September 10, 2017 Sunday Meeting
5pm
EST (UTC/GMT - 5)
AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Back to News
Transcript work by Ar-Pharazon and Varda.
Attending: (6)
AIM:
Arien, Ar-Pharazon, Eonwe, Varda
(presiding)
Discord:
Arien, Gorlim, Varda.
LotRO:
Maedhros, Varda
Before-meeting
Meeting begins
Membership:
Games Site Mass Update now in progress. If you did
not receive an email, which is also a yearly gaming newsletter, please
email your info to Eonwe, or Varda if your email is confidential.
Group picture suggestion for
our guild's 20th anniversary, of mains in their preferred game.
Web
Gaming:
General gaming report by Eonwe
Tolkien:
Topic: Morgoth, Sauron, and
Saruman could not make new life, but they could change existing life to
make types better suited to their purposes. To start, they did great
propaganda to bring beings to their side, offering power, abilities,
whatever worked, mostly not what we consider appealing to their better
side. What were some of these changed beings, and what was the
advantage?
After-meeting:
Flashgaming Reviews by
Ar-Pharazon
top
Before-meeting
(times for Ar-Pharazon in the Netherlands)
Varda Valar (22:48:40): Aiya
Varda Valar (22:48:41): Aye aye
Ar-Pharazon-V (22:48:46): Aiya!
top
Varda Valar (23:03:34): Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
Varda Valar (23:03:43): Membership:
Varda Valar (23:03:50): Anyone present, please say
Aiya
Varda Valar (23:03:52): Aiya
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:03:54): Aiya
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:03:57): Arien poked.
Eonwe Valar (23:07:15): Heya
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:07:25): Aiya!
Varda Valar (23:07:34): Aiya. Does his Heya count,
Phar? ;)
Arien V (23:07:40): Aiya :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:07:50): Aiya! Well that does, at
least.
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:07:56): Not sure about Eonwe.
Varda Valar (23:08:06): I suspect the problem in
Discord is people not clicking onto Meeting Place instead of Harbor for
the meeting. :)
Varda Valar (23:08:15): Gorlim is with us in Discord
and LotRO
Eonwe Valar (23:12:21): :}
Varda Valar (23:13:29): Arien is also with Gorlim and
myself in Discord. :)
Varda Valar (23:13:35): Thank you all for coming.
Varda Valar (23:13:45): Without you, there is no
meeting across games.
Varda Valar (23:13:58): Any membership news?
Varda Valar (23:14:23): We think some more streets
between us are drying up enough to cross, good news from Gorlim.
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:14:23): Saw Fladrif in Hearthstone again this
week, for a challenge friend quest :)
Varda Valar (23:15:15): Nice
Eonwe Valar (23:15:15): GSMU e-mails have been sent out.
Response counts as activity to let us know you're still interested in
being a member of the Valar Guild :}
Varda Valar (23:15:25): Thank you, Eonwe!
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:15:54): *grin* after today I should
have a new game to add to that...
Varda Valar (23:16:09): Another? When do you eat? :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:16:18): Legends of Equestria, the
big fan-made MLP MMO getting released today ;)
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:16:48): It seems more social
open-world rather than linear questing with endgame stuff, so shouldn't
take up much time
Varda Valar (23:16:51): Today! Congrats to all of our
Bronies. :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:16:55): maybe I'll visit once a weke
Varda Valar (23:17:08): Nice
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:17:08): but there are quests :)
top
Varda Valar (23:19:08): Web:
Varda Valar (23:19:52): Little Jewel has had all of her
stories taken down except the one, so that's done. She will probably
want her art taken down as the story it illustrates is no longer up.
Varda Valar (23:20:20): DeepGroover and the Bohemian Weasel both have works that
are within a hair of completion, think you'll enjoy them
top
Varda Valar (23:21:20): Gaming:
Varda Valar (23:21:33): Eonwe, will you be able to
give today's general Games Report?
Arien V (23:21:35): what?
Eonwe Valar (23:21:42): Sure.
Varda Valar (23:21:46): Sorry, which what?
Arien V (23:22:02): why all the stories away?
Arien V (23:22:11): they were great
Varda Valar (23:22:26): She put up a letter to us
explaining the problem. Would you like it put in here? It's on the News.
Varda Valar (23:22:38): and her story page
Arien V (23:22:49): i ll read it
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:22:48): I can understand stopping
production, but product removal is always so sad
Arien V (23:22:57): no nbeed to take it here
Varda Valar (23:23:08): I completely agree. Was lucky
she left one up.
