in the doorway as Longhelim went through the space and began to engage the guards. More importantly, Drudge had also stepped forward and I saw him fire a volley of arrows at an enemy inside. I didn’t see the results but I suspected that they were not very good for his target; they never were. I followed up, to see only a couple of the guards left and both Longhelim and Victor were mopping them up. It was a very unequal battle. Time was of the essence now; we move through the guard post and opened the opposite door into another corridor. Quickly, the warriors moved to a corner and glanced left; then both Victor and Longhelim moved down the corridor, quickly followed up by Felix and Drudge and finally myself. John stayed behind and in fact went back; then I remembered that Victor had had to drop the Living Blade of Innenotdar in the corridor and no doubt the rogue was going back to get it. I moved down to the corner and saw a long corridor, as we had been told by Jorine; simultaneously, as we suspected, I saw that the two warriors had been engaged by two enormous statues of golden bears. Having said that, they were beginning to lose their tarnish under Longhelim and Victor’s blows but they still looked like formidable opponents. Irritatingly, if they were like most magical constructs, then they would be immune to most magic; which meant that there was very little I could do against them. Still, the warriors seemed to have it under control. Until suddenly a hidden door opened in the corner of the corridor right opposite and a stream of Ragesian guardsmen began trying to surround us in the corridor. Thankfully, I managed to get a magical wall in front of them, to block the door. That led to the first door opening and another stream of guardsmen appeared; this was quickly followed by the opening of another door and they were joined by another squad. There was a huge group of people in the corridor already when other doors began opening and there was as shout from the front of the corridor: Longhelim’s voice: “There’s another bunch down here!” It was getting dangerously crowded but it suddenly occurred to me that I couldn’t see the statues any more. Drudge shot a volley of arrows and figures fell; many, many figures. It seemed as if every time he shot an arrow, one of the guardsmen died. Victor stepped in and in a series of complicated steps and maneuvers sliced his way through one of the squads; where he went, soldiers fell. That was fortunate as another two squads suddenly appeared in the corridor ahead, running towards us. This palace must have been guarded by veritable regiments. Suddenly, I saw a column of fire behind us, hitting another of the squads; I looked around, since Felix was next to me and he seemed to be doing something else; then I saw John wave his hands around and the light glinted off his new ring. Handy piece of jewelry that; it certainly seemed to have toasted that squad. The squads to the rear seemed to be getting their bows out and a rain of arrows flew through the corridor. Some of them struck their own men but that did not seem to trouble them; of more concern was the fact that I was their main target. However, we had our own archer and he seemed to be the equivalent of one of those squads on his own – only better. As Drudge shot volley after volley, men, orcs and half orcs fell. I was badly hurt and Felix poured healing magic into me, which was lucky as yet another squad unloaded, with again me being their main target. I could see that Longhelim was retreating from around the corner and drawing another squad after him. This one was obviously hurt as it had been fighting the paladin but it was still attempting to cut him down. Fortunately, my defensive spell, which toughened the skin, was still active both on the warriors and I. As soon as Victor and Longhelim managed to combine their fighting styles and attack the squads as a pair, they began carving their way through the guards at a frightening rate. This, in combination with Drudge’s devastating archery proceeded to rapidly cull the onrushing guardsmen. Finally, there were none left. We did a little re-organising; Victor collected the Living Blade from John and found that his ability to magically summon it did not work within the palace. I suspected that transportation magic was similarly curtailed. Those who could were doing some general healing but the key was speed and we moved down the corridor. As we arrived at the end, we were in a quandary. The corridor turned to the left but there were a pair of doors in front of us; as it continued to the left, there it also ended in a pair of doors. As Longhelim and Victor led, the former spoke: “Faden, which doors?” I cast my mind back and replied: “Jorine said doors at the end of the corridor, through the harem.” Without hesitation, the paladin shouted: “John, doors ahead!” John sped ahead of us and reached them just as we turned the corner. He began to crouch down until trying to see if they were locked or trapped when they suddenly opened and a group of the same guards was behind them; those with the flamboyant red trousers, impressive physiques, a lot of daggers and not much else; they proceeded to lob the daggers into John; and as before, these knives returned to them as soon as they were thrown. Poor John was hit several times and then the doors shut. Thankfully, or not so, we also managed to catch of a glimpse of the room beyond; it was full of bookshelves and books; it certainly didn’t look like a harem. Longhelim obviously realised the same thing as he shouted: “Wrong door!” That left the door at the back of our group which was being guarded by Drudge at the rear. As we turned to this door, I had a thought: “John, you know those wands from the Inquisitors? The ones that have the locking magic……?” As soon as I said it, he was already taking one out of his backpack; he knew exactly what was needed as he pointed it at the door to the library and locked it. At least we would not be disturbed from that source for the near future as John then advanced to the new door and began his usual fiddle. As the door was opened, it revealed a warm, humid room full of more guards with red trousers. They began to try to throw daggers but both Victor and Longhelim were standing in the doorway. I also cast a spell which caused a series of magical tentacles to sprout from the floor; this certainly made their lives more difficult but the most effective person against them was Drudge who picked out his targets and began to decimate the guards. They tried to cast a couple of spells but they were unable to cross the line made by Longhelim and Victor. Beyond the guards, we saw another group of people who seemed to be cowering but they offered little resistance. Under our combined assault, these new guards did not offer a great deal of resistance and they soon perished. I dismissed the magical tentacles and we moved through the hot room. Judging by the decorations on the walls, the gold on the floor and the state of undress of some of the courtiers, this was far more likely to be the harem. As we were walking through, I noticed that there was a beautiful, highly detailed map of the world carved on the floor. There was