Character Creation for StephenFleetwood (OOC)

Year 5:

I have arrived! I have, however learned to read my destination somewhat closer before setting off. I have arrived in Cunfin, and to my surprise it is a covenant which is shared with the church. I have moved from being in a luxury cell, to finding a place where monks and magi live together in something which seems to at least approximate amity. Surprised as I was, I met the local magi and found that they consider themselves somewhat of a point of meeting between the two worlds. I will be asked, in turn to make items which help healing those who are in need of it. A very happy arrangement, I am sure and the covenant is incentivised to help me with learning creo magic as it will in turn provide them with a more potent enchantment. As such I have been given a place in a lab and assured for the near future I will have access to the fine creo book.

Spring:

I have been given a forge, with, bless the monks’ care, a loom dragged in for my convenience. I shall ignore it for the time being, especially as it is in a style I usually do not prefer. I suspect I shall be tinkering with it over the next few months. However, first I shall be applying myself to the book. Since they will be demanding a season of work for me for every two I read, I had best learn as well as I can. The monks are currently giving me a wide berth, I suspect because I am a new gift among them, and they all secretly think me some sort of heretic. As such I am going to make sure that I get to see them at dinner time and try to build their tolerance of me. In the daytime, I shall read. I am none too secretly glad I will be returning to the workshop soon, as I grow a little weary of neither seeking new secrets or working at the loom. But needs must as the devil shall drive us along. Perhaps I should not use such profane metaphors here in the walls of a priory!

Read a good (quality 17, level 11) summa on creo.

Summer:

Disaster! There has been a great calamity, and it seems that I am in need of helping the covenant as best as I can. I sorely wish that I was of more use to them as a whole, but what must be must be. A terrible sickness has befallen the covenant which seems to have a magical cause. Luckily there are magi with skill in creo, since they have all partaken to some degree of the wonderful book I am reading, so healing magics have generally been available, but that is not enough on its own. Many of the monks and magi both have been lain low by this sickness, and it seems I am saved either only y my coming late or some quirk of my fae blood. Either way, it falls to myself and another new magus named Artorious to go seeking the issue. It is also apparent that the only gifted people spared the sickness are those who lack a longevity ritual.

So we went seeking the cause of the trouble, after casting something to help the sickness pass on as many of the covenant as we could. As such we began our search.

After some slightly incompetent searching and investigating, we were able to deduce the sickness was an unnatural one which had been spread to the village and then the priory by the charcoal burner.

Now, the charcoal burner of the village sat in their often unenviable position of being suspected of witchcraft, as laughable as that is when they have a wizard in their midst who is near eightscore years old, but the ways of the superstitious peasant have long been beyond my ken. But their suspicion of witchcraft, long settled upon the poor burner had made some sort of magical link of witchcraft as an idea and the home of the charcoal burner, and the magi of the covenant.

When we went to find said charcoal burner, we found that they had died of the plague which has infected the village, covenant and priory. However, in her place was a genuine witch. Well, a hedge wizard. It seems that they had some sort of grudge against the covenant and priory. They were the cause of the disease. We decided this was enough cause to end them.

I again cursed myself for my decision to delay my construction of some sort of magical support for battle, however at least with a human to compete with some of my spells were more useful. Arturious went into conflict with his sword drawn, but I managed to bind the witch’s clothes to incapacitate her. Her lack of a parma magica also meant that I tried to send the shaft of an arrow prepared for the occasion into her heart.

Just avoiding twilight, I put the arrows into her until, god help my soul, I killed her. Artorious considered that he killed her. It was a confusing time, but in the end she lay dead, and I realised that I may now be a murderer. Somehow being a murderer did not stop me going through the possessions of the witch and carrying away the vis she had hoarded. I may be a murderer, but I am also a poor murder.

I wish I could say that the death of the witch meant that the disease ended, but that was not what god intended. Instead it simply made the disease stop getting worse, and allowed the pair of us to spend the rest of the season tending to the sick, both magically and mundanely.

The monks seemed to become happier with my presence when it was bringing them health and wellbeing, surprisingly enough. Well, it seemed a penance for my murder, to tend to the sickness of monks.

