Topic: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure (Ended) (Read 185729 times)

Egan_BW · « **Reply #2175 on:** June 24, 2018, 06:28:10 pm »

That could have gone better. It could also have gone immeasurably worse.

IMO we don't have enough to send a decent force down five hallways at once. We also don't want to totally ignore any of the paths, lest we get flanked by enemies hiding in the halls we didn't cover. The solution is bounding overwatch.

Set up three teams of decent firepower to go down three hallways, and another team to overwatch from this room. They'll watch the other paths and cover the teams that advance. Once the forwards teams reach a defensible position, they'll stop and be overwatch for the back team as they move up as well.

omada · « **Reply #2176 on:** June 24, 2018, 07:29:03 pm »

Ask camera guy for info and use our soul vision

okay, we should ask the shadowrunners how they wan't to split or not split their group

I don't know how we will split our group

but for sure yukinni sucy and mousy girl will be with us for their volatile stuff (or the girl can be on the overwatch group)

if we stay with the girl we should say something fast "first battle? Mine was with 16, scared as fuck, you got well, in my land there isn't bullets, maybe I would be dead by now, you're going pretty good, just stay calm and pay attention to their faces, you will see their fear and you will outmaneuver them"

Liquefied Spleens · « **Reply #2177 on:** June 26, 2018, 04:27:42 pm »

We're not splitting this team up all willy-nilly, that's asking for trouble. We'll keep a few people here to make sure nobody sneaks up on the others, then send out three teams, each going down one of the corridors.
How are we splitting people up.
Uh.
Right. We'll just go by ear. Gunslingers go together, circus guys and... uh, colt single action dude? You're a team. Moist, Pump and Double-barrel, you go into the next tunnel. Lever-action, me and Sydney go next. The rest stay here.
Screw that! We're moving now!
One of the shadowrunners says: Gotta agree with 'im, luv. But, regardless, good luck out there. He seemed a tad different from the rest, though like all of the others you can't exactly tell what he looks like beyond "fit" and "in black clothing". They're pretty well-disguised.
If you're going, mind telling us what's ahead with those camera's?
Well enough. Snapshot? Tell 'er.
The camera operative explains that she doesn't see much of interest, mostly just dwarves like the one you just fought. Hallway 4 has some heavier security, however, and hallway five...
Well, they'll be dealing with it, so there's no point.
The shadowrunners and the dozer go into door number five, leaving the group behind. They don't say another word, and that leaves just your group.
Might as well just send the rest into tunnel four, right? Then we can check them all at once.
Do you want to get shot in the back?
Yeah, yeah... Fine.

The teams leave. You leave Sucy, the mouse, and Yunikki behind to guard, along with all your undead minions. You kind of wonder if a more ideal spread of people could have been made, but it seems alright. Probably. The hallway you're going down is really dark, but lever-action had the forethought of bringing a flashlight with him. It doesn't reveal much past 12-ish meters, but that's a sight better than pitch-black. It doesn't take long before you find a room.
It's not very big, but still large enough to be worrying. There seems to be a poker table in the middle of the room, along with some other entertainment methods. A recreational room, you suppose. Well, even crime syndicates need some time off, and considering you're still in the guard portion of the whole thing it makes sense. Still, it's a bit strange that its empty. You tell everybody to move slow, and check for traps of some sort. Don't touch anything, et cetera. You look through the room, but nothing seems strange. There are two doors up ahead, leading to a walkway hanging over another hallway. You're a bit far from the defence team, however, so you'll be going back before you do so. Still, things seem clear.
Just as you turn around, however, you hear a sudden scream from Hal! When you turn to him, the flashlight is already on him. Lever-action instantly starts firing above, into the figure that is only barely visible, even with the flashlight. A large, black drider, hanging from a thread, currently holding Hal's head in one hand and a large knife, with a serrated edge on one side and a plain sharp one on the other. The head is dropped like a sack of potatoes as he reels back up, while yelling something completely distorted through radio feedback.
You can't tell if Groki missed, or the bullets just didn't have any effect! You pick up Hal's head, and throw it at his body. Without a single word, he catches the head and gets back up.
WHAT THE FUCK!? Groki yells, but in no time at all more enemies descend from the ceiling. The only thing that makes them visible is eerie green LED-lights over their goggles and the occasional crackle of electricity from their stunsticks.
LEG IT! Your ally yells as he runs down the hallway. Considering the situation, you're inclined to agree. You hear some very distinct buzzing behind you, and you feel that, if you weren't so much bigger, you wouldn't have quite the speed needed. You pass by the lever-action guy pretty fast, and then you hear the screaming, mixed with the unmistable sound of somebody getting shocked to the point of being a little crispy. Hal fires a bolt back with his smaller crossbow, even while carrying his head under his shoulder.