little time to look at much else as we moved swiftly across the room to another closed door. Every moment counted at this stage; John sped to this door and declared it safe and Longhelim stepped forward, opened it moved into the corridor, only to be met by a hail of arrows; quickly he staggered back, his armour, equipment and torso pierced; it was only his extraordinary stamina that was keeping him upright. “More guards,” he gasped as Felix stepped forward and healed him. The torrents of blood stopped and the arrows fell out of his flesh while he swept those sticking out of his equipment. Drudge sped out of the corridor and let loose a volley of his own before sprinting back into the room: “Four squads,” he whispered, “two to the left and two to the right. Faden, where do we need to go?” I cast my mind back: “Jorine said to go right here, past two double doors and that should take us to Imperial throne room; the ritual is being held in one of the wings off it.” Victor spoke: “We need to deal with all the squads.” I had a thought: “Longhelim, the fire spell from the Torch would be most effective against the squads. It would affect all of them.” He nodded thoughtfully: “Yeeees. I was hoping to save it but we have to get through these squads quickly.” John then stepped forward to the doorway and cast a spell, which I recognised. It was like a barrier of wind; it did not hinder movement or spells going through it but it was very effective against arrows, rendering hem useless. I whispered to the others what he was doing just as he finished casting the spell and the warriors grinned and nodded approvingly at him. Then, Longhelim stepped through. More volleys of arrows sped towards him but this time, the volleys from the left were deflected into the ceiling and an enormous column of fire engulfed the two squads in that direction, rendering them into cinders. Simultaneously, Drudge moved in and let loose a devastating volley before the squads to the right could reload. One of these was understrength, having suffered before and after this latest attack it dissipated into individuals that ran back down the corridor. The other kept its discipline and Victor moved towards it, where he engaged; that did not last long either. As we moved around the corner, the corridor became an opening which led to large pair of double doors, presumably the first pair that Jorine had instructed us to go through. John examine them and declared them safe and unlocked. Upon opening them, we saw a sumptuous waiting area. It was sumptuously furnished, with large art works on the wall, beautiful if barely used furniture. As an aside, I thought that if you were waiting here to see the Ragesian emperor, it was unlikely you would be relaxed enough to sit down. The floor was carpeted. Basically, the room reeked to wealth and splendor, in a very intimidating way. A second pair of double doors was situated on the same wall as that which we had entered. Again, using speed rather than stealth, we moved to the door, but this time the doors were locked. As we approached them, everyone was healing; as soon as they had finished, everyone made ready and John initially tried a magical chime to open the door; this failed, so he had to do it the old fashioned way. He must have been truly inspired as he negotiated what looked like an enormous lock in almost no time at all and the door swung open to reveal an enormous room with an vast throne to the left as one looked in. Opposite was a circle etched on the floor, obviously meant to allow magical transport. However, that was as much as we could ascertain at this time as there was a group of strange humanoids in front of us. They may have been human once but now they were truly bestial with snarling faces, claws and no clothes but many glowing runes and sigils etched or tattooed on their bodies. They also wielded huge long spears, again etched in runes. As the warriors engaged, it quickly became obvious that they were heavily warded, incredibly fast and after one powerful spell from me, possibly not even alive. Both Longhelim and Victor suffered heavily against their spears while their own weapons seemed to have difficulty in penetrating their skin. Even more disturbing was that every time they struck one of the warriors, it seemed to energise them, to keep them fighting. Longhelim cast one of his hugely powerful columns of fire from the Torch but even that seemed to do far lest hurt than it should have done. I did something a little more effective than previously and managed to trap two of them in a magical small jail cell with unbreakable walls and that seemed to turn the tide until suddenly another squad appeared behind us. Unfortunately, we had forgotten to lock the door. I was only aware of this new development but the shouting of swear words from John and Drudge who were still out there. We had our own trouble past the threshold. The humanoid creatures – whatever they were – were still hurting the warriors badly, so much so that Victor was swaying. I cast small spells at them, very much aware that they were little more than the guard and that the main enemy, the Inquisitors conducting the ritual, were still ahead of us. Thankfully, Felix managed to cast a powerful healing spell which not only helped us but seemed to hurt the creatures as well. That suggested that they were some sort of undead. Then Victor felled on followed very quickly by Longhelim felling another. They had been rocked by Felix’s spell. Moments after that, John ran into the room calling out that Drudge had decimated one group of guards but that another was following up. “I can’t reach that far door to lock it!” Drudge ran in just as Longhelim knocked over the last creature and we slammed the door shut. As soon as that happened, John used his wand to lock it. Almost simultaneously, we heard several thumps as many bodies crashed into it. Rapidly, we took a look around but saw little except the throne and a circle which could be used for magical transport. I took a mental note of that, in case we had to use it. Then we moved rapidly to the throne and the doors behind it. I already knew it was covered with a magical wall but thankfully, I had the spell to deal with that. Various spells were being cast as we moved, including a flying spell on Longhelim and healing on the warriors as they were still badly abused from the fight against the strange undead for want of a better term. Victor tried the doors after John had checked them, but found they were locked. We heard enormous crashes from the door behind us and just as John was unlocking the doors behind the throne, those behind us burst open and a squad streamed in. Felix however had stayed behind and shouted a powerful spell at them; I had never heard him use the words of power but this one had all the might of his faith behind it and it caused devastation to the group of guards, who collapsed as if they had been slain…….only to be replaced momentarily by yet another group of guards who fired at Felix, just as he was getting to us. [/QUOTE]
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The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign
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