Varda Valar (23:23:24): http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/fiction/authors/LittleJewel/authorLittleJewel.htm
Varda Valar (23:23:43): The letter is at that link.
She is not angry with us, but something bad happened in rl.
Varda Valar (23:24:55): Eonwe, please go ahead. :)
Eonwe Valar (23:25:30): Certainly.
Eonwe Valar (23:26:26): As already mentioned, the Games Site Mass-Update has begun.
Please send in your gaming info by September 30th! See stats for prior
to the GSMU in archived form at http://valarguild.org/gaming/membergames/2017
Eonwe Valar (23:26:53): World of Warcraft:
Eonwe Valar (23:27:20): This week's bonus event: Arena
Skirmishes.
Another part of the Argus
Campaign opened up this week.
Hotfixes
for this week.
Eonwe Valar (23:27:40): Starcraft 2:
Eonwe Valar (23:28:10): Another new patch out: Patch
3.17.1.
An interview is out: The
Astronaut Who Brought StarCraft Into Space.
Eonwe Valar (23:28:26): Heroes
of the Storm:
Eonwe Valar (23:28:53): A new
patch is out (with some hotfixes),
introducing Kel'Thuzad
and a new event (mentioned in the patch notes).
Eonwe Valar (23:29:08): Hearthstone:
Eonwe Valar (23:29:27): There's some balance
changes coming.
Eonwe Valar (23:29:37): Overwatch:
Eonwe Valar (23:29:52): There's a new digital comic
out: "Wasted
Land".
Eonwe Valar (23:30:14): That's it for me.
Varda Valar (23:31:46): Thank you, Eonwe. :)
Varda Valar (23:32:16): LotRO has been enjoying the Summer
Festival and Hobnangians,
Varda Valar (23:32:28): but mostly the new High Elves
and the Mordor expansion.
Varda Valar (23:32:57): Happily this expansion has
seen kin members grouping more with each other and outside.
Varda Valar (23:33:33): Also we're seeing a number of
our kinmates return to enjoy the new expansion and what Standing Stone
has been doing with the whole game, as they really care.
[more general LotRO news farther down.]
Varda Valar (23:33:52): LotRO folk seen online this
past week:
Varda Valar (23:34:27):
Ancalagon
Arien
Dis
Elwing
Fangorn
Gil-galad
Gorlim
Hurin
Irmo
Lenwe
Maedhros
Miriel
Nar
Thranduil
Varda
Varda Valar (23:34:46): StarCraft 2 seen this past week:
Eowyn
Fangorn
Varda Valar (23:35:04): (Anyone else?)
Varda Valar (23:35:16): Diablo 3:
Bilbo
Eonwe Valar (23:35:19): WoW Lothar:
Looks like Eowyn had popped in there too.
Varda Valar (23:35:35): yay. Did Elwing make it in
yet?
Eonwe Valar (23:35:43): I didn't see her.
Varda Valar (23:36:12): Ok, might not be installed
and updated yet on her new computer.
Varda Valar (23:36:49): LotRO Beacon issue #25 is out.
Varda Valar (23:37:56): LotRO box run this past week
until tomorrow is the 6-man Dungeons of Dol Guldur.
Varda Valar (23:38:11): Any other general gaming news?
Varda Valar (23:39:19): Oh, LotRO had a Community
Rules Update to fit with Standing Stone:
Varda Valar (23:39:21): https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?657946-Community-Rules-Update
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:39:25): Well, like I said, Legends of Equestria open access
release today. *searches for link*
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:39:56): Whoops, site is down, must
have been too crowded :D But I can give it anyway.
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:40:01): https://www.legendsofequestria.com/
Varda Valar (23:40:13): Thank you. :)
Varda Valar (23:41:12): Any other news, suggestions,
Tolkien topic suggestions?
Varda Valar (23:41:56): Reminders:
Varda Valar (23:42:08): Sept 22 is the double birthday of
book Bilbo and Frodo
Varda Valar (23:42:44): Oct 4 is the Valar Guild's 20th
Anniversary. Time to be making plans. :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:43:00): Every year it must annoy
you that you didn't create the guild about 2 weeks earlier.
Eonwe Valar (23:43:17): Hehe.
Varda Valar (23:44:18): Actually, Bilbo-V my son has
his birthday almost at the time as book Bilbo's, so he likes getting a
little attention at least. :)
Varda Valar (23:44:24): Sauron's is 3 days later.
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:44:27): ah, nice
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:44:38): Mid-september's always
crowded with birthdays.
Eonwe Valar (23:44:42): It'd be cool if we could
manage to get isolated images of every member's
main character (the ones who play MMOs anyway) and then merge them all
into one picture to make a sort of group photo. I'm not a graphic
artist, but that would be cool if we could manage that.