When you arrive back in the hallway, it only takes a quick command before the hallway explodes. Your ears are ringing from the blast, but you decide to forgive your demolitions expert when you see a chunk of the attackers sail past your head. The mousy girl fires off her gun in quick succession, pretty much at random, down the hallway. There is a grunt of pain, and nothing comes out of the dark hallway.
...I don't know if we can get that man back. What the hell was that?
Drider assassins, I guess. Hal says, panting and putting his head on again. The mousy girl is just staring at him with her mouth agape. Hal doesn't even look at her, and continues: That was a very well-practiced move. Very quiet, too. I suppose we're lucky they use melee weapons over a shotgun.
Well, that's one hallway we're not using. Everything fine here?
You're the first ones back. We didn't hear anything from the othe- Just as Sucy was speaking, the cracks of gunfire begins to echo from the first hallway. People set themselves up to fire, hoping they retreat in this direction. The gunfire continues for a while longer, until finally the white-haired gunslinger runs around the corner, firing his revolver as he takes cover at said corner. When he notices something, he sprints towards you all with far more speed than you expected from an old man. Noticing your bullets, you swear you see a smirk. He drops to the floor, sliding forward. When the first drider appears from around the corner, everybody opens fire over the gunslinger, who is firing his last two shots from his gun. In no time at all, the drider is too riddled with bullets to attack, and keels over dead. Nothing else appears from the hallway after a few tense moments.
...The others didn't make it. The gunslinger says. He doesn't seem too bothered, but he's still grimacing a bit at the thought.
They surprised us from all sides, one of the brothers got hit, the rest refused to run. Admirable, but fatal. I had no such reservations, so I'm alive.
Damn it! They played us like a damned fiddle!
What about the last group?

The hallway remains oddly silent.

Charge in after them.
You might just save them.

...Better get moving.
Get together, and move to another hallway. Mystery hallway 4 remains, and you know what's in the others.

Hold your ground.
Give them a chance. Maybe they'll be back soon.

Report the casualties through radio.
This is a free action, you should make a choice on a direction as well.

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RAM · « **Reply #2178 on:** June 27, 2018, 12:17:09 am »

Charge With soulsight we should be able to spot the worst of it, and hopefully identify our team. And, of course, check the ceiling. walls, and floor... Spend a moment to get the rats onto our back but otherwise leave everyone else to cover our rear. We are going there to recover our team, not to win, if they are in a condition to leave, we call them back, if they are busy, we hit them hard, empty our gun, throw an incendiary, throw some rats, get big, scary, and distracting, and try to extract our team by force with enemy casualties as opportunity presents itself. If our team is unrevcoverable? We don't bother. Hopefulyl soul-sight will keep us from being surprised this time.

omada · « **Reply #2179 on:** June 27, 2018, 11:00:15 am »

If we can go comfortably IN the ceiling with the rats on our spidery abdomen maybe it's better to already strike any drider that might be hiding itself upstairs or just jump over some other drider or whatever

the fuck sydney, how didn't you checked the ceiling? note to itself: don't believe only in the tech.