Adventure:

Xp gain: parma magica 5xp, 5 xp medicine, gain 3 warping and 3 pawns of perdo and 3 pawns of creo vis from looting the corpse

Autumn:

Now people seem to be getting better, I am going to return to the book. You might have hoped that saving their covenant and village’s life might have freed me from my promise to enchant on their behalf, but it seems that the covenant believes that a deal is a deal and technically I did not negotiate any release form duties before rushing off to save them all. Lessons learned, I suppose. However, I am going to use the time I have bartered for to the fullest. Thus I begin to read again, applying myself to the book.

Read a good (quality 17, level 11) summa on creo.

Winter:

Well, I have read a good book for two seasons, so I suppose it is time for me to make good on my promise to do some enchantment for the covenant. However, this is also a fine opportunity for me to use some of the magic I have discovered in my time with Heinrich. I am going to make some alchemical enchantments that suit the holy purpose of this holy place. I am also going to find materials which match the needs of a weaver, such that when I can work them thoroughly out I shall become famous in the order as someone who expanded the power of the order as a whole! Well, it is time to start the process of making my name, even if it is the beginning steps here. One day the whole order shall know of the work I provided and how it strengthened the order as a whole.

Since the covenant and the priory has a large medicinal garden, I am able to find a great many herbs to experiment upon.

Enchanting a charged item alchemically:

Delaying the mortal wounds

This bandage, when applied to the recipient removes all damage on their body immediately, as a spider web like glow of golden energy briefly pulses over them, and restores them, dissolving the bandage as it does. This will last for a moon duration, giving the person so treated time to get to emergency medical care.

Base 35, touch +1 moon +3 = level 55

Totals:

Creo: 9

Corpus: 5

Magic theory: 7+2+1 (specialisation)

Magic lore: 4+1 (specialisation)

Int +3

Aura +3

Experemental genius +6

Form bonus: (needs to be rolled)

Experimental bonus = simple dice +2(risk factor) =
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=12.

Experimental roll
image
+2 for the risk factor is a side effect!

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Then a roll of a 2 means the item has a minor flaw. I suggest that since I am so pained as a magus, the recipient retains one level of pain as in from the painful magic flaw? I am open to other ideas. (the 4 was the roll before)

This is an alchemical experiment, where Marcus will be using the items of:

Sage (a healing herb, literally meaning “I am well”) proposed +2

Birch (since it is the creo tree for verditious runes) proposed +2

Human hair (for the sympathy to humans as a whole) proposed +3

Human blood (again for a corpus sympathy) proposed +3

Self-heal (a meadow herb named for its medicinal properties) proposed +2

Pennyroyal (another healing herb) proposed +2

Spiderweb (a creo sympathy,, as it is something being created) proposed +2

Gold thread (gold is resonant to the sun, which controls health and well being. A creo resonance) proposed +1

Roll to find a magical property:

Dice + perception (2) + magic lore (4) +specialisation (1) = 7

re reading, I an not 100% sure if my risk factor is added to the minor drawback, making it a minor side effect. If so, I suggest this:

The character who has been healed is left with gold colouration on their skin wherever the sigil went to heal them for the duration of the effect.

I'm having trouble following some parts in your last post.

You often use alternative terms for some of the game terms, which makes it hard to follow. For example:

  • You use "Experemental genius" instead of "Inventive Genius". That's confusing.
  • Is "Experimental roll" the roll on the "Extraordinary Results Chart"?

Please be more precise, that will help us a lot! :wink:

Also, the Experimentation Bonus (12 in this case) should be divided between the various Components. Right now the total adds up to 17 instead of 12. Once you have corrected the proposed bonuses I will make a call on the appropriatedness of each. Edit: That is incorrect - I just re-read the text and the bonus is "used" up as you determine which components provide a bonus.

The Risk Factor is not added to the rolls on the Side Effect table.

Note that you still haven't posted the final stats of you magus at the time of Gauntlet in his final stats topic. Makes it hard for us to be sure what the stats are that you are using. Please do so as soon as you can.

Appologies. I will try to be more precise.

Now, to resolve the Vulgar Alchemy experiment. :slight_smile:

Did you list the components in the order in which you want to make the Perception rolls?