Varda Valar (23:44:43): Excuse for 3 parties in a row.
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:44:44): I blame Christmas
conceptions.
Varda Valar (23:45:18): First we get the pictures,
then we dig up one of our graphic artists. :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:45:22): My grandfather's birthday
was on the 22nd of september as well.
Varda Valar (23:45:44): Maybe Little Jewel would be
willing to try that. She did this one (look fast before it's taken down)
Varda Valar (23:46:03): http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/art/gallery/LittleJewel/LTS3.jpg
Varda Valar (23:46:23): Nice meshing of lots of
photos.
Varda Valar (23:47:00): Give us some ideas, anyway.
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:47:19): https://i.imgur.com/92dcNXo.png
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:47:29): The tall one in the middle
is my main.
Varda Valar (23:47:45): That's a good one. Is that
different images put together?
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:48:00): Yep! All my alts, a friend
put em together in photoshop.
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:48:10): Well, all... it was made
before I got my demon hunter.
Varda Valar (23:48:28): Nice. So Photoshop is the
program we need to look into. :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:48:35): apparently :D
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:48:51): But feel free to cut me out
of that image if you want to put our mains together :)
Varda Valar (23:50:02): Maybe put images for one game
together to keep the same styles, not so jarring.
Varda Valar (23:50:19): Unless we can do something
with shading or other funness.
Varda Valar (23:50:35): Thanks for the thought,
Eonwe. Be a good Anniversary project.
Eonwe Valar (23:51:09): Aye.
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:51:11): (fun fact... I chose that
background image, made the screenshot, sent it to her... and she
managed to find me in Nagrand based on the screenshot :D)
Varda Valar (23:51:21): Nice
Varda Valar (23:53:29): Switching gears now to
top
Varda Valar (23:53:33): Tolkien:
Varda Valar (23:54:37): Morgoth, Sauron, and Saruman
could not make new life. But they could change existing life to make
types better suited to their purposes.
Varda Valar (23:55:49): To start, they did great
propaganda to bring beings to their side, offering power, abilities,
whatever worked. Mostly not what we consider appealing to their better
side.
Varda Valar (23:56:15): What were some of these
changed beings, and what was the advantage?
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:57:26): Creatures that joined their
side willingly to be altered? Tough one.
Varda Valar (23:59:33): They probably didn't expect
to be altered, at least not much.
Varda Valar (23:59:52): The originals joined up
expecting power, fame, whatever.
Monday, September 11, 2017
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:00:01): Sauron himself was one.
Varda Valar (00:00:19): Then they had problems with
certain things. Light-sensitivity for instance.
Varda Valar (00:00:27): Aye
Varda Valar (00:00:58): Over time, loss of flight.
Varda Valar (00:01:23): But they received power given
by Morgoth or Sauron.
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:03:56): Sorry, other than Sauron,
and the wild men recruited (but not altered) by Saruman, I can't
actually remember any volunteers.
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:04:31): Ah, well, I suppose Morgoth
recruited men as well eventually.
Varda Valar (00:04:48): All of the Maiar of Morgoth
were brought in voluntarily.
Varda Valar (00:05:08): Rather like House Slytherin,
they believed it meant they were destined for greatness.
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:05:25): ahh, the Malfoys of the
world...
Varda Valar (00:05:30): With Sauron, another
motivation was not being killed.
Varda Valar (00:05:32): Aye. :)
Varda Valar (00:06:03): Others were born already
under their dominion.
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:06:10): Or captured.
Varda Valar (00:06:14): It was all they knew. And
they were fed lies.
Varda Valar (00:06:35): Aye, then there were those
captured and changed. The original Orcs.
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:07:18): Presumably trolls too, if
they were corrupted from ents, though turning wood to stone is a bit
beyond me. Fossilization perhaps.
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:07:41): Oh, the Nazgul were among
the volunteers, of course.
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:07:49): Altered by the rings that
gave them power.
Varda Valar (00:07:57): The elves that ran from
Orome, believing the lies about the Rider, tended to be more easily
frightened and gullible. They ran from Orome and were captured. Thus
culling the less fit from the Elves unintentionally and giving the orcs
the less pleasant traits to start.
Varda Valar (00:08:02): Aye
Varda Valar (00:08:46): Then the orcs were changed
again. Saruman had to improve them to stand up to sunlight for the
army. Also made them stronger.
Varda Valar (00:09:40): It could not have been
strictly breeding orcs and men, perhaps, as we saw that produce the
squint-eyed, sallow manlike ones that were seen in Bree and Mordor.