Liquefied Spleens · « **Reply #2180 on:** June 27, 2018, 04:56:06 pm »

MOVE!
Everybody is quick to follow your charge to rescue your compatriots. You activate soulsight, and are rather glad to see several moving targets up ahead, most of them on ceilings, as with your party. It's considerably less encouraging when you notice there are only two red sould left. Then another blob of red suddenly snuffs itself out, as you hear a shotgun go off twice in rapid succession.The muzzle flash lights up the room, and you note that there are a few dead driders, or they're just keeping low. A muzzle flash is just that, a flash.
MOVE TO US, NOW!
You see the sole survivor of the group rush towards you, but he is tripped by... something. The flashlights of your party don't reveal quite what it is, but some careful shooting from the white-haired gunslinger and Hal cause whatever was holding the man's ankle to loosen. You pull his arm, and while he screams in pain, you manage to pull him to your group. You also get close enough to see what, exactly, is attacking your people.
Zombies. What in the hell? You didn't know they had necromancers on their side, not to mention these ones seem...
They still have souls, and they're a bit too twitchy. What...

You hear an unearthly howl come from the corpses, and decide that you're going to apply the principle of thermosensitivity in undead creatures. You pop an incendiary grenade off your bandolier and throw it at the closest zombie as you retreat. Because of the cursed hand, you can throw VERY hard, fortunately. The grenade bursts, and fire engulfs the closest two zombies. It also creates a small wall of fire, allowing you to retreat, if nothing else. The gunslinger continues fanning the hammer in the direction of the enemy, but he retreats all the same.
You manage to reach the original room again, and everybody catches their breath for a few seconds.
Okay. Scotch, right? Mind telling me happened?
T-they came out of the damned walls! T-they tore the others to shreds! I-I only escaped because I got lucky, they managed to get me...
Again with the healing. Sucy says with some disdain, as she rolls her eyes. Where's the injury?
J-just on the ankle... Fuck, it hurts.
You look at his foot, and sure enough, his pants are bloodied and torn around that area. Strong bite area, too... These are certainly not normal zombies, you note. The usual zombie isn't capable of being so fast, they're not good at tearing open a wound like this. They're more slow, deliberate juggernauts. This looks like a chunk was torn out at lightning speeds.
I really don't feel good. Am I dying? Oh god, I'm dying, aren't I. Oh fuck, oh god.
No you're not. It's hardly bleeding anymore. Some compresses on it, and I suppose we try to get you out of there. Or you get to stumble out of here yourself.
She's smiling again...
Please stop smiling when you say that. Scotch, you think you're going to be fine?
NO! God-damn it! Fuck.... It fucking burns!
Burning? That's not normal.

Then it clicks. You DO know this kind of zombie. Though you didn't exactly learn a lot about it, considering that you are told to never, ever look into this kind of thing. You're not dealing with actual undead zombies, you're dealing with a rage virus! Techinically counted as zombies, in the same way that tomatoes are part of "vegetables" despite being fruits. It's just easy.
Wait.
OY! Sucy shouts, as Scotch suddenly lurches upwards and tries to bite her. Of course, there are about half a dozen people around him, so he gets pulled back instantly and is disarmed. Scotch is, in fact, already affected. Bloodshot eyes, a pale face, all that's missing is the hemmoraging. As if on cue, a splattering of blood suddenly runs out of his nose, profusely bleeding.
Sucy, do you have something to clear out a rage virus?
Do I have an hour?
You've got about ten minutes before he suffers too much brain damage to be anything other than a vegetable.
... I should take samples.
Suddenly, you hear a gunshot. Yunikki has fired the single-shot rifle, causing the head of the poor victim to explode outright. Apparently, the temple is a good spot to aim for, if you intend to make sure something doesn't get back up.
He's at peace now.
Oof, edgy. Well, that's another collection dead, great...

Now what?

Go together in mystery hall 4
Only thing left. Let's hope there's safety in numbers.

Go after the Shadowrunners
You need some professionals to stay alive. If nothing else, they seem to deal with surprises a little better.

Try your luck with one of the known hallways

Retreat outright, and regroup with another unit
You've taken far too many casualties. Best to retreat.

Call out the status of the group.
Free action, like before.