Note that Gold already provides a "+2 health" S&M bonus (TMRE p.33). Since the material is more general and provides a better bonus than what you were seeking, that consumes the first 2 points of the Experimentation Bonus. :upside_down_face:

(You may want to download a complete list of the Shape & Material Bonuses from the Atlas' Ars Magica page to avoid selecting components with existing bonuses somewhere in the published books.)

That is an incredible resource. I have been scouring books! That will be so much easier.
It seems my quick reading of medieval thought on resonances and those of the writers seem to agree a fair bit :slight_smile:

I will just run down the order in this order

Gold +2 (assured)

Birch (since it is the creo tree for verditious runes) proposed +2
Human hair (for the sympathy to humans as a whole) proposed +3
Spiderweb (a creo sympathy,, as it is something being created) proposed +2
Human blood (again for a corpus sympathy) proposed +3
Sage (a healing herb, literally meaning “I am well”) proposed +2
Self-heal (a meadow herb named for its medicinal properties) proposed +2
Pennyroyal (another healing herb) proposed +2

Can't change the list of components after you start rolling dice, my friend! You used up your free pass with bandages! :smiling_imp:

There are several other lists on the Atlas page, that's why I listed that link seperatedly. You might find some of them useful.

You mentioned that your magus' score in Magic Lore is now 4, but I don't see this (or some sort of advancement summary) in your character's stats. We don't want to have to dig through dozens of post to check the exact amount of xp accumulated on a specific Ability each time we have a question. That's why we have the topic for the stats of each magus. If you could update and complete his stats there, that would be a big help. You should include that date of the last update (in-character year and season) to make things easier.

In fact, take a look at my magus' stats to see the information that I consider useful to have and how I like it structured. :sunglasses:

I actually re edited in the gold while you were typing. I will get the advancement list together, as I have a character sheet with advancement by year I am keeping track of.

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I put them in a spreadsheet here a while ago: Shape and Material Bonuses - Google Sheets

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I think I have done what you asked!

Close! :slight_smile:

There's still a few things missing, such as Age, Warping, Confidence (score and points), Wizard's Sigil, as well as Equipment and Wealth (such as Vis and books).

Abilities could also be sorted alphabetically, as it makes finding a specific score and specialty much faster.

In general, anything that is from a book other than the core book (ArM5) should have a note to help us find the reference. That may be virtues or flaws, spells, etc.

It is unclear at this time if the stats include the results of the post-Gauntlet advancement or not.

That's what I meant when I wrote about the date of the last update. That's an information that goeas well with Age, for example by noting "Age: 31 (at the end of Spring 1204)". In your case, until you complete your pre-game advancement, you could use "end of Spring of Year 2".

Note that your advancement summary should also include Vis (gained and spent), Warping and anything else of importance that your character accumulated during the season.

Sorry if that looks like a lot! But that saves so much time and efforts for any storyguide that wants to run stories for your character that it is better to put everything in place right away. Cheers! :smiley:

I shall work on all those things. I will also include that the stats there are post gauntlet and the character sheet linked is (and will remain) current

Done!

I have a 5 year post advancement sheet up with all the things you asked for. Adding the vis and warping now.

The first post should always be the current stats. We don't want to have to search the topic for those. The stats at the time of Gauntlet are historical and can be kept later on.

Remember to sort the Abilities alphabetically to make it easier to find the relevant score.

I have it in alphabetic and non alphabetic form to make it easier for whoever should want to see it.

Coming back to the list of components in the experimentation of Year 5 Winter. :slight_smile:

  • Gold is automatic and consumes 2 points, as discussed.
  • Birch at +2 for healing wounds is a bit weak, since current known S&M bonuses are "+1 Creo herbam" and "+3 childbirth". No modifier to the Perception roll, so the Ease Factor is 9.
  • Human hair +3 does not seem very relevant to healing wounds. -2 modifier to the Perception roll, so the Ease Factor is 14.
  • Spiderweb +2 is fine. No modifier, so Ease Factor 9.
  • Human blood +3 is good. +1 modifier to the Perception roll, so the Ease Factor is 11.
  • Sage +2 is fine. +1 modifier to the Perception roll, so the Ease Factor is 8.
  • Self-heal +2 (Prunella vulgaris, also called woundwort) is fine. +1 modifier to the Perception roll, so Ease Factor is 8.
  • Pennyroyal +2 does not seem appropriate, as it is an abortive, stimulates blood flow and is also used topically as an insect repellant. -3 modifier to the Perception roll, so the Ease Factor is 12.

