The Magnus Archives

By: Rusty Quill
  • Summary

  • “Make your statement, face your fear.” A weekly horror fiction podcast examining what lurks in the archives of the Magnus Institute, an organisation dedicated to researching the esoteric and the weird. Join Jonathan Sims as he explores the archive, but be warned, as he looks into its depths something starts to look back… New episodes every Thursday produced by Rusty Quill, featuring guest actors, short stories, serial plots and more. The long awaited continutation The Magnus Protocol launched in January 2024. Season 2 of TMP coming February 27th 2025

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Rusty Quill
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Episodes
  • The Magnus Protocol - Hiatus Announcement
    May 8 2025

    Hello Friends and Fans! Anusia Battersby here, voice of Gwendolyn Bouchard in the Magnus Protocol.

    We hope you enjoyed the conclusion of Act 1! As with season one, we’ve pre-planned breaks in the release schedule to ensure that our production team has plenty of time to work on the show without experiencing too much crunch. For season 2, these breaks between Acts may be a little longer and more irregular as we balance staff workloads and prep for our full stage performance of Magnus Live: The Hilltop.

    We have plenty of things in store though. Starting next week, The Season 1 Protocol fancasts will be released to the public over on our YouTube. These were streamed live for our Kickstarter backers and Patreon supporters before the premiere of season 2, and feature myself and other cast members commenting on fan-selected episodes from the first season. So be sure to check us out at youtube.com/c/rustyquill.

    On top of all the exciting production work at Rusty Quill, we also have several live events coming up if you live in the UK. Join us on Sunday 25th May to celebrate our 10th Anniversary! Alexander J Newall, Martyn Pratt, Helen Gould and James Ross are going to be at MCM Comic Con to look back over the last decade of podcasting from Rusty Quill Gaming to The Magnus Protocol in a panel at 3:15pm on the Live Stage and meet in the Meet & Greet Zone from 12:30pm! You can purchase tickets for MCM now from the MCM Comic Con London website. Or using the link in the show notes.

    We are also going to be at Norwich Games Fest on May 31st! Members of the cast and crew of our upcoming Neon Inkwell show, Rez High will be speaking at the panel: Changing the Game through Audio Fiction at 3:15pm in the Auditorium. Rez High grapples with timely questions about video games, from accessibility to representation, while sending its cast of irresistible characters on an adventure across both virtual realities and epic, post-apocalyptic landscapes. Join creator Brendon Connelly, director Lucy Wray, editor Katharine Seaton, and performer and disability advocate Lozza Gilbert on Saturday May 31st at the Forum in Norwich and get an exclusive first listen to the trailer.

    Finally, for those not in the UK, on Saturday, 28th June we will be doing a 10 year anniversary charity livestream over on our Twitch Channel, twitch.tv/rusty_quill. More information on that to come, but we hope you are as excited as us for everything coming this year.

    We will be back with Act 2 of the Magnus Protocol later this summer. Thanks for listening!


    Rusty Quill Youtube

    MCM London Appearance

    Norwich Games Fest Appearance

    Rusty Quill Twitch

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    2 mins
  • The Magnus Protocol 40 - Public Image
    May 1 2025

    CAT3RCA2167-23111762-10062024

    puppet (reanimation) -/- fear (children)


    Incident Elements:

    · Puppets

    · Creepy Children

    · Childhood Trauma

    · Graphic Violence

    · SFX: Screaming, gunshots


    Transcripts available at https://rustyquill.com/transcripts/the-magnus-protocol/

    You can find a complete list of our Kickstarter backers https://rustyquill.com/the-magnus-protocol-supporter-wall/


    Created by Jonathan Sims and Alexander J Newall

    Directed by Alexander J Newall

    Written by Jonathan Sims

    Script Edited with additional material by Alexander J Newall


    Executive Producers April Sumner, Alexander J Newall, Jonathan Sims, Dani McDonough, Linn Ci, and Samantha F.G. Hamilton

    Associate Producers Jordan L. Hawk, Taylor Michaels, Nicole Perlman, Cetius d’Raven, and Megan Nice

    Produced by April Sumner


    Featuring (in order of appearance)

