SESSION 63: GO MIDWEST
General Summary
Previous Session: SESSION 62: CHATTERBOX TED AND THE DEAD ROAD RAIDERS
Next Session: SESSION 64: ANDY AND LINDA GO TO FUNLAND
Players: The Fellowship of the Doing the Things, Andy, Arminius, Linda, Morag
*September 2nd, 2317* (Adventure Day 131)
It was just after 3pm and the party had finished looting a series of cabins in the old Redbird Woods. They were just 20 miles from Torn Hope and the bridge back to the Midwest Brotherhood of Steel. The city would be heavily guarded by both The Capitol Correctors and New California Republic elite soldiers, but they had a lead. Apparently, a woman named Annalynn Whittman was looking to cross.
They piled back into their van named Halen and headed north. At the side of the highway, there was an active brickworks that they decided to explore. There was a single worker in the old facility, a Nurse Handy robot named Nina. Nina asked if they wanted to buy any bricks, but of course they didn't. They asked about Torn Hope and learned that crossing the bridge without papers was possible, but a lengthy process that required the Capitol Correctors to contact the Midwest Brotherhood of Steel to come collect you. It could take weeks.
Nina noticed Andy and mentioned that there was another SchlockettBot in a place called Normal Hall. On top of that, the Rucker Trucker Amphitheater in White Squirrel was running a show called, "The House Always Wins: The Musical." It was said that the character of Arthur Schlockett got a whole number in that show.
Nina mentioned that she often collected banned foreign news from the radio stations in St. Louis and The Rails. She'd be willing to share, for a price. The party paid up and got the news:
NCR forces had taken Paducah and were driving south into Dixie. They expected to begin sieging Memphis by the end of the week. Capitol forces were also advancing in the east. They had already begun sieging Birmingham and were said to be closing on the Dixie capital of Atlanta.
The NCR congress had called an emergency meeting, as many representatives had no idea there would be a declaration of war. President Hayden was expected to distribute a public statement soon.
Veronica Santangelo, the leader of the Followers of the Apocalypse, had condemned the war. The Followers refuse to assist the war effort, even if it means losing their funding from the NCR.
Caesar Altus made an official declaration of neutrality in the war, but there had been no public statement by any of the other nations.
A group of Children of Atom Inquisitors attacked some civilians nearby in the Midwest town of Copperhead, then fled back to Holy Toledo, beyond the reach of the Brotherhood.
The party grumbled at the cost of such vague news and moved on. The reached Torn Hope safely, finding a bustling town of some 1500 residents. They stashed the van, camouflaging it in some rubble, and then headed into the town's Class 3 Housing Station. It was a slum like the other Class 3 areas, and they could find no sign of Annalynn, nor of the Responders organization she belonged to.
Arminius spotted a plainclothes Corrector spying on them, and quietly informed the others. They set a trap for the secret policeman, leading him into an alley. They captured and questioned the man, one Geoff Espinoza, and learned little. But they took his citizenship papers and his Corrector's badge, which held a physical description pretty close to Arminius. Andy asked if they should kill the man, but the party refused him. Instead, they tied Espinoza up and left him in a dumpster. He would probably be found, but hopefully not too soon.
They next went to the town's Great Leader statue, hoping to find the "wisdom" that Obscisus Ursus had left for Arminius. They found a gleaming, gold-plated statue, meant to impress Midwest and Rustlands traders who came through here on the old Interstate 70 route. But there was no sign of anything left by Ursus.
A disheveled man in clean, but tattered clothes approached them, begging for some food. This man introduced himself as McSwain, and surprised the group by retrieving a crisp stack of Capitol Credits from his pocket. He explained that until recently he had been a wealthy merchant, but on his birthday, he had been caught drunk in public while walking home. The Correctors had gone easy on him, but the community hadn't. People said he was an undesirable and refused to interact with him. Linda gave him some food and they promised to return with more.
The People's Kitchen of Torn Hope, the only legal place to buy hot food in the town, was run by a fancy and elderly person named Dannecia. They served the party a good three-course meal at a decent price, but was arrogant and fully indoctrinated in The Capitol's ideology. Dannecia asked the party to break into the Corrector's Station evidence locker and retrieve a decorative pin of Atom's symbol. It wasn't even that they were religious, they just liked the jewelry. The group said they'd think about it and left.