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RAM · « **Reply #2181 on:** June 28, 2018, 03:00:51 am »

I really dislike the idea of leaving assassins behind us, and R.V.? that's just bad form in necromancy circles. All grey-goo and no finesse... Then again, our real goal is the queen? eeugh...

report in. Put down the rage infection before it spreads, and get ahold of some meat-shields by doing so. can't have too many shambling corpses when your problem is shambling corpses! Hopefully the ravers will keep biting until the meat-puppet stops wriggling, which will take a while if they are just using teeth... but let Sucy take samples first...

Liquefied Spleens · « **Reply #2182 on:** June 28, 2018, 04:49:53 pm »

Uh, control, we've got a situation here. You call through the radio. The rest of the party keeps an eye on the hallways, especially the one with the rage zombies. Honestly, who unleashes a rage virus to defend their property? If it works, they have bigger problems than a stint in prison. Zombie apocalypses are rare, but rage zombies are fast and resilient enough to likely cause a problem.
You're not the first. The radio says, matter-of-factly. He sounds annoyed, to be sure. They're defending in depth... Casualties?
Seven dead. Three gunslingers, four riflemen. No injuries, other than a tingly arm.
Damn. Not ideal... How did the hallway scouting go?
That's how we LOST those people. They have contacted another gang to help defend, Hanzers, from what we saw. Second was a small squad of drider assassins, using the ceilings and the way their body is to move quietly. Driders can be surprisingly quiet because of how we can place our weight. The biggest problem is a collection of rage zombies.
Repeat that, Team Freelance? Rage zombies? Elaborate, if you can.
Essentially very fast and resiliant zombies. On the technical side, it's usually an offshoot of Karin's Rage, a magical plague from around three-hundred years ago. Point is, it's very virulent, and curing it has to be done in ten minutes, or the brain haemorrhaging will cause unrepairable damage to the frontal lobe and most higher brain functions.
Good info... You an expert?
I'm a necromancer. I studied topside.
Alright. If you feel like retreating is the better option, please remain with us. We might need your expertise if there are more zombies on the horizon. You mentioned curing the infected?
In a pinch, a salt cleansing works. But the victim will need bedrest for two weeks, or the strain will kill them. Proper cures take some doing. We have a sample of the infected available to us. That being causality number seven. We elected to shoot him.
Well-handled... Right. Your team is currently free to act. We'd prefer if you just moved forward, though we will give out a bounty for any kind of sample you can bring us of this virus. It'd make for a dangerous dead man's switch, so we'd prefer to be prepared.
On that note, we have a single dwarf captive here. How do we get him to you?
Send somebody back with him, of course. Remember, this is an optional bounty. Don't risk the operational integrity for it.
Understood. Could we get some support?
Negative. Call me when you have a plan.
We'll go down hallway two, and attack the rage zombies. We've got enough incendiary options... Reminds me: while rage zombies ignore pain, a fear of fire is so instinctual it will still cause them to panic.
Good copy. I'll give this info through. You've earned a bonus, Freelance Leader. Come see us after the operation is complete. Good luck.

W-we're not getting any help!? The mousy girl says. She's shaking, but she's not running yet.
We'll have to make do... If you want to get out of here, we need somebody to escort the dwarf back. You'll get your bonus, and it's a ticket out of here.
S-screw that! I'm not scared!
Hal just sniffs and looks at the hallway you're all about to go in.
Who has a light?
I've got a flare bolt... Figured the flashlight would have been enough, but as we noticed...
He takes out a special red arrow, with a strange cap on the top. He twists the top of it, and you hear something hissing as he loads it into his crossbow and fires down the hall. The flare lights up properly mid-flight, casting an intense red-tinted light down the hall. The zombies are in sight, and guessing from the howl of rage, they're also heading this way.
Should have thought of that.
The shapes are hardly visible as they charge through the dark tunnel. Fortunately, you can still tell where they are as they block the light behind them. Yunikki is the first to fire with her rifle, and one of the shapes falls to the ground. The gunslinger next to you is waiting, standing ready to fan the hammer again. Hal is firing his longbow with slow deliberate shots, felling two more shapes. You decide to wait for a little while longer, as you know your accuracy enough to not fire at things you can't see quite right. The mousy girl is just firing away at the shadows, though. You're not sure if she's hitting anything. After a short while, the first of the surviving rage zombies flies out, gargling up blood. The gunslinger fires three times, hitting a perfect vertical line in the body of the undead dwarf (technically living, but it doesn't write as well). One shot to the chest, one to the neck, and a final one in the skull. You, meanwhile, fire off your revolver at the drider that came in. She seems to be one of the non-combatants you saw last time you were here. Looks like things are already going wrong. That, or they're freely sacrificing people.
Both seem likely.
Either way, your handcannon drops her in two shots, and the mousy girl finishes it off with a shot to the head. Sucy throws a bomb, and manges to kill two others coming out of the hallway. Then, the attack stops.

