The Magnus Protocol Announcement Codes and Ciphers

(AKA, the ARG “wash up”). Fans of Rusty Quill have always gone the extra mile when it comes to theorising, code-breaking and collaborating. So, when we were ready to start telling people our plans for The Magnus Protocol, a new audio drama podcast returning to the world of The Magnus Archives, we could have just… announced it. But that’s not very fun, and Rusty Quill is an entertainment production company. We decided to start with something subtle, to see how closely people were paying attention. In our regularly Monday newsletter to our Patreons, we included an alphanumeric code towards the end of the newsletter. It took a little while for people to notice (and then at first they thought it was a mistake). Then, as people started to recognise that, rather than a random string of numbers and letters it was in fact a code, the penny dropped that a game might be afoot. The first code was U3RhdGVtZW50IFJlbWFpbnMK . We’ve included the solution of this problem below; don’t look if you would like to try and solve it yourself. Alone, this code was quite exciting, but we also thought we’d share an eye emoji onto some of our social media pages. This got people talking, although those who weren’t Patreon subscribers weren’t quite sure what they were seeing yet. Two days, and a lot of Twitter notifications later, we thought we’d up the stakes a bit. Our Patreon subscribers had solved the Base64 code pretty quickly, so multiple folks at Rusty Quill put their head together and designed something a bit more complicated. We posted a new update onto Patreon with the subject line ‘Post title (required)’. The code…

Public response to an opinion piece

As a rule, Rusty Quill tries to avoid directly addressing unfounded social media accusations, preferring to provide formal updates like any other business. In this instance however, we are being forced to defend ourselves from what appears to be a case of carefully timed, deliberate defamation from people seeking to exploit recent hardships for our staff possibly to sabotage our fundraising and reputation. There are far too many false allegations within this blog to address them all at this time, so we will do our best and provide what information we can until we have finished consultation with our legal partners regarding this situation. Firstly, whilst it is true that there have been some redundancies this year at Rusty Quill, the company has no history of “financial failings” nor “worker exploitation” as is alluded to in the hearsay of this article. In fact, our most recent formal Employee Satisfaction Survey, which was conducted by an independent third party, found our scores to be “exceptional” and these were shared internally. Furthermore, we have already internally released a 2023 Operations Update which included factual information on related topics including recent redundancies and our plans for the future. This update is due for public release in the new year and multiple staff have already volunteered to provide testimonials in Rusty Quill’s defence. We were approached by Newt Schottelkotte to assist in “a comprehensive guide to fiction podcast networks” in November, and they did not disclaim their position as the Marketing Director of a competitor network called Fable and Folly. They later reached out to us asking if we cared to provide comment on “recent changes our network has gone through” for this article….

Rusty Fears 6: Remnants of Fear

As we look ahead to The Magnus Archives 2, we will be resurrecting The Magnus Archives podcast feed with bonus content, looks behind-the-scenes and other fun things! We are also preparing for our Kickstarter crowdfunding on 30th October over on our Twitch channel with fun, games, and special guests including Alexander J Newall and Jonathan Sims themselves. With all of that in mind, it’s time for one of our legendary horror writing competitions. Rusty Fears has been a staple here at Rusty Quill, and with The Magnus Archives 2 on the horizon, we want to once again showcase some of the best in new and undiscovered horror writing talent, this time with our best ever prize. As with all of our previous Rusty Fears competitions, six winners will be chosen to have their stories, read, produced and broadcast on The Magnus Archives feed. However, in our biggest ever competition, the winning stories will also appear on RQ Network shows, bringing your words to a huge audience. And that’s not all. From the six chosen winners, fans will choose their favourite writer, who will be given the opportunity to write a statement which will be included in the The Magnus Archives 2. This year, we would like to read your tales on one of the following themes: How you interpret these is up to you, but we’ll be on the lookout for original takes and/or exploration of tropes that might be less well-known in traditional Western media. Some important tips we’d also like to offer: For more information, please ensure you read the Terms and Conditions in full. If you have any further questions, please email mail@rustyquill.com. Fears 6: A Rusty…

Neon Inkwell: A new anthology podcast from Rusty Quill

Neon Inkwell, created by showrunner Elizabeth Moffatt and producer Lauren Grace Thompson, is a home for short-form audiodrama, introducing listeners to new and underrepresented creators (as well as a few familiar faces). Each self-contained series will be between three and eight and showcases writers from around the world. Executive Producers are Alexander J Newall and April Sumner. Whether it’s a post-apocalyptic space thriller or a quirky monster road trip, there will always be something new to discover, with show genres including mystery, horror and magical realism. Neon Inkwell is perfect for existing fans of Rusty Quill Original podcasts and RQ Network, as well as attracting new listeners. Below, we’ll share a sneak preview of the first four series featuring on the feed. Firstly, ‘Of That Colossal Wreck’, science fiction with a horror twist, by some familiar names for fans of The Magnus Archives: Sasha Sienna and Jonathan Sims. When five artificially grown people awaken on an abandoned space station long after the extinction of humanity, they must confront their purpose, their future and the carnivorous alien beings which have taken over the facility. ‘Broken Hearted Monsters’, created by Shane Ormond and Morgan Ormond, is a road trip like no other. When Dr. Frankenstein suddenly passes away, his creature must make the cross-country road trip for his funeral, accompanied by his ex-boyfriend, Dracula. ‘The Pit Below Paradise’, created by J. Evelyn Gaskell, is a coming-of-age story. In the months before his prophesied demise, a cult sacrifice accidentally builds a close relationship with a former gravedigger, with neither aware of the others’ strong ties to death. ‘Welcome to Foster’s’, created by Imogen Cassidy. In an alternate Sydney, Australia, a small-time private consulting…