They returned to McSwain and gave him a few days worth of food. He thanked them. When Andy said disparaging things about Great Leader, McSwain was shocked and insulted. Despite being rejected by this society, he was still very much a patriot.
The party moved on to the local Book Station, remembering that Ursus had mentioned a "page of wisdom." They were greeted by Perry the librarian who spotted Andy and mentioned that he knew the SchlockettBot at Normal Hall. Software Sankey was a friend of Perry's, and a repair technician for robots and all manner of computers. The librarian mentioned a book on fuzzy logic that Sankey would like, and Andy asked to see it immediately. Andy couldn't make heads or tails of the manual on computer programming, but was excited, nonetheless.
Arminius asked about Ursus and books he might like. Perry explained that Great Leader had banned all fiction, history, religion, and militaria, but they were free to look around. And he hadn't seen Ursus, the only visitor in the last 48 hours was a petite woman accompanied by a SchlockettBot. Her name had been Langley. Lex recognized that this was her co-worker Liz, and asked what boon she had come for. Perry said it was a volume by Vault-Tec that was still in the collection.
They raced to the blue and yellow tome, but found only a book of promotional material. Vault-Tec had printed it in the late 2060's in order to draw investment (and calm the public about the possibility of nuclear war.) The book was useless, but a single page of vellum fell out. This thin sheet of leather had a tattoo in it, from before the skin had been removed. It was a Legion officer's tattoo. And burned over the tattoo, while the flesh was still alive, were the letters "TAS." After the skin had been peeled off, during the tanning process, a message had been stained into the leather: Fugis, sed feram curro.
The party saw the Legion eagle tattoo and asked Arminius what it meant. Arminius said, "I'll explain when we get out of here."
They left, heading for the People's Tavern, where they hoped to get a lead on where to find Annalynn Whittman. The bar was stuffed with NCR soldiers, enjoying their time off. The bartender, Ella Goldschmidt, knew of Anna and pointed them to a certain apartment building in Housing Station 3. Ella also had an odd request. She wanted the party to deliver a wax avocado to her former lover. Ella and Corrector Heckman had lived together for 15 years, but recently, the government had rewarded him for his service by assigning him a wife. As a seller of alcohol, Ella was considered too lowly to bear a Corrector's children, so he had been set up with a younger woman so that they could make babies for The Capitol. The decorative avocado had been Heckman's mother's, a family heirloom and keepsake of the pre-war world. But Ella was not allowed to go near the house and disturb the newlyweds.
The party was getting pretty tired of fucked-up Capitol shit, but Ella had given them valuable information. They took the wax avocado and turned to leave. An NCR sergeant stopped Arminius and asked him if the party would play darts with him and his team. Arminius passed, and the soldier seemed disappointed, a bit tired of the company The Capitol had to offer. The sergeant asked if Arminius would rather play chess, and the Legionary was sorely tempted. But the party wanted out of this town, especially because Corrector Espinoza was in a dumpster, probably making a lot of noise.
Before finding Annalynn, Morag wanted to check out Gibbs Shootables. The gun shop might have a .50 caliber receiver for Beau, bringing him up to his natural potency. Arminius and Patch waited outside; they had no interest in firearms. Entering the shop and gun range, the party was greeted by Almadelia Gibbs. Almadelia immediately demanded that the "devices" and the super mutant had to leave. Linda was confused why the gun shop owner was pointing at her, to which Almadelia said, "that inhuman thing can't be in here." Not wanting trouble with a hostile city full of NCR soldiers, everyone but Morag filed out. Morag asked about a .50cal receiver and Almadelia was dumbstruck. It was clearly beyond her capacity, and she tried to shift the conversation to buying Beau or, "holding on to the weapon until a gunsmith could be found." Morag left, thankful to be out of there.
Finding Annalynn Whittman was simple enough. And on top of that, she had the proper paperwork to leave The Capitol. It's just that the documents mentioned a vehicle. The party had the van, so it was a perfect match. They just needed to deliver the avocado and they could leave. Annalynn explained that she also had one task before they went. Anna had been carrying an artifact of the Responders organization, the Somerset Special. This revolver had been instrumental in helping the survivors of Vault 76 to end their Scorched Plague. Furthermore, Anna was planning to deliver the relic to the Midwest Responders at Orchardville. Without the gun, she might not be welcome there. When she had gotten to Torn Hope, she had stored the priceless artifact in a secure locker at Gibbs Shootables. But Almadelia Gibbs had betrayed her, stealing the Somerset Special from the locker and keeping it for herself.
