The Mother Tree is a Quest in Divinity: Original Sin II. The Elven Scion protecting the Mother Tree wants you to kill the Shadow Prince, while the Shadow Prince wants you to kill the Mother Tree. Which side you will choose?
Important NPCs
The Mother Tree Objectives
- Talk to the Elven Scion or The Shadow Prince.
- Kill the Mother Tree OR the Shadow Prince.
- Speak to the other party.
The Mother Tree Walkthrough
At the Elven Temple, A priestess of the Elven Temple will ask you to seek out the Elven Scion at the top of the tree. Alternatively, The Shadow Prince will also give you this quest; he can be found in the Lava Fields south of the isle. Proceed to the top of the tree by climbing the vines. The moment you reach the top of the tree, you will receive 20,075 Exploration XP (10,050 XP in DE).
At the "Heart" of the Mother Tree, there is an Elven Scion you can talk to, who will bid you to kill the Shadow Prince. If Sebille is in your party, she will request to speak to the Elven Scion and you can watch the conversation that unfolds.
Leave the Heart of the Mother Tree and Saheila will appear. She asks Sebille to kill the Mother Tree to set the Elves free, a drastic change from her previous personality. You will have 2 options. You can follow Saheila's advice and kill the Mother Tree, or you can ignore her and kill the Shadow Prince (or both, if you prefer; see note below on how to optimize the experience granted).
If you choose to kill the Mother Tree, you will need to interact with it and use the wooden box the Shadow Prince gave you, or have Sebille in your party; otherwise, there is no option to kill the Mother Tree. Depending on the option taken, the outcome can differ drastically! Please read below for more details:
- If you used the wooden box the Shadow Prince gave you: The Elven Scion and 3 dryads will attack you. You will receive 83700XP for killing the Scion, and 55800XP for each Dryad. There is also a tree summon which will give you 13950XP when killed, although it will automatically die the moment his Dryad owner is killed (so you may simply see 69750XP as the game automatically adds up the XP for you). Once they are all dead, return back to the Shadow Prince, and you will receive 80,250XP, a choice of legendary-quality loot, and an ornate chest will spawn right next to the Shadow Prince, giving you lots of great loot. The only drawback here is that Sebille, if she is in your party, will not be able to have her revenge as the Shadow Prince will disappear upon completion of the quest. Also, the entire Elven area will be covered in Deathfog, killing the traders, Bishop Alexandar, etc. if any are still living and lingering in the area.
- If you used Sebille to kill the Mother Tree: The Elven Scion will die immediately and the quest will be closed for 20,075XP. Note that if you go this route, upon leaving the area, the Elven priests, traders, Lost Knight, etc. will all attack you so you will have to fight your way out.
If you wish to kill the Shadow Prince, simply head to the Lava fields south of the Isle. The location of the Shadow Prince is marked on your map. As you get close to him, you will receive 20,075 Exploration XP (10,050 XP in DE).
- If you have both Sebille and the Red Prince in your party: You may wish to approach the Shadow Prince alone first (without Sebille) since Sebille will have priority in the conversation. You can then approach with Sebille to advance her quest. Alternatively the Red Prince can use Spirit Vision after the Shadow Prince is defeated to converse with him and advance the Red Prince's quest.
- If you have Sebille in your party: Sebille will have priority in the conversation with the Shadow Prince. He will state that the Elves are the true evil, trying to spread their roots all over Rivellon. He will then sing a song that can mind control Sebille, and if you do not sing the song to break her out of his control, Sebille will be completely controlled by the Shadow Prince, leave your party permanently, and her quest will be closed. If Sebille is your primary character, you can choose to attack the Shadow Prince before this happens. If Sebille is successfully taken and you subsequently attack the Shadow Prince, she will fight as a neutral NPC (for some reason) and attack the Prince with you, but Sebille will still be enthralled after he's dead and will not rejoin your party, nor will there be any second opportunity to sing her song. In any case, simply sing the song at the first available opportunity to break her out of her trance, and combat will immediately begin with Sebille still in your party.