Could pass for human.
Varda Valar (00:10:01): Perhaps they were strictly
from the lesser goblin type of orc?
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:11:22): Well it's not just
crossbreeding, some of the more extreme stuff needs direct manipulation
I think.
Varda Valar (00:12:05): That sounds likely.
Varda Valar (00:12:21): Adding some of their own
power into the work, maybe.
Varda Valar (00:12:47): That might even be why
Saruman was told to do it. Lessen his power, and not lessening
Sauron's. Useful tool.
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:12:53): Yep. If you're gonna make
orcs resilient to sunlight and you don't actually have anything to
breed them that has that trait, you need outside intervention.
Varda Valar (00:14:02): Again, the trolls of various
types. Early ones had some intelligence, such as Bert and William. They
could form a little team of their own.
Varda Valar (00:14:16): They seemed to have been a
corruption mocking ents.
Varda Valar (00:14:41): Then the Olog-hai were made,
Varda Valar (00:15:01): They could go out in
sunlight, were much stronger, spoke only Black Speech.
Varda Valar (00:16:11): Saruman wanted power, wanted
to make rings like Sauron, and delved too deep. At last he used the
Orthanc stone to learn more and was caught. Despair took him down.
Varda Valar (00:16:28): So despair is shown as a
technique for corruption.
Varda Valar (00:16:35): They quit fighting and fall
in line.
Varda Valar (00:17:32): Does anyone else haveanything
they'd like to add?
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:18:04): Balrogs?
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:18:21): More maia immediately on
board with Morgoth, and probably altered by him.
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:18:25): *maiar
Varda Valar (00:20:13): Aye, if only because thanks
to falling in with him, they eventually lost the power of flight.
(Assuming their wings ever worked, which seems likely early on.)
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:22:20): Yes, well, they were Maiar,
in a way, their original shapes were their own... or created by Eru I
guess?
Varda Valar (00:22:42): They were indeed Maiar, to
start.
Varda Valar (00:23:17): Maiar were spirits that
clothed themselves according to what was in their minds, spirits.
Varda Valar (00:23:28): And probably had copycat
wardrobes too. :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:23:51): so if the balrogs
originally wanted to fly, they could :)
Varda Valar (00:23:54): Maiar came in all sorts, from
very "minor" to those approaching full Valar.
Varda Valar (00:24:15): They apparently did fly, and
attacked Tilion on the Moon. He drove them off, very impressive.
Varda Valar (00:28:45): [Kinship] Galadhrandiel:
Hello to all!
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:28:53): Aiya!
Arien V (00:29:04): aiya Gil - Galad :)
Varda Valar (00:30:52): Maedhros, good guess though.
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:31:57): Hmm... Gilgalad and
Maedhros...
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:32:19): what's the term of their
familial relation...
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:32:33): second cousin once removed?
Varda Valar (00:32:36): The Galadh tends to throw
folks. I have to remind myself.
Varda Valar (00:33:14): He just read our topic.
Here's his response:
Varda Valar (00:33:16): [Kinship] Galadhrandiel: Olog
hai ftw
Varda Valar (00:37:50): *hammer drags itself out from
the shelf*
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:37:59): can that fly?
Varda Valar (00:38:25): *I pick it up and bonk the
gavel on the hammerpad*
Varda Valar (00:38:44): *clonkitty*
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:38:43): *gasp* you have to work for
it for once
Varda Valar (00:38:56): *a chunk falls off and
reattaches itself*
Varda Valar (00:39:18): *I put it back and it drags
itself, zombie-like, back inside*
Varda Valar (00:39:26): After-meeting!
Varda Valar (00:39:33): Zug zug. Aye. :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:39:38): zombie gavel?
Varda Valar (00:40:05): It had to happen! Probably
from the Necromancer. Heard he was one of Aule's students.
Varda Valar (00:41:43): As usual, lots of names for
him. Sauron, Necromancer, Annatar
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:41:53): big eye in the sky
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:41:58): ring of fire
Varda Valar (00:42:14): He takes the red eye flight?
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:49:14): Ah, the LoE site is up now,
if you're curious.
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:56:58): Personal gaming! Let's find
some flashgames.
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:59:02): http://www.kongregate.com/games/FlyAnvil/insectonator-zombie-mode
is the first! A variation on the game where you have to squash various
types of bugs by unlocking different weapons, where the bugs are
replaced by zombies. Unlock all the weapons and complete all the
achievements for 100% progress!