One roll for each component until all 10 remaining points are used up or you've gone through all the components.

You should keep a detailed account of the lab texts and those experiments in your character's stats, as they will become relevant in the future.

Birch:
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roll (6)+ pcn (2) + magic lore (4) + specialisation (1) = 13. Success!
Birch gives +2

Human hair:
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roll(3)+ pcn (2) + magic lore (4) + specialisation (1) = 10, fail. Human hair does not work, perhaps unsurprisingly.

Spider web:
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Definite success! should have set it higher :slight_smile:
roll(10)+ pcn (2) + magic lore (4) + specialisation (1) =
Spider webs +2

Human blood:
image
roll(8)+ pcn (2) + magic lore (4) + specialisation (1) = 15 success! Human blood gives a +3!

Sage:
image

roll(7)+ pcn (2) + magic lore (4) + specialisation (1) = 14 a success.
Sage +2

Self heal:
image
roll(6)+ pcn (2) + magic lore (4) + specialisation (1) =+7 is enough. +2 from self heal. But there is no more experimental bonus left for, so no bonus, or a +1 bonus if I can apply that way

Penny royal:
image
Unexpectedly works. But there is no more experimental bonus left.

All the rolls in order since the rolls went pretty well:
image

Things which worked:
Birch gives +2
Spider webs +2
Human blood gives a +3!
Sage +2
self heal would get a +2, but there is only +1 left, so either nothing of a +1

By my reading the the rules of Vulgar Alchemy, nothing.

Fair enough. Put both possibilities in to speed things up, but you might notice I didn't add it to the experiment on my character sheet :slight_smile:

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Delaying the mortal wounds

This wrap, when applied to the recipient removes all damage on their body immediately, as a spider web like glow of golden energy briefly pulses over them, and restores them, dissolving the bandage as it does. This will last for a moon duration, giving the person so treated time to get to emergency medical care. Unfortunately, it leaves a lingering pain, as bad as a light wound while it is in effect.

It is woven from linen soaked in purified human blood, which is then cross woven with golden thread and spider webs. The tie which holds the wrap to it's recipient is made of birch bark strands, and is packed with dried sage.

Base 35, touch +1 moon +3 = level 55

Totals:

Creo: 9
Corpus: 5
Magic theory: 7+2+1 (specialisation)
Magic lore: 4+1 (specialisation)
Int +3
Aura +3
Inventive genius +6
Form bonus: +10 (limited by magic theory)
Experemental bonus +12

Total = 63, creating 2 doses.

Year 6

Spring

I am going to travel back to the Rhine. I should, honestly, never have left. So it is time to charter a ship, and begin to travel back across the world. I hate travelling, and I feel like I should make some sort of item to make it more convenient, quicker and cheaper. However, the list of things I wish to enchant is getting longer and longer, but these labs I hire are usually so disappointing that I find myself waiting again. I must eventually find myself a covenant, where I can build a lab and specialise it to my own needs. So, I travel to the shore, hire a boat back to Lubeck, which is fortunately enough of a common destination to make it much easier, and then take myself down river.

I am heading to Triamore, as it is close to the where I am, close to the river and has a reputation of being thoroughly welcoming to visitors, and in need of new members. Perhaps here I will find a home in which I am comfortable, so I have sent a letter ahead of me and been accepted, but they have asked I bring a book which I can contribute to their library in exchange for my time in the covenant. As such I am in negotiation to buy a book from my current hosts to give away when I arrive.

The boat is uncomfortable, and unsurprisingly neither the crew not the other passengers really want to speak to me. I settle down and read an honestly solid tractatus that I purchased from my previous hosts. Now I am reading it, I can see why they were charging a surcharge to part with it. Still, I am cooped up below deck, so I might as well do what I can. I now am the proud owner, albeit briefly, of “the four realms, six interactions”.