    Billie Hindle as Alice Dyer

    Derrick Valen as Dane Bowie

    Anusia Battersby as Gwen Bouchard

    Lowri Ann Davies as Celia Rilpley

    Robert Vernon as Heinrich Unheimlich


    Dialogue Editor – Lowri Ann Davies

    Sound Designer – Tessa Vroom

    Mastering Editor - Catherine Rinella

    Music by Sam Jones (orchestral mix by Jake Jackson)

    Art by April Sumner


    SFX from Soundly and Freesound: PhonosUPF, StephanBrenn, BenjaminNelan, jcdecha, mincedbeats, BlondPanda, IENBA, deleted_user_2104797, sillygrizzlies, kyles, yatoimtop, Nox_Sound, NachtmahrTV, 6polnic, SpliceSound, gagglepod, yehudalanger, nioczkus, LamaMakesMusic, totalcult, elonen, Kinoton, ValentinPetiteau, cmilo1269, LewisEmmott5, harveyism, Podcapocalipsis, Bemine2506, rupertcole, NoisyRedFox, mitchanary, 200221-WeanBekker, img1020, Sadiquecat, BonginkosiMakhubu190225, femandobatista89, sophiehall3535, rylandbrooks, yosarrian, RossBell, arseniiv, GoatsheadCastle


    Check out our merchandise available at https://www.redbubble.com/people/RustyQuill/shop and https://www.teepublic.com/stores/rusty-quill

    Support Rusty Quill by purchasing from our Affiliates;

    DriveThruRPG – DriveThruRPG.com


    Join our community:

    WEBSITE: rustyquill.com

    FACEBOOK: facebook.com/therustyquill

    X: @therustyquill

    EMAIL: mail@rustyquill.com


    The Magnus Protocol is a derivative product of the Magnus Archives, created by Rusty Quill Ltd. and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share alike 4.0 International Licence.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    24 mins
  • The Magnus Protocol 39 - Dependents
    Apr 24 2025

    CATXXXX-XXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXX

    ERROR (Unknown Source)


    Incident Elements:

    · PTSD

    · Helplessness

    · Grief and Loss

    · Abandonment

    · Claustrophobia

    · Dysmorphia

    · Body Modification


    Transcripts available at https://rustyquill.com/transcripts/the-magnus-protocol/

    You can find a complete list of our Kickstarter backers https://rustyquill.com/the-magnus-protocol-supporter-wall/


    Created by Jonathan Sims and Alexander J Newall

    Directed by Alexander J Newall

    Written by Alexander J Newall

    Script Edited with additional materials by Jonathan Sims



    Executive Producers April Sumner, Alexander J Newall, Jonathan Sims, Dani McDonough, Linn Ci, and Samantha F.G. Hamilton

    Associate Producers Jordan L. Hawk, Taylor Michaels, Nicole Perlman, Cetius d’Raven, and Megan Nice

    Produced by April Sumner


    Featuring (in order of appearance)

    Sasha Sienna as Georgie Barker

    Shahan Hamza as Samama Khalid

    Billie Hindle as Alice Dyer


    Dialogue Editor – Nico Vettese

    Sound Designer – Meg McKellar

    Mastering Editor - Catherine Rinella


    Music by Sam Jones (orchestral mix by Jake Jackson)

    Art by April Sumner


    SFX from Soundly and Freesound: Rotteveel, RutgerMuller, stebbi30000gmailcom, felixblume, Yuval, DeVern, NearTheAtmosphere, Iaft2k, chris_dagorn, edgardomoreno, as well as previously credited artists.


    Check out our merchandise available at https://www.redbubble.com/people/RustyQuill/shop and https://www.teepublic.com/stores/rusty-quill

    Support Rusty Quill by purchasing from our Affiliates;

    DriveThruRPG – DriveThruRPG.com


    Join our community:

    WEBSITE: rustyquill.com

    FACEBOOK: facebook.com/therustyquill

    X: @therustyquill

    EMAIL: mail@rustyquill.com

    The Magnus Protocol is a derivative product of the Magnus Archives, created by Rusty Quill Ltd. and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share alike 4.0 International Licence.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Show more Show less
    19 mins
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Featured Article: The Best Fiction Podcasts


Audio dramas and scripted fiction podcasts are as varied as novels. They come in every genre imaginable, including mysteries and thrillers, contemporary drama, historical fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, and comedy. And as we are living in a Golden Age of podcasts, whether you're craving aliens, romance, humor, family drama, suspense, magic, or something else altogether, there’s bound to be something that fits your interests. This list includes some of the best story podcasts out there. Once you start listening, you're never going to want to stop.

