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Soylent Pudding posted:In the next session my players will be visiting an exclusive cabaret /inn / brothel looking for a ship captain to question. Can anyone offer interesting side characters and encounters while investigating and looking for the captain, who is trying to remain inconspicuous and does not want to be found? Random Ideas The Cabaret performance gives a crude political statement about some worldly events in your campaign. Even if it's just having someone onstage acting as the local sheriff, looking around cluelessly for crime while the cabaret performers dance around behind him. There are whips for sale from a maker/performer who shows them off (perhaps onstage). This same vendor offers a set of magical manacles: tougher than ordinary manacles, they can be unlocked in two ways: by a key, or when a keyword is spoken by the wearer. Perhaps the party pull up chairs, or perhaps not. Either way, at a table (theirs or not) there's a spare chair: a customer on their hands and knees with the word "barstool" written on their back. A half orc asks if they can borrow this chair before dragging the "barstool" to a table within the party's sight. If ever the party talk about the captain, the barstool bites their lip, like they want to leave or say something. The conflicted expression is detectable past a certain threshold of passive insight. This barstool knows where the captain is, he wants to warn the captain that someone's after him. They won't warn their captain, though, because they're a barstool. Not until the party gets to the VIP lounge at least. If for whatever reason this terrible barstool heads to the VIP lounge and yells to warn the captain; no one in the VIP lounge reacts at all. Instead the half orc comes back and says "I think this chair's a bit creaky. It might need some repairs." Are the party unwelcome, causing concern, or acting in a way that draws only mild attention? I'm not suggesting any of these as a means to be a dick and have the party fail at finding the captain. It's just as a flavoursome alternative to all out carnage if the party do cause some slight concern. After all, the guys running a brothel don't want to frighten the patrons if they can avoid it, so a fight is a last resort. So, perhaps the place has a security detail who notices the characters acting unusually. The following suggestions are what happens if the establishment are concerned about the party, but also concerned about not causing a fight indoors. 0. A Free Drink Before the party have caused any alarm, if this is the first time these guards have seen the party, they might offer to pay for a drink. It's just to get in the party's good books. They're not brutish in demeanor, but friendly, almost servile, and always calm. Now on to what happens if there's a slight cause for concern... 1. Are You A Smoker? A calm and friendly gentleman might ask if a party member is a smoker, offering a pipe of good smelling tobacco. If they follow the man, he leads them out of a side door to an outside area where people are sat smoking in the lovely weather. The guard would stay and have a nice chat about whatever the party member wants to talk about, or about -how this guard work is easy money, -how he's thinking about chasing the reward on a (side quest eg a bounty). -some background thing that's going on. The thing is: if the party member wanted to get back inside, he'd be refused. 2. Oh, I Saw Him Leave Just Now If the party are openly asking about the captain, or about looking for someone: in order to get them out of the inn, they'd say "I saw him leave just now." They'd put a few extra footsoldiers on the front door after anyone leaves. 3. One at a time If the party are split doing separate things, the guards can get the first one out by any means. If that goes undetected, one could try to get the others by whispering to them in a somber tone. They'd say "I saw your friend outside. He's asking for you. I think he might need you." I'll stop here because the point of this encounter isn't to stop the party from succeeding in the end but to provide alternatives to the worst case scenario in the event that they're mildly unwelcome. Something to do in the gray area between "who are these guys?" and "we need to get them out by force right now", somewhere in the region of "I'm not sure they're here to party."
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Sep 17, 2020 00:46
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Further Ideas, Deeper Into Hell A character from earlier in the campaign walks through the door, sees the party, and walks out. A character walks from the largest of the Inn's rooms covered in what must be several gallons of clear slime. He's wearing a bathrobe, but repeatedly slips on the goo beneath his feet and needs assistance to get to another room. If the party help, the man goes to another room, dries off, and later returns as a very grateful and perhaps useful figure in the VIP lounge (wearing more than a bathrobe). A gnome patron is trying to explain to a dimwitted bouncer that they're not a human child. A sinister person seeks to create some verifiable record that the party have visited this place. Perhaps they use sleight of hand to put one of the establishment's engraved wooden drinks coasters in their pocket for later blackmail purposes. A sinister person asks the party to create some verifiable record that another individual has visited the place. If you walk past the largest of the inn's rooms you can hear draconic expressions of lust spoken in a booming bassy voice which rattles the doors.
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Sep 17, 2020 01:37
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If anyone protests my ideas I'll remind you the game is called dungeons and dragons.