Read quality 10 tractatus on magic theory while travelling on boats.

Gain 10+5 magic theory xp

Gain a quality 10 tractatus on magic theory

Lose 1 pawn of perdo vis and 2 pawns of animal vis as a quick sale

Summer

I have arrived in Triamore, and they have been extremely welcoming to me. Almost suspiciously so, but I am certainly not going to complain. I have asked for my right as a peregenetor, and they have accepted. In lieu of usual payment in vis, I have offered to pay with the book I recently purchased. It was at best a fleeting part of my life, but I have learned its lessons, so the loss is minimal.

I was greeted by the most interesting magus I believe I have ever met, Remi, follower of Jerbiton. He seems to be a polymath that is at least a journeyman of nearly every area I have imagined. I wonder how he finds time to learn magic! The only area where we ended up in a fierce debate was on the matter of the Faerie realm. He seems to despise the faerie for being faerie, and was visibly disappointed when he found out that I was part faeirie and had a faerie friend. Thinking back on it, it seems like this is a position of the Jerbiton house as a whole.

I notice, however, that the actual leader of the covenant is not speaking much to me. I suspect there is a chance that she has put the most interesting member of the covenant in my path to make me feel more welcome. I must confess, it is working.

But enough of my charming companion, I have work to attend to. A lifetime of work to attend to! I think it is time to use the famously excellent library here. I am entirely tired of being in danger whenever I go seeking for new lore. So I want to be able to enchant an item to cast something akin to the pilium of fire. I know I have survived thus far by sending arrows at my foes, but that will not be sufficient if I face a real opponent. However, as potent as the ignem art is in fighting foes, I know literally nothing of the art at all. Fortunately, the covenant has a primer on the art of ignem, and I have been able to convince Sicero to allow me access for this season. So, I am settling down with “the fundaments of ignition” a function but slightly uninspiring primer on ignem. While this is happening, I am negotiating to use some books for next year, where I can learn from more than a simple primer. The covenant is asking what I am provided to provide for exchange, and I have come to the conclusion that I think I could write a book on behalf of the covenant.

Read a primer on ignem l5, q15

Autumn

Remi has asked something of me and whilst I would normally be loathe to accept a duty given to my hosts after I had paid them for my presence, but since it is something that I would benefit from, and they have asked me in such a kindly tone. I know I should probably resist more, but the covenant has a tutor they have teach some basic latin and literacy for their custos. Remi claims that they can find the time for him to teach me to teach. I suspect there is some ulterior motives in this, in that I suspect I am going to be asked to teach some members of the covenant later. This may be a way of paying for my time here though, so it could help with my current vis poverty. On this matter, the covenant has said the cost for this tuition would be a pawn of vis, but that they would generously hold this in abeyance against future earnings.

The tutor is a man named Samuel, and it appears he has been cast out of the general community of scholars because he is a heretic. I must confess, when he explained the nature of his disagreement with the church I found it extremely difficult to parse out the differences from his position and heterodoxy. It was, however enough for him to have to flee the prince-archbishopric of Cologne.

Still, while he tried to convince me of the importance of the divisibility of Christ’s physical body and his divine soul, and how his ability to weep separates the two, I was a little baffled. Fortunately, I was eventually able to get him to the topic of how to teach. Since he had intended to make a living teaching Latin to the sons of aristocracy and the like, it is an area has had some talent and experience in.

While this is going on, I am spending some of my evenings writing so that when the redcaps arrive, I can start to look for paying work as a verditious. My magical power is growing to the point where I am not ashamed to offer my services as an enchanter, and it would mean I could afford to pay for the access to the master’s library or other services.

Gain 15 xp in teaching from a teacher.

Winter

It is time to attend again upon the spider court. I prepared myself to travel to the entry port, which is going to be moving through the deep forests of the Rhine. I am lead, again, by Spinnerbienne who seems to know the path at all times. I would be more suspicious of this, but I suppose the spider knowing the way to the spider court does make sense.