What listeners say about The Magnus Archives

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Something for Everyone

Listening will add to the list of your worst nightmares. LGBTQ+ inclusive with diverse casting

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I could be listening to Magnus Archives

I’ve been listening to audiobooks/podcasts every day for six years while at work and on drives (9+ hours a day) and I’ve never relistened to something as much as this
the writing, ambience, and performance are some of the best I’ve herd

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great Podcast, audible sucks at it though

Okay so first things first:

This podcast is incredible. The Magnus Archives is a horror fiction podcast of unparalleled story, narration, ambience, and just all around tremendously well done. The characters are incredible, the plot is sublime, and the voice acting is too notch in all but 1 or 2 places where it's just slightly (and I mean very very slightly) hammy. Overall this podcast is one of my favorite fiction stories that there are.

HOWEVER:

Audible is a bad platform to listen to it on. Audible has an appalling habit of treating podcasts as constant livestreams, where "next" episode means "latest" episode, and so trying to listen to this series in order means you will have to manually select each new episode yourself, or risk being sent to the very last episode that there is when each episode ends.

You will also have to deal with your Audible App freezing and glitching out when you try and swap from a podcast episode to an actual audiobook, or vice vursa, because Audible treats them differently. If you try and swap back and forth, the app with slow down so much and eventually freeze altogether, and the only way I have found to fix the issue is to turn your phone to Airplane Mode just to stop it from dropping into a permanent loading lock.

Downloading each canonical episode seems to help a little, but even then: if you want to have a playlist of Magnus Archives episodes in order, you'll have to play around with turning airplane mode on and off to "reset" your audible apps loading. This app is a terrible way to listen to them, don't do it unless you are willing to open your phone every 20-30 minutes to manually select the next episode, because:

YOUR PHONE WILL NOT AUTOMATICALLY GO TO THE NEXT EPISODE, EVER, AT ALL, IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCE, AT ALL, EVER, when using audible.

Now, all that being said, this podcast is still absolutely a 10 out of 10 podcast if you love horror, fiction, complete stories, or just good writing and voice acting in general.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Depth rarely seen in other horror podcasts.

Amazing, intense, exhilarating. I stumbled into this from a clip on tiktok from episode 93, I am so happy to have found such an intriguing depth of story and horror. From the first episode completely pulling me in, to when the story starts to take on a life of its own. Truly fascinating and thrilling.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

the best story podcast I've ever listened to

It starts out a bit slow, but picks up quickly. I would recommend this to anyone who has the time.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Um 5 stars

I give it 5 stars because it is a good podcast that you should listen to

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Rapturing!

I got into this to bond with my niece, and stayed for the storytelling and suspense. The story is well thought out, the acting is great, and it’s actually impressively somewhat unpredictable (not entirely, but better than most). I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that as a 31-year-old who lives alone, I didn’t check my locks more than usual some nights while being unappreciative of my noisy house.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

wait, what's going on?

this story sadly is one of the more distracting episodes. this one requires the listener to have their undivided attention I can't recall what just happened other than this person is dreaming of an alternate London or something.
since I drive a lot more these days I've been currently listening to these archives and some have grabbed my attention more than others some have given me a WTF what was going on?
the story is probably more for those who read dreams and stuff.

my only critique would be that if you're going to talk about something that's obscure having some audio cues or something to help fill in the imagination or something would probably help out more for those of us who are not strong

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Life changing

This is single-handedly, one of the best podcast with storytelling that I’ve ever listen to.
When I say that, I’ve been fully satisfied with this podcast, I can’t even begin to tell you how satisfied and wonderful the storytelling and the characters are. It leaves you on just the edge at the very end, but you know exactly what happened.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Best ever

I have never in my life listened to a better written and executed podcast. It has an amazing plot and characters. I got so attached to each and every one of them. I’ve been recommending this to everyone I know. It is phenomenal!

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