Note that with Sebille in your party, if you wish to kill both the Mother Tree and the Shadow Prince, it is best to kill the Shadow Prince first. You can then use the heart to become the new Mother, get the Rooted perk, then leave to meet Saheila, and finally return to kill the Heart of the Mother Tree which will grant you 60k additional experience compared to killing the Heart first and then the Prince. It will also enable you to keep the Rooted perk for Sebille. - If you have the Red Prince in your party: When the Red Prince and the Shadow Prince converse, it is revealed that he is behind the attacks on the Red Prince's life, as well as orchestrating the succubus attack that sent him to Fort Joy in the first place. Ultimately, he confesses that the real reason he wants the Red Prince dead is because he needs to prevent him and Sadha (the Red Princess) from mating and bringing back "Great Red Dragons" into the world, which would inevitably plunge the world into a "terrible splendour of fire." He furthermore suspects that Sadha is working with the Black Ring. He will then try to make a deal with the Red Prince, asking him to kill Sadha instead. If you intercede and say it is better to kill Sadha, you will lose 5 attitude points with him. In any case, he will simply demand to know where Sadha is and the Shadow Prince will tell him to use the Sallow Man's mirrors for answers. His personal quest will be updated at this point.
- With neither the Red Prince or Sebille in your party: You are offered the same choice; the Shadow Prince will request you kill the Mother Tree, giving you a wooden box to do so. You can oblige, or you can simply kill him.
The Shadow Prince and his 5 goons are worth 40,125XP each, making it a grand total of 240,750XP (DE Edition Shadow Prince 40,125 XP, 5 goons 20,075 XP each total of 140,500 XP ). Loot his body for his heart. Sebille can present it at the Heart of the Mother Tree to become the new Mother, or you can eat it as an elf to learn the Daggers Drawn (but if you do so you will forfeit all rewards associated with the Mother Tree quest). Head back to the Heart of the Mother Tree to proceed.
From here, if you have Sebille in your party, make sure to move her far away from the Elven Scion before talking to her. The reason is because you will receive 80,250XP (100,300 XP in DE), a choice of legendary-quality loot, and a giant-quality rune when you give the Scion the Shadow Prince's heart, completing the quest, but if you have Sebille close by when you speak to the Scion, you will obtain only the XP and rune, but not the choice of legendary-quality loot. As such, for maximum rewards, move Sebille away from your party first and complete the quest, then speak to the Elven Scion again with Sebille close in tow.
Sebille will request that you let her speak to the Elven Scion. The Scion will request Sebille be the new Mother, and take root. You can interject at this point and tell Sebille to refuse, but if you do this, the Elves will attack you. If you agree, she will feel the Mother's heart and obtain the "Rooted" talent, which gives +3 to memory.
Rewards:
- 20,075 Exploration XP for reaching the top of the Mother Tree and again for reaching the Shadow Prince (10,050 XP in DE)
- A grand total of 265,050XP for killing the Elven Scion, her 3 Dryads, and 1 Summon (139,500 XP in DE)
- Killing the Mother Tree with Sebille for 20,075XP OR Killing the Mother Tree with the Deathfog and reporting back to the Shadow Prince for 80,250XP, a choice of legendary-quality loot, and an ornate chest.
- A grand total of 240,750XP for killing the Shadow Prince and his 5 henchmen (150,500 XP in DE)
- 80,250XP, a choice of legendary-quality loot (only if you completed the quest without Sebille close by), and a giant-quality rune by reporting back to the Elven Scion and giving her the Shadow Prince's heart (100,300 XP in DE).
- Once she Shadow Prince's side of this quest is completed, he will be leaving. Any damage cause to him or his minions once the experience reward has been granted will cause them to instantly disappear, denying a fight.On the other hand, moving the Prince away to then have an isolated fight with his minions do not work either, as he will be scripted to attack on sight, preventing you from completing the quest.
- If Sebille is in your party, she can talk to the Elven Scion upon completion of the quest for the "Rooted" talent, which grants +3 memory
If Ifan is in your party, you will recieve -12 attitude with him upon handing in the quest to the Shadow Prince.
AnonymousOne of my pet peeves here is that you don’t really get anything for eating the prince’s heart aside from a couple lines about his plans and a good amount of missed xp for not turning it in. He’s this mysterious and powerful enemy sebille has been chasing since the beginning of the game, but aside from rng loot you just get a ring with a skill that requires literally one point in polymorph to cast normally. A unique skill would’ve been nice.