The arrival to the spider court is more impressive the second time. Partly this is because, as Spinnerbienne informed me entirely too late, because it is hosted in a different, larger, regio this time. Apparently this is part of the travelling courts of the spiders. The spider queen and wiollow-covered-in-webs have learned from the mortal monarchs around them to progress their court around the land that they are controlling, as is the want of the fae queen. It does mean, that I am welcomed to an entirely new location. There is a ritual here, of different sizes and splendour of courts. I am told my first meeting was a relatively small one, and that the power and grandeur wax and wane over the years of meeting.

The court this time is under the boughs of an enormous tree. The tree was awakened, but did not speak during the court. Despite this it was to be always addressed as a high and honoured noble. This was particularly strange, as I am not sure if it was the queen’s sense of etiquette as she apes the ways of human courts or the pride of the tree itself which demanded this. However, upon arriving, I was introduced officially to my “host” and then the spell to turn me into a spider was woven over me once more. This time at least it required the lowering of my parma magica, so some progress at least.

Having been transformed into my spider “self”, I find I am at least more able to handle the strange form this time. However, I have apparently gained some extra significance in the spider court, which means I must be able to claim a title of some sort. I understand now why Heinrich has claimed he is a baron of the spider court. It seems that the court likes to give humans titles, probably in an attempt to gain some sort of sustenance. In a moment’s notice, I asked for the title of Weaver. That seems to have gone down well, as weaver is an important part of the lore of spiders, so I chose well. Before I could take the part, however, I was required to prove that I deserved the title.

So, in an example of history repeating itself, I was set to weave something against a fae. Sometimes I worry that I am under some sort of curse that these things seem to happen to me. Then I remember that the story of a weaver is to be challenged in weaving. With a heavy heart, it was time to take to the weaving again. I found that I was able to weave something of greater beauty than approximately half of the weavers of the court. Losing to a fae is a humiliation that I am not happy with, but it did at least gain me the title of Journeyman Weaver of the court of spiders. I was adorned with a whsp of intricately woven spider web that I could immediately tell was laden with vis and then proclaimed to the court.

Once I had found my place in the court, Spinnerbienne was overjoyed. Apparently, this is what he has been “training” me for, for all these years and he has gained some status by my close association. He is now urging me to learn that I may gain a rank of master in later courts. I am happy to have so delighted my friend and tolerate his claims that I learned all I know from him, though I suspect my Pater would be less than happy to have seen me nod and agree. Indeed though it prickled my pride I managed to largely stop myself correcting the small faerie who has been my companion.

He did prove his use and loyalty again by managing my introduction to many different spiders, both faerie and magical in the court. Of particular interest is another weaver of the court who is a magical spider. She is one of the intelligent creatures, who spoke to me at length of her plans and ambitions for her time in the court. I was surprised to find a beast of virtue with such schemes, but it seems the influence of the queen has gathered many unusual creatures.

Over my time in the court I found myself spending more and more time with this creature, who assures me she has a name, just she is unwilling to give it to a magician without knowing me better. This small distrust aside, I find her fascinating. She is sly and ambitious and seems to be interested in my ambitions and plans for my life as a magus. She was especially interested when I spoke about how my family were seeking to find immortality, and I may have revealed more than I intended.

It is flattering to have someone so willing to listen to one’s own dreams, I confess, so I was more than willing to seek out her company at court and Her, Spinnerbienne and I formed a trio for much of the winter. When the time of the court was coming to an end, she asked if she could accompany me to experience the life of a magus I had described, and to see what I was like when I was returned to my natural form. I agreed, being loathe to end a friendship which I had so recently made. Eventually, I took my leave of the court, having negotiated its intricacies for another five years.

Low adventure xp = 5xp faerie sympathy “weaver” 0->1

Gain a magical animal who is suitable to be a familiar

Gain 3 warping for the transformation into a spider power

Gain 2 creo vis and 1 animal vis in the tokens of the court

Year summary

Lost 3 pawns of vis
gained a q10 summa on magic theory
lost a q10 summa on magic theory
Gained 15 xp in teaching taking it from 0->2
Gained 5 xp in faerie sympathy "weaving" 0->1
Gained 2 pawns creo 1 pawn animal vis
Gained a familiar grade magic creature spider companion
Gain 15 xp in ignem, taking it from 0->5

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