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Sep 17, 2020 04:39
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Idea: there should be a dungeon with a dragon in it
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Sep 17, 2020 06:14
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Alternatively: there should be a dragon, with a dungeon in it.
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Sep 17, 2020 08:37
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The party warforged gets infested by tiny dragons.
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Sep 17, 2020 09:43
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Dragonatrix posted:Alternatively: there should be a dragon, with a dungeon in it. There should be several layers of recursive dungeons with dragons with dungeons in them, starting right from the entire universe being contained within a dragon.
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Sep 17, 2020 19:00
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Has anyone in this thread run Redemption of Kelvan (adventure module) into White Plume Mountain (the 5e Yawning Portal version)? I have an idea to run by the thread. In Redemption of Kelvan, Kelvan runs off cackling about how he's the wizard Keraptis and he's going to gank Hildehrune to restore his magical power. The thing is, White Plume Mountain doesn't resolve that plot. My plan is to ensure Ctenmiir and Quesnef play up the fact they're imprinted with the personality and/or visage of Keraptis to then set up for the finale. At the end of the dungeon the party will gain access to an area in which "Kelvan" and Hildehrune are fighting to the death. Hildehrune looks to be pushing against an unseen force with all of her might, while Kelvan seems to be toying with her, moving her about with a flick of his wrist. Hildehrune explains that Kelvan must be stopped, and that she can't hold him much longer. Kelvan remains calm, even if attacked, giving the party the following offer: "Consider which of us is to be the easier fight. If you kill her [and leave that sword with me]*, I will let you go." *If the party have Blackrazor, Kelvan wants to keep it. Also Blackrazor wants to be wielded by Kelvan, but may encourage its current wielder to kill Hildehrune first. If the party have Whelm, it will encourage its wielder to attack Kelvan through its words. If the party have Wave it will explain that it could turn the tide of this battle, if only its wielder prays to Neptune. If the character does, for some reason, spend an action praying: the room floods over three rounds, starting with a foot of water to make the area difficult terrain, then above 6ft requiring the characters to swim, then up to the ceiling requiring the characters to fight according to Underwater Combat rules. During this time, Kelvan is held in place by a growing number of starfish clinging to his body. Hildehrune attacks with a greatsword and has barbarian rage as well as some divine abilities. Kelvan is an archmage who has been nerfed but also has legendary actions. This fight replaces the Ifrit at the end of the dungeon. Azza Bamboo fucked around with this message at 23:18 on Sep 17, 2020 |
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Sep 17, 2020 23:13
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Belated reply but thank you for the comments regarding attributes and feats. The latter is the only real major question to be honest, whether I want any to be selected and just embrace it balance wise or if I want to (as said earlier) limit stuff that is heavily picked; War Caster, Armor/Weapon Expertise and stuff. I have seen some completely cordon such selections off to purely roleplay/career feats, but at the same time there exist more combat orientated feats like Duel Wielding and Charger which are absolutely untouched and probably wouldn't do much damage if available.
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Sep 18, 2020 04:26
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Charger is one is a real one of those "why is this a feat" things
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Sep 19, 2020 00:45
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Splicer posted:Charger is one is a real one of those "why is this a feat" things I really wanted to do something like this for my monk since it fit my playstyle of charging straight into the thick of things but it just seemed so bad and honestly charging feels like it should be an action, if you charge gain a bonus to your movement and attack at advantage but enemies until the beginning of your next turn get to attack you at advantage or something? Throw in a free shove in there somewhere make it something to either build around or situationally do.
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Sep 19, 2020 16:48
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Found a Frostmaiden game and tentatively rolled up a mountain dwarf moon druid working for the Harpers. Excited to use my "cantrips" of "hitting people with a battleax until I can turn into a bear." Actually, question: My strength and wisdom are already at 16 but my dex is at 13. Is it worth taking Squat Nimbleness at level 4? (Increase str or dex by 1, walking speed increases by 5 feet, gain proficiency in athletics or acrobatics, advantage on getting out of a grapple) I can't be wildshaped all the time, and bumping up my AC and walking speed, plus picking up Athletics, seems like a pretty good boon. Or Sentinel? Tracker for Hunter's Mark and an odd wis score for later? change my name fucked around with this message at 18:18 on Sep 19, 2020 |
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Sep 19, 2020 17:02
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Splicer posted:Charger is one is a real one of those "why is this a feat" things There is a ton of feats in this game which really complement a build but are mediocre enough otherwise that they're not worth picking, or worse force people to pick Variant Human for it. It's why for this level 5 party I am just going to disallow the extremely powerful feats (Lucky, Sharpshooter/Great Weapons Master, and maybe Sentinel/War Caster) and keep everything else.