- Anonymous
try finish killing the Mother tree and when talking to the shadow prince, using 1 party member to teleport him into the lava then finish talking and take the reward, the Shadow prince himself will die afterward :D
- Anonymous
You can kill both the Mother Tree and the Shadow Prince by partially turning in the quest to him. As soon as you say the bomb is in place he snaps his fingers and sees it detonated immediately before dialogue actually reaches its end. Revealing one of his minions with rain or another means will instantly make the Prince and them all fight you. I didn't notice if I got the EXP for the tree dying, but Ifan's attitude decrease was immediate and this is still a way to do both even if the reward of both doesn't trigger.
- Anonymous
The "He" the prince refers to can't be the God King because the Tree and the elves that show up for the fight if you try to destroy it are actually it's servants. Not only do the cast the standard void teleport skills but they summon voidlings directly. And ones that seem to have a particular grudge against Fane by their dialogue.
- Anonymous
Why would Saheila be so adamant about killing the mother tree? Especially after her and her mother made a point to make Sebille respect tradition? Plus the game itself says she’s out of character, that’s very weird, I wish there was some more explaination…
- Anonymous
The game really got confused in my case.
Only origin chars were Lohse and Sebille. And I did the following.
1) Just send in Lohse to start the quest from shadow prince.
2) Go to mother tree and take the quest.
3) Come out, get convinced by Sahelia to kill the tree.
4) Use Sebille to kill the tree.
5) Send in Lohse (again alone) to claim the reward from prince.
6) After accepting the reward, the prince start to walk away.
7) Get Sebille near him before he disappears.
8) Sebille's conversation starts, but shadow prince still walks off the map as scripted.
Now I have no clue what to do.
- Anonymous
This is such a frustrating aspect of this story arc... if you don't have Sebille but are playing as an elf, then they should have made it so that the PC is able to pick up some of the pieces of that plot thread. Like Saheila should still appear for you, at the very least.
- Anonymous
DE on PC. A lot of misleading information. Here is how you get the most out of this quest with Sebille.
1. Accept quest from Elf Scion.
2. Greeted by Saheila when leave Mother Tree's room, agree to kill mother tree.
3. Find Shadow Prince, talk to him with Sebille (proceed Sebille's personal quest), and kill them all. Don't forget to pick up his heart.
4. Give the heart to Scion (quest end, get XP and reward). No you don't need to unchain Sebille; the bug is fixed in DE.
5. Talk to Scion again with Sebille and agree to be the next mother tree (Rooted talent).
6. Talk to Scion again with Sebille and tell here Mother Tree must die, then kill them all.
That's all the XP and reward you can get from this quest. At this point, the mother tree is still alive, all NPCs in Elf temple remain neutral, and Saheila will keep begging you to kill the Mother Tree. It's now your free choice whether to kill Mother Tree or not. If you chooice to kill Mother Tree now, interact Mother Tree's heart with Sebille. No extra XP for doing so.
- Anonymous
just accept both quest, from elve and prince. kill prince first, then hearth. more xp
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Is there any way to kill the mother tree without making all the temple's inhabitants hostile? I could of sworn I was able to do this on an old playthrough and don't recall have to kill everyone when killing the mother tree. Kind of annoying because I agree the mother tree is a problem but I don't want to alienate EVERYONE (like the vendors), but I will if I must I guess.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I just cooked the shadow prince in the lava with teleport from on top of the pillar, then cooked the minions one by one in the lava the same way. Used sneak so I could reload it faster.
- Anonymous
If you're fast enough you can kill them both. Kill the mother tree guardians and plant the fog. Then, go to the Shadow Price and get him to launch the fog and after he spawns his goodies just murder him.
- Anonymous
so I haven't done any thing for the quest i don't even have it yet i was walking by the bottom of the tree when the red prince comments on how beautiful the tree is. As fane i blessed the flower pedestal and it teleports me to a fight with the Elven Scion gonna reload so im not sure what the outcome will be. is this a bug or what?
- Anonymous
G'damn, a lot of this game's ideas have taken root from Robin Hobb's Books: namely Shaman's Crossing and the Liveship Trader series. Heck, even the Red Prince and Princess might be tied to the bringing back of the dragons (the lengthier part of The Liveship Traders across all 9 books).