RQ Network: Introducing wave 3

We’ve got more content to share with you and it is all available right now. We’re delighted to announce further expansion of RQ Network, with a number of fan favourites and exciting new shows joining the fold in our third Wave. Today we publicly welcome into the RQ Network The Hyacinth Disaster, Malevolent, Ostium, The Program, What Happened In Skinner, The Sleep/Wake Cycle, WOE.BEGONE AND Tin Can Audio Presents, a new feed featuring work from Tin Can Audio including The Dungeon Economic Model, Love & Wards, Middle:Below and The Tower. Previous waves have included iconic shows such as I Am In Eskew & The Silt Verses (Jon Ware & Muna Hussen), The Milkman of St. Gaffs (Chris McClure) The Town Whispers (Cole Weavers) and We’re Alive (Kc Wayland & Wayland Productions) in Wave 2. While while Wave featured Old Gods of Appalachia (DeepNerd Media), The Storage Papers (Grinner Media), Malevolent (Written/Directed by Lex Noteboom), Cryptids (Wild Obscura; written by Alexander V Thompson) and How it Ends (written/directed by Stephanie Resendes and Micah Rodriguez). Let’s meet the shows. The Hyacinth Disaster Written and Directed by David Carlson The Hyacinth Disaster is a sci-fi found footage disaster audio drama podcast. The year is 2151AD, a dozen super corporations compete beyond the reach of civilized law, battling for the incalculable resources. Beneath them these corporations contract mining crews struggle to prosper despite the best efforts of their employers. All of this sets the scene of what leads to The Hyacinth Disaster. The worst and most cataclysmic disaster of 2151 AD. In the future of the Hyacinth Disaster Mars and Jupiter have been colonised and between them lays 150 million resource-rich asteroids populate and…

Transcript Weekly Transcript update: 28/02/22 

 This will be our final weekly transcript update. However, we may still post updates from time to time as transcripts are an ongoing process.  There are now transcripts available for Rusty Quill Gaming, The Magnus Archives, Stellar Firma, Inexplicables and Enthusigasm.  We are still actively working on transcripts, and you may notice that over the next few weeks some are switched out, added or updated. Our focus has been on ensuring that there is something available. Due to the complexity of the transcription, as well as the recent reformatting, these transcripts may include some specific errors. You may also use the error form to highlight any issues or raise any concerns.  You can find transcripts links on every show’s page – so, for examples, if you’re looking for Stellar Firma transcripts, head over to http://www.rustyquill.com/show/stellar-firma. You can take a look at our new website at rustyquill.com and read more about the website update in our blog.  New Player Challenges, Enthusigasm and the new Compulsory Film Appreciation will release with transcripts.  This concludes our final weekly transcript update. Thanks again for your patience with us!

Rusty Quill Transcript Update 20

Hi folks! Here is our Twentieth Mini Transcript update. We are writing an additional update. Update Nineteen was set to be our final update as we are waiting on some third party DNS server to launch our transcripts along with some other improvements to the website we can talk about more later on. In the name of transparency we’ve brought these updates back. In this instance it was geneuinely no fault of our team and again apologies for last weeks delay. We did believe they would launch last week. They may still launch at any point this week. However, if by Friday they have not launched we will make links and distribute them on our social media. Update 21/02/2022: We are waiting on transcripts to release. That is a purely technical hosting related issue and we anticipated they would launch last week. We have currently completed Stellar Firma transcript reformats. Though their may still be minor tweaks after release mostly for consistency rather than for corrections. The Magnus Archives S1, S4 and S5 are complete. S2 and S3 are partially complete but should be completed within the week. We will release as is but there may still be some tweaks for consistency etc. Rusty Quill Gaming is fully transcribed though some episodes will need some further work and further checks post release. Also great news our new video project New Player Challenges launched with transcripts! The Rusty Quill team

Rusty Quill Transcript Update 19

Hi folks! Here is our Nineteenth Mini Transcript update. Update 07/02/2022: All going well, transcripts will be released next week. Due to the nature of 3rd party transcription services and the complexity of the transcription and the recent reformatting these transcripts may include some specific errors. You can use the error form here to highlight any issues or raise any concerns – https://forms.office.com/r/85EuUgi0sF. We have currently completed 72 Stellar Firma transcript reformats. The Magnus Archives is fully allocated and we are working to get all 200 main series episodes completely reformatted as soon as possible. Rusty Quill Gaming is transcribed though some episodes need some further work and/or need double checked. We are working tirelessly to have these ready for release. Also great news our new upcoming video project will release with transcripts! The Rusty Quill team