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Hexadecimal is indeed involved, CD, That clue occasioned much swearing in Loge Towers!

Excellent puzzle Xanthippe, thank you. Bit overwhelmed to start with, but it all became clear. Lovely finish, bet the editors smiled at that.

Unusually for me the end game seemed rather straightforward, but I cannot, at the moment, complete this as I am baffled by the second part of 27a and by 15d. I do have one query though, shouldn't one of the plurals in 5d be singular?

Gitto, there is only one plural in 5 down.

Gitto - in each of those two clues, the definition is the last word.

5d works for me as is

Sorry Loge, I suffered a senior moment

No need to apologise, Gitto - I have many senior moments!

Finally limped over the line, those last 2 were a real struggle for me. Like other contributors, I found the preamble as challenging as the crossword itself. That meant I feared another cold solve nightmare, but as the PDM's began to tinkle this became a joy to complete. Altogether, an excellent puzzle.

Hi Candledave, surely the pluralisation better fits **** end, rather than just ****, but I'm often wrong.

candledave (#9) and loge (#11)
AARRRGH! I was in IT for 25 years and still didn't get that "Twelve"!
All done now, apart from parsing the last three words in 5 down, but I suppose I can mosey over to the "Dark Side" to find the information I need for my forehead-slapping moment.

My heart sank when I read the preamble and saw that jumbles and multiple clues within clues were involved. But once I hit the PDM with the theme, it was a big help with filling in the across entries and reverse-engineering to the answers to the 'cluelets'. (I did something similar with Christmas carols for a church quiz sheet a few years back.)
The endgame was pretty straightforward but very pleasing. Well done, Xanthippe!