- Anonymous
How to get maximum EXP from this quest if you do not have Sebille through bugs:
Step 1. Do not talk to the Shadow Prince yet.
Step 2. Go to the tree heart. Talk to the Elven Scion. Get the quest to kill the Shadow Prince, then tell her "the mother tree must die". This will be an option even if you do not have Sebille and will initiate combat with the Scion and the Dryads. Kill them. This will NOT make the vendors or anyone else at the temple (Alexandar, etc) hostile.
Step 3. Talk to the Shadow Prince. Get the quest to put the deathfog into the tree. Fight him and kill him (use the towers to teleport him into the lava for an instakill). This will get you EXP for fighting the Shadow Prince and his goons.
Step 4. Take the box of deathfog. Go to the temple. Pickpocket all the merchants first. Go to the heart and use the box of deathfog. This will treat it as if you did the quest for the Shadow Prince, but will not kill the vendors and NPCs in the temple because the game gets really confused. They will now be hostile. Fight your way out.
This will get you as much EXP as possible - you get full EXP for killing the scion and the dryads, full EXP for killing the shadow prince, and I think (haven't tested it) you can talk to the prince's spirit to hand in the deathfog quest for the EXP and the loot.
- Anonymous
i have sebille, i killed shadow prince but did not turn in the quest.
i did not kill mother tree.
i left the nameless isle without dealing with the mother tree cause i thought the elves should deal with their own politics.
but im surprised, nobody tried this ending? or does it not affect the story?
- Anonymous
Aff ... I wanted to finish the Prince of Shadows quest ... But I didn't want to lose 12 attitude with Ifan ... Can you recover that attitude?
- Anonymous
Mate al principe de las sombras con Sebile, luego le lleve el corazon, despues accedi a ser la madre y luego mate al arbol y recivi la experiencia de matarlos a todos.
- Anonymous
I talked to the shadow king with sebille as my main. I misplaced and stabbed him in the throat when he failed to control her.
Lava cheese worked for most of the goons, until one got wise and indtakilled my main.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I don't have Sebille in my team, so I killed the tree first. Sadly the game won't let me kill the Shadow Prince as well.
- Anonymous
I didnt discover this quest yet and cast spirit vision by accident. suddenly had to fight the scion. be careful
- Anonymous
Is there a way to meet Saheila without Sebille? This would provide the motivation to act against the Mother Tree.
- Anonymous
I fcked the quest, as Ifan, so first time when talking with scion, agreed to kill shadow prince but then attaked / killed scion. After killing shadow prince, the game asked I talk with Scion, but she's already dead and can't do any harm to the tree... stupid bug. There should be a way essential NPCs to be non-killable.
You can kill both the Shadow Prince and then the Mother Tree (Saheila gives Sebille the quest when you get back down). You get a ton of experience and it turns out the tree was evil (who would have thought the assassin was right?!).
- Anonymous
Kill the mother tree, because when faced, invokes beings who speak for the King of God. She is just as evil as The Prince of Shadows.
- Anonymous
For some reason, the shadow prince's heart had disappeared from my inventory. I was still able to complete the quest by attacking the elf scion directly.
- Anonymous
I used the charm skill, arrows and grenades with Sebille on the shadow prince. enjoyed every second he unwillingly slaughtered his own men
- Anonymous
Killed the shadow prince then came to the tree and it keeps warping me back out to where Saheila is so I can't kill the damned thing
- Anonymous
It feels like this whomever made this game is obsessed with the "grey area". Where almost every choice you make ends poorly, and the only ones that play it straight are the evil choices. What's that? Both of them are evil again and the "good" one is actually the bigger evil? No way! If you ask me, in the name of all that is good, kill them both. Otherwise, you do you. ;)
- Anonymous
interesting thing i noticed. If you waste the shadow then talk to his spirit he says that the elven tree must fall because "he" fears teh elves but won't elaborate on who 'he' is.... it made me think that the god king might be one one who wantrs the elven tree dead
- Anonymous
I held Sebille back again, then got box from Shadow thru Red, then talked to him right after with Ifan who said incorrectly that the Deathfog has been released and tree is dead as are all elves. Then I brought Sebille in, did the dialogue and began fighting. Easily beat Shadow by teleporting him onto ledge across cavern, where he was stuck with no movement skills and the two summons I put on him while I took care of the hidden gang one by one. Went BACK to tree with his heart, and there's Delorus on a path crying about how horrible it is like there was Dfog released, but I went up and it was fine. Weird, but whatever.
