Mailbag and milestones (Patreon)

Hi folks,

Firstly, thank you so much for your incredible response to the season one finale of The Magnus Protocol last week. It was a highlight of our week to be able to join in the fun of the early access with our Knights and Nobles during the Drop on Tuesday – it was such a lovely community event, and it is pretty staggering that you managed to post over 3000 comments in about an hour as the live listen ran. A huge thank you to everyone who attended, and especially our cast members Anusia Battersby, Billie Hindle, Lowri Ann Davies and Shahan Hamza and co-creators Jonathan Sims and Alexander J Newall who joined us for the event, sharing both insights into the episode and also perhaps too many references to “feeling Magnussy”. If you missed it, you can find the full episode and chat available here.

Of course, we’ve still got this week’s livestream to look forward to. Join the cast on Thursday 19th September 2024 at 17:30 BST for some Jackbox Games and a chat about the show. If you aren’t yet up to date, please be aware there will be spoilers throughout. The stream will be on our Twitch channel, so make sure you’ve hit follow on www.twitch.tv/rusty_quill to get a notified as soon as we go live.

Now that the first season has finished, the feed will be a little quieter than usual. However, we will still be releasing bonus content periodically, starting with the season epilogue next week. We will also be recording a Q&A episode very soon; with that in mind, we are pleased to say that the season one mailbag is officially open, exclusive to Patreon supporters and Kickstarter backers. Please fill in the Season 1 Q&A form at this link. You may submit as many questions as you like, but to make it easier for us to sort through questions we are asking that you submit each question in a separate form. As always, we won’t be able to reveal much information that might be a significant plot or lore spoiler for future seasons, so do bear that in mind as you write your questions. We anticipate receiving a lot of questions, so we sadly can’t guarantee that we’ll be able to answer them all. The form closes 23rd September 2024 at 23:45 BST, so get your questions in soon to avoid missing your opportunity!

On top of all the excitement last week, we also hit some amazing milestones over on our YouTube page. The first episode of The Magnus Archives, Anglerfish now has over 1 million views, and the channel itself hit 100k subscribers, both incredible for a small, independent company like us. Thank you so much for all of your support over the years! Subscribe to our YouTube channel for video versions of all of our shows, multi-episode previews from some of our RQ Network shows, VODs from livestreams and more!

In some breaking news, The Magnus Protocol and RQ Network show, The Silt Verses have both been shortlisted in the Independent Podcast Awards in the horror and supernatural category! It's wonderful to see our work recognised like this. The shows are in some excellent company - make sure to check out the full shortlist on the Independent Podcast Awards website.

Finally, we have a lovely announcement to wrap-up this newsletter! Fans of The Sleep/Wake Cycle and Maeltopia will be very pleased to hear that the Maeltopia team are launching a brand-new show, which is joining the RQ Network: The Gentleman from Hell. Twenty-four years ago, the peaceful town of Cold Sparrow became the centre of one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in modern history when every resident vanished.

For over two decades, investigators have been left baffled. But now, three celebrated private investigators have been called upon to tackle this mystery. Known for taking on the cases no one else could solve, they’re determined to uncover what really happened in Cold Sparrow.

Yet, the deeper they dig, the darker the whispers become. Rumours swirl of something far more sinister than anyone ever imagined. Could the mystery of Cold Sparrow be tied to forces that reach far beyond our world? Could it be linked to something... infernal?

Some mysteries, once uncovered, may be better left untouched.

The first three episodes The Gentleman from Hell are available now, wherever you find podcasts or on the Rusty Quill website. Alternatively, stay tuned on The Magnus Archives/Protocol feed, as we’ll be hosting a feed drop at 5pm BST of the first episode to celebrate the launch.

You can find out more about the Maeltopia team, their shows and their inspirations in this interview with them from a couple of years ago, exclusively available on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/flagship-finale-75535269 .

Have a good week all!

The Rusty Quill team