The party cursed the name of Almadelia Gibbs. Arminius still had his Corrector's badge and thought it might be an easy way to retrieve the stolen gun. He entered the shop, pretending to be a Corrector. As always, Arminius was pretty smooth. But Almadelia personally knew all of the Correctors in town, and was suspicious. She said that the Somerset Special was a unique and sanctified weapon. It would be criminal for it to go unused, or be handled by an unworthy shooter. If there was a true marksman, she'd happily give up the revolver, but not to just anyone.
Arminius called on Lex to enter the shop. Almadelia was even more suspicious, but kept to her word. To test their mastery, Almadelia had a gun range challenge she called, "Shoot the Muut!" This game was set up to simulate killing a super mutant with well-placed shots. Arminius began the challenge, but was frustrated that the target was set so far away. Lex rose to the challenge and won handily, all while Almadelia shouted with glee at the idea of a super mutant being killed. They got the gun and left in a hurry. It was a very nice revolver, but Lex reluctantly returned it to Annalynn.
There was still the matter of the avocado. Lex and Morag decided to go, wary of just how dangerous this bizarre task might be. The found a woman drinking tea on the front porch of Corrector Heckman's villa. This woman was no more than 35, but her flesh looked strange, waxy. It was something like Wyatt's flesh, the scars of using years and years of Stimpaks and combat chems. She introduced herself as Nydia and said that Corrector Heckman was in his study. He would welcome any visitors, but there were no weapons allowed in the house. Lex gave her weapons to Morag, trying to hide a pistol. Nydia spotted the attempt and politely asked Lex to put aside that one as well. When Lex went into the house, Nydia made several attempts at starting a conversation with Morag, but she wasn't interested.
In the study, Ravi Heckman was just as friendly. The well-dressed man took the wax avocado and recognized it instantly, his face twisting with just a slight twinge of emotion. He paid Lex for the delivery and asked her to stay for dinner. When she declined, he suggested they play chess, or cards. Lex was well and truly freaked out, and left politely. Morag and Lex departed immediately.
They were ready to go. With Corrector Espinoza's citizenship papers, they were able to exchange their Capitol Credits into Caps. As they were making the trade, they were approached by a mercenary named Parag. The party groaned as Parag offered them a job. Her boss, a Capitol merchant, had cheated a Rustlands merchant and now a The Rustlands Peoplecatcher was in town to kidnap her boss's family. The group told her that sounded like a real tough situation and wished her the best of luck. They gathered Anna, got in the van and headed for the Wabash International Bridge.
The bridge was built up with stone roadblocks and concertina wire on The Capitol side, and almost no defences on the Midwest side. It was being guarded by 4 Capitol soldiers, 6 NCR elites and a full-blown Capitol Corrector in power armor. The party steeled themselves and drove up to the main gate. A Capitol soldier greeted them at their vehicle. Anna handed the soldier her papers and they were approved immediately.
Just then, a voice cried out, "Lex? What're you doing here?"
It was Joey Darbinian, who had grown up in Vault 40, ten years younger than Lex. He had left the vault to study horticulture, and abroad, he had heard the call of Great Leader. Joey had renounced his Midwest citizenship and fled to The Capitol to grow food for a pure people. Now he was guarding a bridge, an assault rifle in his hands.
But then Joey's attitude changed. He muttered something quietly and waved off the attention of the other soldiers, indicating that he had been mistaken. The gate was opened, and the van crossed the bridge without incident.
The Midwest retinue on the other side were all plainclothes volunteers with simple hunting rifles. Lex told the guards that they were Midwest citizens, and she was one of the Heroes of St. Louis. The guards were starstruck. They listened to DJ Serene's radio broadcasts and knew all about Lex and Linda. Some of the guards hugged Linda and asked for autographs. The party asked where all the Brotherhood soldiers were, and they explained that all Brotherhood personnel had fled to Mount Vernon when war was announced. Before they left, the local Knight-Captain had told him that this area was indefensible, but it was their duty as local militia to hold it as long as they could.