- Anonymous
As Sebille, I'm obviously going to kill the Shadow Prince as that's my main quest. But why does the Tree need to die? If I become the new tree, do I end my game as a tree then? I killed Alexander but then had to kill Sallow Man too as he attacked us and tried to make us swear fealty to the Shadow King, but we survived and didn't have to thank goodness. Sallow Man is very tough, constantly hits team with Plagues and curses, which seem to renew each turn, and he has tons of AP. Though it's offered quite a bit in many talents, Poison is usually useless since many enemies are undead like him, which is stupid and irritating, as I have Fane in my party for lockpicking. At least he can go through all of the poison traps all over the game w/o problems, and can even manage Deathfog, since he's already dead. And you can't even heal him properly as it'll hurt him instead unless you use something that skips him like Healing Wave. First Aid will injure him, which is dumb since he still has 'vitality' which is what it's meant to restore.
- Anonymous
Man, I love this game, and how it can draw you in. First time, I took the deathfog from shadow route. Didn’t feel good after, since deathfog is what we are fighting against. So I started over as a 2 man cell, instead of 4 people and gonna just kill both of them. They’re both hurting innocent people in their own way. Plus MORE exp.
- Anonymous
I rescued Shaela and she didn't appear on the tree. I killed both the tree and the shadow prince as a Devine if someone dares to go war I'll end it myself not some *****ing lizard, tree or god king
- Anonymous
I killed Saheila at Fort Joy. But she appeared at the tree. What the hell is going on?
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
so I got rooted by the tree, then sahelia shows up tells me to kill the tree so I did, now I cant find sahelia where did she go? need her to finish the quest.
- Anonymous
Sahila said I should kill the tree. Sebille agreed. The tree got slaughtered by power of my so00kiness (and my spoopy skeletal minions) My next stop is killing Sebille master, and dipping my b0ne in elven murderous dandere
- Anonymous
I can't believe I missed this entire quest while playing as Sebille just because I didn't talk to a single NPC. I appreciate the game gives you tons of freedom but the lack of signposting here is ludicrous.
- Anonymous
Sahelia never appeared. I tried to find her after checking here, and she's apparently a no-show. I've talked to both tree and prince. Anyone else had this happen?
- Anonymous
There are no "dryads" during the Scion fight, only the Scion and a bunch of 200hp sprouts that reward 0 xp. I did not have Sebille in my party.
- Anonymous
Only got 50,150XP for turning in the Shadow Prince's heart to the Scion (lvl 18)
- Anonymous
I found and killed the shadow prince first before i found this quest lol , Really wasnt expecting Sibilles master and the guy who tried to assasinate my Red prince was the same guy...well either way i killed him...took all the knowledge he offered...and killed his spirit aswell...then Me (Red Prince) and Sibille kissed at his mutilated corpse....ahh i love this game....
We went to the mother tree and killed it like Saheila requested....so we had to kill everybody else aswell....oh well lol
- Anonymous
I went to the Shadow Prince with Sebille in my party and there is simply no conversation, they attack me on sight.
That feals like a major bug since it ends Sebiles quest with no story at all.
- Anonymous
Only -12 reputation loss with Ifan? Should be -100 as you are pretty much recreating his life's defining traumatic event.
- Anonymous
Saheila is missing in Act 3. I help her in fort joy, save her in Act 2, but after i leave the mother's heart area she is no where to be found, even after i talked with shadow lizard bro. Is it because i do not have the Sebille in my team? Or is it a bug?
- Anonymous
Take quest from shadow prince, slay him, go to mothertree.. give heart and recieve +3memory as sebille.. then throw something at the minion of the tree and kill all >8)
- Anonymous
So I stumbled upon the two wolves a few hours after killing the Shadow Prince and a few hours before running into the Mother Tree. Turns out the "meat" I offered the wolves was actually the Prince's god damned heart. So pissed I can't progress this quest >:(
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I couldnt make head or tail of this quest. First Saheila helped me increase the source points through the Mother Tree with all that hippy talk on chapter 2 without mentioning anything evil and now she star treks in front of you out of the blue, pointing out the tree is nazi and*****. It doesnt make sense, like a joking plot twist.