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Sep 19, 2020 18:00
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SkySteak posted:There is a ton of feats in this game which really complement a build but are mediocre enough otherwise that they're not worth picking, or worse force people to pick Variant Human for it. It's why for this level 5 party I am just going to disallow the extremely powerful feats (Lucky, Sharpshooter/Great Weapons Master, and maybe Sentinel/War Caster) and keep everything else. So you hate fighters....good to know.
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Sep 19, 2020 18:11
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fixing 5e by loving martials even harder is a time-honored tradition
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Sep 19, 2020 18:21
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Fix 5e by making nature a wisdom skill and not int
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Sep 19, 2020 18:29
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change my name posted:Fix 5e by making nature a wisdom skill and not int Religion too.
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Sep 19, 2020 18:39
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SkySteak posted:There is a ton of feats in this game which really complement a build but are mediocre enough otherwise that they're not worth picking, or worse force people to pick Variant Human for it. It's why for this level 5 party I am just going to disallow the extremely powerful feats (Lucky, Sharpshooter/Great Weapons Master, and maybe Sentinel/War Caster) and keep everything else.
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Sep 19, 2020 19:26
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Madmarker posted:So you hate fighters....good to know. “useful feats? no thanks just take another asi to wisdom or whatever the gently caress”
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Sep 19, 2020 19:36
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Madmarker posted:So you hate fighters....good to know. The inclination to Feats which Martials have is actually the reason I didn't just pull the trigger and go with this option ages ago. I knew there was some distaste for Sharpshooter/Great Weapon master at least, but it seems those are most severe in their impact at extremely early level beyond anything else. Really I am just a bit cautious about balance options and didn't want to gently caress anything up right from the get-go.
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Sep 19, 2020 19:43
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The best martial feats only put them in contention with casters, don't take them away. imo.
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Sep 19, 2020 19:49
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When I think of making feats more accessible without loving up balance too much, this is what I think of:
I don't know if this would actually be balanced in practice, but I think it at least moves in the right direction.
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Sep 19, 2020 19:51
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SkySteak posted:The inclination to Feats which Martials have is actually the reason I didn't just pull the trigger and go with this option ages ago. I knew there was some distaste for Sharpshooter/Great Weapon master at least, but it seems those are most severe in their impact at extremely early level beyond anything else. Really I am just a bit cautious about balance options and didn't want to gently caress anything up right from the get-go. My DM gives everyone a free feat at level one, with Sharpshooter/GW Master/Lucky/Warcaster/ASI excluded. Once you hit your ASI/feat at level 4, anything's fair game. It's worked well so far!
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Sep 19, 2020 19:53
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Dramatika posted:My DM gives everyone a free feat at level one, with Sharpshooter/GW Master/Lucky/Warcaster/ASI excluded. Once you hit your ASI/feat at level 4, anything's fair game. It's worked well so far! Yeah in this situation it's more everyone gets a free feat but the party is also starting at level 5 (I've always had groups which prefer later level starts). Due to that I am a bit more inclined to allow what you specified (sans ASI) because at this point, the main issues with Sharpshooter/GW Master are fading off.
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Sep 19, 2020 19:58
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Does anyone here know of a site with pre-generated character sheets? WotC's website has a bunch for different classes, but one problem is that it doesn't actually break out what the spells do whenever there's a class with spells. It'll just list "You have these spells" but doesn't give any details beyond that.
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Sep 19, 2020 21:15
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Do you normally have spell descriptions on your character sheet? That’s what the PHB or Basic Rules are for.
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Sep 19, 2020 21:26
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Kaysette posted:Do you normally have spell descriptions on your character sheet? That’s what the PHB or Basic Rules are for. Fair. I was just hoping there would be some pre-gen options that would have that so I could hand the sheets out to new players and they wouldn't have to refer to a book to know what their spells do. 4E used to have a lot of great pre-gens like this:  I just want my players to be able to know what their character can do without using books.
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Sep 19, 2020 21:42
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Mordiceius posted:Fair. I was just hoping there would be some pre-gen options that would have that so I could hand the sheets out to new players and they wouldn't have to refer to a book to know what their spells do. quote:Web quote:Web
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Sep 19, 2020 21:56
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MorePurpleMoreBetter has excellent character sheets that offer either abbreviated spell descriptions or full length spell cards. Aurora Builder offers something similar.