Lex thanked them, but she was very tired. Even though the village of Copperhead was just 12 miles west, she wanted to make camp immediately. The party agreed, driving just a few minutes away from the bridge where they could rest. But more importantly, they were out of The Capitol.
They looked ahead to Mount Vernon. Perhaps there the Midwest Brotherhood would have answers and resources. It was still 150 miles away, but they were Midwest miles...
Next Session: SESSION 64: ANDY AND LINDA GO TO FUNLAND
Next Session: SESSION 64: ANDY AND LINDA GO TO FUNLAND
Players: The Fellowship of the Doing the Things, Andy, Arminius, Linda, Morag
*September 2nd, 2317* (Adventure Day 131)
It was just after 3pm and the party had finished looting a series of cabins in the old Redbird Woods. They were just 20 miles from Torn Hope and the bridge back to the Midwest Brotherhood of Steel. The city would be heavily guarded by both The Capitol Correctors and New California Republic elite soldiers, but they had a lead. Apparently, a woman named Annalynn Whittman was looking to cross.
They piled back into their van named Halen and headed north. At the side of the highway, there was an active brickworks that they decided to explore. There was a single worker in the old facility, a Nurse Handy robot named Nina. Nina asked if they wanted to buy any bricks, but of course they didn't. They asked about Torn Hope and learned that crossing the bridge without papers was possible, but a lengthy process that required the Capitol Correctors to contact the Midwest Brotherhood of Steel to come collect you. It could take weeks.
Nina noticed Andy and mentioned that there was another SchlockettBot in a place called Normal Hall. On top of that, the Rucker Trucker Amphitheater in White Squirrel was running a show called, "The House Always Wins: The Musical." It was said that the character of Arthur Schlockett got a whole number in that show.
Nina mentioned that she often collected banned foreign news from the radio stations in St. Louis and The Rails. She'd be willing to share, for a price. The party paid up and got the news:
The party grumbled at the cost of such vague news and moved on. The reached Torn Hope safely, finding a bustling town of some 1500 residents. They stashed the van, camouflaging it in some rubble, and then headed into the town's Class 3 Housing Station. It was a slum like the other Class 3 areas, and they could find no sign of Annalynn, nor of the Responders organization she belonged to.
Arminius spotted a plainclothes Corrector spying on them, and quietly informed the others. They set a trap for the secret policeman, leading him into an alley. They captured and questioned the man, one Geoff Espinoza, and learned little. But they took his citizenship papers and his Corrector's badge, which held a physical description pretty close to Arminius. Andy asked if they should kill the man, but the party refused him. Instead, they tied Espinoza up and left him in a dumpster. He would probably be found, but hopefully not too soon.
They next went to the town's Great Leader statue, hoping to find the "wisdom" that Obscisus Ursus had left for Arminius. They found a gleaming, gold-plated statue, meant to impress Midwest and Rustlands traders who came through here on the old Interstate 70 route. But there was no sign of anything left by Ursus.
A disheveled man in clean, but tattered clothes approached them, begging for some food. This man introduced himself as McSwain, and surprised the group by retrieving a crisp stack of Capitol Credits from his pocket. He explained that until recently he had been a wealthy merchant, but on his birthday, he had been caught drunk in public while walking home. The Correctors had gone easy on him, but the community hadn't. People said he was an undesirable and refused to interact with him. Linda gave him some food and they promised to return with more.
The People's Kitchen of Torn Hope, the only legal place to buy hot food in the town, was run by a fancy and elderly person named Dannecia. They served the party a good three-course meal at a decent price, but was arrogant and fully indoctrinated in The Capitol's ideology. Dannecia asked the party to break into the Corrector's Station evidence locker and retrieve a decorative pin of Atom's symbol. It wasn't even that they were religious, they just liked the jewelry. The group said they'd think about it and left.
They returned to McSwain and gave him a few days worth of food. He thanked them. When Andy said disparaging things about Great Leader, McSwain was shocked and insulted. Despite being rejected by this society, he was still very much a patriot.
The party moved on to the local Book Station, remembering that Ursus had mentioned a "page of wisdom." They were greeted by Perry the librarian who spotted Andy and mentioned that he knew the SchlockettBot at Normal Hall. Software Sankey was a friend of Perry's, and a repair technician for robots and all manner of computers. The librarian mentioned a book on fuzzy logic that Sankey would like, and Andy asked to see it immediately. Andy couldn't make heads or tails of the manual on computer programming, but was excited, nonetheless.