- Anonymous
This is what I did with Sebille as my main:
Get quest from mother tree to kill shadow prince - Go kill shadow prince.
Give heart to mother tree and accept to take root.
Attack Scion, defeat all defendants. then kill mother tree.
Max XP and All the rewards!
- Anonymous
Player character Sebille.
I agreed to be the mother and got the Rooted talent.
Then when I leave Saheila comes up to me and asks me to kill the Mother Tree. I say sure and go back down. Clicking on the heart just starts a dialog with the Scion. Ctrl click attack and I smack the heart a few times. Nothing happens.
Oh well.
- Anonymous
I'm thinking of max exp and rewards. Is the following possible:
- Kill shadow prince and get rewards for his heart
- Steal back heart and eat it after above
- Get rooted talent with Sebille
- Kill scion and co. then mother tree without deathfog box (so you can kill the exp bags cough temple npcs)
- Kill exp bags
??
- Anonymous
Why I dont get the option to become new mother and get the rooted talent after I gave the heart to scion? I have Sebille in party.... Scion just tells me to leave.
- Anonymous
On 2nd playthru my test with my party: Me - Lohse - Beast - Fane for maximum exp gain.
1. Accept quest from both Mother Tree and Shadow Prince
2. Place deathfog boom then massacre the whole temple of Tir-Cendelius
3. Return to Shadow Prince them finish him and minions for more than 240k exp( if you turn the quest you only receive 50k exp and even if you kill him after that he only worth 40k)
I do like that and my level up to lvl 19/ 3%, if turn the quest i only get to lvl 18/ 96%, note that the newest patch already nerf some exp gain as you can see.
The only downside that the quest won't close but ehh, i don't care, the items reward are not worth it and exp for life!
- Anonymous
There is a third option if you chose Sebille as your play character:
You can kill both the Shadow Prince and the Elven Scion / Mother Tree for max XP. The instead of using deathfog / etc you are given a dialogue option to kill the mother tree with source powers.
My run through: Killed Shadow Prince + Henchmen for 250k xp, go talk to elven scion and reject the option to become the mother tree, fight scion and dryads for 250k xp, leave + talk to Saheila, dialogue option to kill the Mother tree for 20k xp. Total 520k if you are Sebille.
Also, monks + temple dwellers are agro upon leaving to at least another 300k xp for 820k xp total.
- Anonymous
Except there's no proof that he's referring to the God King. You are just assuming that to make you feel better about your choice. "He" could be anybody.
Spoiler ahead: If you kill the Shadow Prince and cast spirit vision you can talk to him and he says "The tree must die, he fears the tree" so if you draw any conclusions it would probably be that the Shadow Prince is actually another agent of the God King... made me feel like I made the right decision.
- Anonymous
My Sebille ate the heart of The Shadow Prince, just after defeating him. When meeting the Mother Tree, there was the dialog option that she ate it. I led Sebille refuse to take root, the Tree guardians became hostile, after defeating once outside Saheila was there with the quest to kill the Mother Tree.
- Anonymous
Spoiler ahead: Saheila will give you the quest whether she's alive or dead - she'll be in her new treelike form if you killed her in the previous chapter.
- Anonymous
Ok here is how I killed the mother tree without helping The Shadow Prince. Useful if you have to kill him because of Sebille. The rest of the elves at the area will become hostile when you do this, however, so make sure to check all the items from the merchants to see if you want to buy anything before you fight everybody.
1. Go to the room where the mother tree is at.
2. The scion will give you the quest to kill The Shadow Prince.
3. When you leave the room Saheila will ask you to kill the mother tree. Do NOT walk away from her or she will attack your party.
4. Instead travel via waypoint to reach The Shadow Prince, then kill him.
5. Bring his heart to the scion, and then have Sebille refuse to kill the mother tree. The scion will attack the party. Defeat them.
6. Interact with the mother tree, and have Sebille kill it.
7. Go outside and interact with Saheila. She will thank you and the quest will be finished.
- Anonymous
Where is the teleport flower I have searched the entire tree and found nothing, really f**ki9ng have Larians where's waldo approach to quests!!
- Anonymous
How does the shadow prince not even have a page
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