Anybody else who expected a bit more?
Zombies aren't bad with a good position, and there weren't that many.
Yeah, that sums it up. Sucy, start getting some samples, I'll get us a meatshield or two...
You cast a purple lightning bolt at the dead drider, who shudders back to life with a little difficulty. You wonder if the rage virus is still present in that corpse. It's honestly quite likely...
Well, looks like you can force the bioweapon to turn on the enemy. Your second target is a dwarf, mostly because he seemed the least injured. Well, that's not true. He looks a bit charred, and about half of its torso has been removed from Sucy's bomb, but the point is that the head is relatively intact.
Sucy is working on the samples now. Now, you had a good position this time, but if you go down the hallway, it might not go quite as well.

Will you continue?

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crazyabe · « **Reply #2183 on:** June 28, 2018, 05:32:30 pm »

Send the Dead Dwarf back down that hall, while looking through its eyes, with some luck the presence of the virus will keep any other zombies from mauling it to death again immediately, failing that it'll give some useful numbers on What and er who is still there.

Egan_BW · « **Reply #2184 on:** June 28, 2018, 06:06:20 pm »

You know what sounds really, really scary?
Rage zombie drider assassins.

Um, yeah. Let's use the dwarf zombie to scout, and be cautious around here. Something is telling me that something has gone very wrong here.

Oh yeah, you know what sounds scarier than that?
T-virus tyrant drider queen.

omada · « **Reply #2185 on:** June 28, 2018, 10:14:03 pm »

How much would weigh in our moral compass into making our drider bite the other driders and make the virus go in the other direction?

If the queen is infected, maybe we won't be charged when we drop the goo weapon or something else, but I am pretty sure she shielded herself or left

ask sucy if our omega canister can cover this entire shitshow in case we need to eliminate this region for some hours, maybe we should save our reporter friend that helped us to escape?

Devastator · « **Reply #2186 on:** June 28, 2018, 10:42:00 pm »

Lets push with the zombies, the other people are falling back and repositioning. We can keep the enemy off-balance while everyone gets ready for another effort, one that costs us little.

RAM · « **Reply #2187 on:** June 29, 2018, 12:50:54 am »

Quote from: crazyabe on June 28, 2018, 05:32:30 pm

Send the Dead Dwarf back down that hall, while looking through its eyes, with some luck the presence of the virus will keep any other zombies from mauling it to death again immediately, failing that it'll give some useful numbers on What and er who is still there.

The only problem that I have with this plan is that the scout doesn't explode...

omada · « **Reply #2188 on:** June 29, 2018, 02:47:25 pm »

we can just make the scout also run back at us, maybe it will make they charge in our direction and we will get a good defensible position again

does we have something that we can use to stitch?

we can stitch the drider brain

EDIT: I got an idea for how we can contraband some stuff like the ammo recipe and how to make guns and stuff

we should ask later the book if he can register some stuff for a small time, and then he can delete or keep it as he likes as this isn't the focus of the book, then when outside and far far away from dwarven lands we can create the bullets and the gun again.

or at least ask him if we put any paper between it's pages if they will become invisible like the book or if it will appear as floating papers

the dwarven inspection won't check an invisible book that only appears for someone who is undead

Liquefied Spleens · « **Reply #2189 on:** June 30, 2018, 05:21:55 pm »