Arminius asked about Ursus and books he might like. Perry explained that Great Leader had banned all fiction, history, religion, and militaria, but they were free to look around. And he hadn't seen Ursus, the only visitor in the last 48 hours was a petite woman accompanied by a SchlockettBot. Her name had been Langley. Lex recognized that this was her co-worker Liz, and asked what boon she had come for. Perry said it was a volume by Vault-Tec that was still in the collection.
They raced to the blue and yellow tome, but found only a book of promotional material. Vault-Tec had printed it in the late 2060's in order to draw investment (and calm the public about the possibility of nuclear war.) The book was useless, but a single page of vellum fell out. This thin sheet of leather had a tattoo in it, from before the skin had been removed. It was a Legion officer's tattoo. And burned over the tattoo, while the flesh was still alive, were the letters "TAS." After the skin had been peeled off, during the tanning process, a message had been stained into the leather: Fugis, sed feram curro.
The party saw the Legion eagle tattoo and asked Arminius what it meant. Arminius said, "I'll explain when we get out of here."
They left, heading for the People's Tavern, where they hoped to get a lead on where to find Annalynn Whittman. The bar was stuffed with NCR soldiers, enjoying their time off. The bartender, Ella Goldschmidt, knew of Anna and pointed them to a certain apartment building in Housing Station 3. Ella also had an odd request. She wanted the party to deliver a wax avocado to her former lover. Ella and Corrector Heckman had lived together for 15 years, but recently, the government had rewarded him for his service by assigning him a wife. As a seller of alcohol, Ella was considered too lowly to bear a Corrector's children, so he had been set up with a younger woman so that they could make babies for The Capitol. The decorative avocado had been Heckman's mother's, a family heirloom and keepsake of the pre-war world. But Ella was not allowed to go near the house and disturb the newlyweds.
The party was getting pretty tired of fucked-up Capitol shit, but Ella had given them valuable information. They took the wax avocado and turned to leave. An NCR sergeant stopped Arminius and asked him if the party would play darts with him and his team. Arminius passed, and the soldier seemed disappointed, a bit tired of the company The Capitol had to offer. The sergeant asked if Arminius would rather play chess, and the Legionary was sorely tempted. But the party wanted out of this town, especially because Corrector Espinoza was in a dumpster, probably making a lot of noise.
Before finding Annalynn, Morag wanted to check out Gibbs Shootables. The gun shop might have a .50 caliber receiver for Beau, bringing him up to his natural potency. Arminius and Patch waited outside; they had no interest in firearms. Entering the shop and gun range, the party was greeted by Almadelia Gibbs. Almadelia immediately demanded that the "devices" and the super mutant had to leave. Linda was confused why the gun shop owner was pointing at her, to which Almadelia said, "that inhuman thing can't be in here." Not wanting trouble with a hostile city full of NCR soldiers, everyone but Morag filed out. Morag asked about a .50cal receiver and Almadelia was dumbstruck. It was clearly beyond her capacity, and she tried to shift the conversation to buying Beau or, "holding on to the weapon until a gunsmith could be found." Morag left, thankful to be out of there.
Finding Annalynn Whittman was simple enough. And on top of that, she had the proper paperwork to leave The Capitol. It's just that the documents mentioned a vehicle. The party had the van, so it was a perfect match. They just needed to deliver the avocado and they could leave. Annalynn explained that she also had one task before they went. Anna had been carrying an artifact of the Responders organization, the Somerset Special. This revolver had been instrumental in helping the survivors of Vault 76 to end their Scorched Plague. Furthermore, Anna was planning to deliver the relic to the Midwest Responders at Orchardville. Without the gun, she might not be welcome there. When she had gotten to Torn Hope, she had stored the priceless artifact in a secure locker at Gibbs Shootables. But Almadelia Gibbs had betrayed her, stealing the Somerset Special from the locker and keeping it for herself.
The party cursed the name of Almadelia Gibbs. Arminius still had his Corrector's badge and thought it might be an easy way to retrieve the stolen gun. He entered the shop, pretending to be a Corrector. As always, Arminius was pretty smooth. But Almadelia personally knew all of the Correctors in town, and was suspicious. She said that the Somerset Special was a unique and sanctified weapon. It would be criminal for it to go unused, or be handled by an unworthy shooter. If there was a true marksman, she'd happily give up the revolver, but not to just anyone.