Eonwe Valar (01:01:57): Sorry all, I've had to be afk
for a while, and I've got to be off now. Take care all, good night,
sleep well, and have fun :} And for Metroid
Fans, Metroid: Samus Returns comes out Friday :}
Arien V (01:02:22): Namarie Eonwe :) take care
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:03:32): Namarie!
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:23:07): http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/avoyd
is the second game, simple game, collect triangles while avoiding
squares :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:27:35): http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/le_chat_fonce
is the third, simple, nice atmospheric game where you play a cat
collecting fireflies, and key pieces to get to each next level.
Arien V (01:45:36): Namarie all
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:45:44): namarie!
Varda Valar (01:45:47): Namarie!
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:06:27): Blizzard gaming!
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:07:30): Diablo 3: Finished chapter 3 for the
season, and only 2 more objectives to go for chapter 4. As predicted,
the 4-piece setbonus makes things easier, but defense-wise I'm a bit
fragile at Torment IV. Oh well, one more bossfight and a greater rift
to go and I'm done with this one ;)
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:22:07): (There, now I've got a
character in Legends of Equestria called Calley Clipse on the European
server. There seems to be a Dutch one specifically but I don't want to
have to speak Dutch all the time, and it's probably emptier ;))
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:22:32): Continuing...
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:22:53): Hearthstone: All classes to level 50
now! Continuing on to 51 for the neutral basic cards.
Varda Valar (02:22:56): Interestng
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:23:56): Brawl this week was an
oldy, Kel'thuzad vs Rafaam. Might be because of the release of KT in
Heroes of the Storm.
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:25:15): Been working further on the
Frozen Throne missions, defeated up to Sindragosa, so only the Lich
King is left. But he's really hard, and cheats a bit :) Not sure if
I'll get to him any time soon, let alone with all 9 classes for the
paladin reward hero. But priest and druid are supposed to be pretty
reasonable.
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:27:22): Heroes of the Storm: At
least one more level on some hero I think, especially when working on
Cho'gall it seems to go pretty well. Brawl this week was the Temple
Arena, hold the temple as long as possible to shoot down the enemy
core. When multiple temples open up, quite chaotic.
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:28:11): Also, the Kel'thuzad
introduction comes with a series of quests, for which you need to get
30, 60 and 90 takedowns before september 25th. I'm already 4 takedowns
away from the second one, so should complete the line during the
following week.
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:28:25): WoW:
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:29:02): Still working on heroic
Avatar, with a few tactic changes. Need to get used to it still, and
dps can still be really tight. But we're practicing.
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:29:43): For old raids, new pets
were released! I already got 2 of them, the spider pet from Beth'tilac
and the corrupted blood pet from Spine of Deathwing.
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:29:58): I also finally got the
mount from Ragnaros in the Firelands, so there's that :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:31:47): This week's weekly was
winning 10 arena skirmishes. It's always the weekly quest I dislike the
most, because I'm really not good at arena. But I managed to find an
interesting group on wednesday night and we won 3v3 after 3v3 until I
got my quest done on the first day of the reset, earliest ever!
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:32:42): For world quests, there
appear to have been a few new ones inserted in Highmountain, so I got
those done too. I also got a few more marks of honor, which should now
be at about 80.. I'll have to look into buying the next pvp set.
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:33:35): Worked hard at the Darkmoon
Faire minigames, and ended up at 296 tickets at the end of the week,
just as I calculated. If I repeat this 3 more times I'll have my
zeppelin mount in December for sure!
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:35:10): Completed the Insurrection
achievement, with the next few quests sending me to the Nighthold. Did
that once already for the Balance of Power questline, and got 10 out of
the 20 needed Nightshards. Hopefully I'll finish that next week,
otherwise one week more. Doesn't matter much, because I'm not planning
on doing the final quests there until the Illidan questline is done,
and I'm now at 17/40 soul fragments for that.
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:36:29): With things progressing so
well, I started the Karazhan questline too. Apparently the first half
of the attunement questline was removed already, in 7.2.5 or 7.3, not
sure; the initial attunement is now gone and the questline starts at
Karazhan itself, dealing with the demon infestation around the tower.
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:36:56): I've done all that, and the
next quests send me into Karazhan itself, which I appear to have to do
at least half a dozen times to get all the quests done, because it will
keep sending me back in.
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:37:01): Sure keeps me busy!
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:38:51): And finally, I got my first
falcosaur hatchling pet from the world quest in Azsuna. I'm not going
to work on the quests yet, however, probably not until after I work a
bit more on the Karazhan and Trial of Valor questlines first :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:39:13): And that's my report for
the week!
Ar-Pharazon-V (04:18:47): sending transcript
tomorrow, namarie!
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