Alright, ladies and gents, this is going to be a bit boring.
What? says the mousy girl.
You're clearly new to fights if you think that's a bad thing.
Some of the survivors laugh a bit, and start to flip a few tables over for the purpose of barricading. "Boring" does generally translate to "entrench self and start praying". Of course, people don't usually have the advantage of turning the enemy's dead against them, so things aren't quite so bad. You send you little undead friend up ahead in the zombie tunnels, hoping that they won't tear him to shreds for being different. Fortunately, the zombies prove to be too stupid to tell the difference between "rigid and semi-shambling undead" and "technically living, twitchy zombie". You count a total of three remaining rage zombies, who are currently zoning out against the wall (still squirming and sometimes seizing up for a moment of time.). You find out that the hallway ends up impassable, sadly. You see a hallway with the tell-tale sign of explosive deterrents, which consists of splatter marks, and strange beeping rocks on the floor. You decide against pressing the luck of your zombie's ability to circumvent minefields, especially with that big metal vault door you can see at the end. Looks like they weren't rolling out the welcome mat for a hostile invasion of their own rage virus victims.
Well, the hallway is... pretty much scouted. Just a matter of dealing with the three zombies. They consist of two driders and a dwarf. You're not entirely sure just how much they'd react, but you know there's one thing actual undead are better at than these clunky, dangerous zombies.

Grappling the raged dwarf from the behind, your zombie tears his teeth into the throat of the enemy. It twitches a bit, gurgles angrily, and then keels over and dies. The others don't even look up from their vomiting/seizing up. Now, while the dwarf was easy enough, you can't exactly let the dwarf climb up these things, so...
Well, the two people that were lost here were beaten to death instead of turning into zombies, fortunately. Too many zombies in an enclosed space will do that. Same reason a regular infectuous necromancer invasion never works out, people die faster than their infection can turn them. Your zombie picks up the shotgun, and with considerable effort finally manages to understand that you're trying to convince it so point the slim end at the bad people. You feel like you nearly popped a blood vessel convincing the thing, eventually making you return the stupid thing and putting the shotgun in the thing's hands properly, but eventually it shoves the barrel of the shotgun under the chin of drider. Then, with some more coaxing that made you stomp several of your legs in frustration, it finally manages to pull the trigger.
Driders are tough creatures. You're the overbearingly obvious proof of that. But a dwarven shotgun blasting at pointblank could probably kill a demon from hell itself. unfortunately, however, blasting a shotgun is apparently different enough from the norm for the other drider to start attacking your dwarf.
As stated, driders are very tough creatures, and you can't convince a dwarf to act very fast. Which leads to your second plan going off, which you actually did when you were angrily trying to convince the drooling undead retard to use a shotgun. It bites down on the glass container you put in its mouth.

You hear a distinct BANG echo through the hallway, and you assume it is safe to say that threat has been neutralized with extreme prejudice. You're happy Sucy was willing to share one of her bombs, mostly because they're "ordinary" explosives. At any rate, you exchanged a zombie for a clear hallway, and you've still got a drider with only minor leakage.
Some goo from Sucy closed the hole, though there's a conspicuous grey spot there, instead. Still, she doesn't look that obviously dead anymore.
Apart from the wall-eyed stare. She's got a good eye on both ends of the room, at least.
Well...

Send a rage-infected zombie in the direction of drider assassins and see how funny the results are.
There is literally no way possible this won't end bad, but there's a very good chance that it'll end up bad for only the enemy.

Send a rage-infected zombie in the direction of the hanzers.
They're a bit more ranged, so you're not sure how close you'll get. But, if you get them, there won't be nearly as much of an organized response.
Probably?
You just assume gangs are less organized than the driders.

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Author Topic: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure (Ended) (Read 185729 times)

Egan_BW

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omada

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Liquefied Spleens

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RAM

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omada

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Liquefied Spleens

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RAM

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Liquefied Spleens

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crazyabe

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Egan_BW

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omada

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Devastator

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RAM

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omada

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Liquefied Spleens

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