Arminius called on Lex to enter the shop. Almadelia was even more suspicious, but kept to her word. To test their mastery, Almadelia had a gun range challenge she called, "Shoot the Muut!" This game was set up to simulate killing a super mutant with well-placed shots. Arminius began the challenge, but was frustrated that the target was set so far away. Lex rose to the challenge and won handily, all while Almadelia shouted with glee at the idea of a super mutant being killed. They got the gun and left in a hurry. It was a very nice revolver, but Lex reluctantly returned it to Annalynn.
There was still the matter of the avocado. Lex and Morag decided to go, wary of just how dangerous this bizarre task might be. The found a woman drinking tea on the front porch of Corrector Heckman's villa. This woman was no more than 35, but her flesh looked strange, waxy. It was something like Wyatt's flesh, the scars of using years and years of Stimpaks and combat chems. She introduced herself as Nydia and said that Corrector Heckman was in his study. He would welcome any visitors, but there were no weapons allowed in the house. Lex gave her weapons to Morag, trying to hide a pistol. Nydia spotted the attempt and politely asked Lex to put aside that one as well. When Lex went into the house, Nydia made several attempts at starting a conversation with Morag, but she wasn't interested.
In the study, Ravi Heckman was just as friendly. The well-dressed man took the wax avocado and recognized it instantly, his face twisting with just a slight twinge of emotion. He paid Lex for the delivery and asked her to stay for dinner. When she declined, he suggested they play chess, or cards. Lex was well and truly freaked out, and left politely. Morag and Lex departed immediately.
They were ready to go. With Corrector Espinoza's citizenship papers, they were able to exchange their Capitol Credits into Caps. As they were making the trade, they were approached by a mercenary named Parag. The party groaned as Parag offered them a job. Her boss, a Capitol merchant, had cheated a Rustlands merchant and now a The Rustlands Peoplecatcher was in town to kidnap her boss's family. The group told her that sounded like a real tough situation and wished her the best of luck. They gathered Anna, got in the van and headed for the Wabash International Bridge.
The bridge was built up with stone roadblocks and concertina wire on The Capitol side, and almost no defences on the Midwest side. It was being guarded by 4 Capitol soldiers, 6 NCR elites and a full-blown Capitol Corrector in power armor. The party steeled themselves and drove up to the main gate. A Capitol soldier greeted them at their vehicle. Anna handed the soldier her papers and they were approved immediately.
Just then, a voice cried out, "Lex? What're you doing here?"
It was Joey Darbinian, who had grown up in Vault 40, ten years younger than Lex. He had left the vault to study horticulture, and abroad, he had heard the call of Great Leader. Joey had renounced his Midwest citizenship and fled to The Capitol to grow food for a pure people. Now he was guarding a bridge, an assault rifle in his hands.
But then Joey's attitude changed. He muttered something quietly and waved off the attention of the other soldiers, indicating that he had been mistaken. The gate was opened, and the van crossed the bridge without incident.
The Midwest retinue on the other side were all plainclothes volunteers with simple hunting rifles. Lex told the guards that they were Midwest citizens, and she was one of the Heroes of St. Louis. The guards were starstruck. They listened to DJ Serene's radio broadcasts and knew all about Lex and Linda. Some of the guards hugged Linda and asked for autographs. The party asked where all the Brotherhood soldiers were, and they explained that all Brotherhood personnel had fled to Mount Vernon when war was announced. Before they left, the local Knight-Captain had told him that this area was indefensible, but it was their duty as local militia to hold it as long as they could.
Lex thanked them, but she was very tired. Even though the village of Copperhead was just 12 miles west, she wanted to make camp immediately. The party agreed, driving just a few minutes away from the bridge where they could rest. But more importantly, they were out of The Capitol.
They looked ahead to Mount Vernon. Perhaps there the Midwest Brotherhood would have answers and resources. It was still 150 miles away, but they were Midwest miles...
Next Session: SESSION 64: ANDY AND LINDA GO TO FUNLAND
Missions/Quests Completed
Character(s) interacted with
Report Date
25 Feb 2023
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