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Sep 19, 2020 22:03
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Gobbeldygook posted:If that's what you want should either play 4e or a different game. 4th edition spells be like, I don't understand why they can't just have "here are normal rear end character sheets and another bonus page that lists spells/abilities"
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Sep 19, 2020 22:04
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Gobbeldygook posted:If that's what you want should either play 4e or a different game. 4th edition spells be like, They're the same picture.
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Sep 19, 2020 22:05
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Gobbeldygook posted:If that's what you want should either play 4e or a different game. 4th edition spells be like, So natural!
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Sep 19, 2020 22:12
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The bard in the game I'm running is taking College of Spirit, which gives him Tales From Beyond. It says to use a Bardic Inspiration die (1d6) to determine which tale you tell, but the table lists 12 tales. So how would he be able to roll tales 7-12? The description doesn't specify how that works, it just lists the tales.
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Sep 20, 2020 05:36
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sticklefifer posted:The bard in the game I'm running is taking College of Spirit, which gives him Tales From Beyond. It says to use a Bardic Inspiration die (1d6) to determine which tale you tell, but the table lists 12 tales. So how would he be able to roll tales 7-12? The description doesn't specify how that works, it just lists the tales.
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Sep 20, 2020 05:49
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Getting ready to play the new Icewind Dale module with a friend as a DM. Really looking forward to this since he's thorough enough that we're talking 3d printed minis, planned playlists for encounters and a dang table with a screen installed to run vtt maps on. We're still finishing up another online game so everyone is still figuring out their characters and backstories, but I'm pretty excited about the character I've got planned so far. I rolled pretty good for stats with only one roll being under ten, and the DM lets us move around racial modifiers to put RP over min-maxing. My character so far is a goblin in his mid-twenties called Junior who was adopted as a child by a group of adventurers who went on to become pretty famous (celebrity adventurers scion background). They brought him along for a few adventures before deciding that bringing a child into dangerous situations was probably a bit hosed up. By this time they'd gotten their hands on a Deck of Many Things and through pure dumb luck drew the Knight from the deck. Having gained a trusty fighter they decided to make him the babysitter, leaving Junior in his care while they went out on adventures. At some point during this one of the party members gives young Junior a small wood figurine of an owlbear to play with. Junior starts having dreams and nightmares about owlbears shortly after this (I got Owlbear Whisperer on the secret roll) and as he reaches maturity he discovers that there is more to the figurine than meets the eye (hello hexblade patron). The party eventually makes their way to Icewind Dale, tell Junior and his guardian so long and leave - never to be seen again. Fifteen years later the guardian is recently dead, all the loot the party left behind for them has been sold off to care for him on his death bed and Junior finds he has powers he was not aware of before. 6, 12, 14, 14, 15, 18 with a bunch of languages known thanks to the backstory. Gonna be a (eldritch) blast.
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Sep 20, 2020 23:49
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Goddamn Willowisps are loving rough
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Sep 21, 2020 00:34
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My mom had her first DnD session today (mines of Phendelver), she started off as a Mary Sue sorceress named Moonbeam who wants to protect the innocent and serve justice. Fast forward two hours, she has 2 hp left and is cooking the bugbear boss over his own fire pit to feed the wolves guarding her exit.
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Sep 21, 2020 01:13
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Eraflure posted:My mom had her first DnD session today (mines of Phendelver), she started off as a Mary Sue sorceress named Moonbeam who wants to protect the innocent and serve justice. Fast forward two hours, she has 2 hp left and is cooking the bugbear boss over his own fire pit to feed the wolves guarding her exit. Dungeons and Dragons: The Real Monster Manual is the Player's Handbook
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Sep 21, 2020 01:47
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Hey, I'm looking for a little advice. I'm DM'ing a 5e game and trying to build a dracolich. 5e dragons are kind of boring so I wanted to use it's ascendancy as a lich as an excuse to give it some spells to make it more similar to the dragons from 3.5. Are there any guides for giving spells to monsters? Or should I just whip up a spell list and wing it?
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Sep 21, 2020 03:09
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Beef Jerky Robot posted:Hey, I'm looking for a little advice. I'm DM'ing a 5e game and trying to build a dracolich. 5e dragons are kind of boring so I wanted to use it's ascendancy as a lich as an excuse to give it some spells to make it more similar to the dragons from 3.5. Are there any guides for giving spells to monsters? Or should I just whip up a spell list and wing it? There's a dracolich in the monster manual, that might be a good place to build inspiration from (and tailor it to your game)
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Sep 21, 2020 03:11
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