The Magnus Archives - The Listening Club TTRPG Special - Episode 3

Episode Date: December 25, 2025

Margot, Elodie, Barry and Alphonse visit Moldy Pencil Productions in Liverpool, where everything is normal and there are no problems.Content Warnings:· misophonia· missing person· mentions of: blood, decapitation, impersonationTranscripts available at https://rustyquill.com/transcripts/the-magnus-protocol/Directed by April SumnerExecutive Producer Alexander J NewallProduced by April SumnerFeaturingJonathan Sims as GMAnusia Battersby as Margot Maria BradleyLowri Ann Davies as Elodie JonesPip Gladwin as Barry KnapIan Hayles as Alphonse PlattVocal Editor – Nico VetteseSFX Editor - Tessa VroomMastering Editor - Catherine RinellaSFX by Soundly and previously credited artistsArt by April SumnerMusic by Sam JonesSupport Rusty Quill directly by joining our new membership platform at members.rustyquill.com or on Patreon at patreon.com/rustyquillCheck out our merchandise available at https://www.redbubble.com/people/RustyQuill/shop and https://www.teepublic.com/stores/rusty-quillSupport Rusty Quill by purchasing from our Affiliates;DriveThruRPG – DriveThruRPG.comJoin our community:WEBSITE: rustyquill.comFACEBOOK: facebook.com/therustyquillX: @therustyquillEMAIL: [e-mail] Listening Club and The Magnus Protocol are created by Rusty Quill Ltd. and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share alike 4.0 International Licence.For ad-free episodes, bonus content and the latest news from Rusty Towers, join members.rustyquill.com or our Patreon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi there, this is Kareen, the voice of Simon Fairchild of the Magnus Archives. Today, I wanted to tell you about our adorable collab with U2s. If you've listened to a lot of the Magnus Archives, you may be familiar with the Admiral, Georgie's friendly attention-seeking pet cat. Now available for a strictly limited time, you can purchase your very own plush of this cuddly cat, exclusively from U-2s, available to pre-order at rustyquill.com slash U-2s. The Admiral Plush is nine inches tall and combines both Jonathan Sims and Alexander Jane Yaw's visions of what he might look like.

This interpretation is a perfect orange tabby with a cute, friendly face and a hoodie inspired by Georgie's podcast. What the Ghost. The Admiral is available to pre-order until the 22nd of December, so order soon to avoid missing out. Pre-order by visiting rustyquill.com

slash U-2s. That's RustyQuil.com forward slash Y-O-U-T-O-O-Z. That's Y-O-U-T-O-O-Z. Have fun. See you later. Hello everyone, thank you for joining us for this third episode of the Magnus Archives tabletop role-playing game, The Listening Club.

I am Jonathan Sims, your most humble GM, and with me I have Anusha. Hello, I'm Anusha, pronounced she her, and I am playing Margo. And I have Ian. Hello, it's Ian. Ian Hales, he, him. I'm playing Alphonse Platt. I have Lory. Hello, it's Lory, she heard. I'm playing Elodie Jones. And I have Pip. Hello, I'm Pip, he him, and I will be playing Barry Knapp.

Just good to say. It is. Wonderful. Does anyone want to give us a quick rundown of where we are in the old story? The Listening Club gathered together to listen to the 100th episode of the Armitisholm. library. It was very exciting. We all sat in the cafe, had a listen. Was it Mr. Clott? Was his name? The giant, the giant, hairy, bloody drains monster was finally defeated seemingly in this episode and we were comparing notes and chatting about it and seeing whether we thought he's really the big bad, etc. But one of our members, June, who actually brought us all together and is a great

enthusiast, didn't show up and there was no notice whatsoever. It's very, very unusual. And then we got an email through from June saying that we should come immediately because urgent things were happening. We got to June's place. It was on the second floor, but we tried to buzz and there was no answer, so we buzzed a very rude neighbour who did let us in when we said we had a package. We got up to June's door. Margot tried to lock pick a door that was already open because no one thought to test whether the door was already open. But either way, we got into June's flat. It seemed really deserted, really quiet. There were several rooms for us to explore. This is making more of an in-depth retrospect of the life I was expecting.

But, look, let's keep going. I could stop. I could stop. This is why I picked the yapping-based archetype. Let's cut and go back. So you'd all explored a lot of rooms, and you'd found some interesting stuff indicating that, I don't know, maybe something weird was going on with Moldy Pencil, the production company behind the Armitage Library.

Ian, what's Alphonse doing, remind me? He's just put the headphones on. There's just some talking. It's definitely not something weird and occult happening down the end of those headphones. Sure, everything's going to be fine. So there were some sinister mini-discs, and they have successfully unscrambled one, and Alphonse is having a listen.

It is a small, raspy voice, speaking very low. My name is Ray Maladay, and this is how I died. The voice starts to tell a story, And at first, it's a pretty gruesome story about getting some sort of fungus that infected and eventually consumed them. Pretty ghoulish, pretty horrible. And one that you actually recognise from episode 51 of the Amage Library. But it wasn't told like this.

The wording is ever so slightly different. And it wasn't told as a first-person narrative. It was redone as a police report in the podcast. but the voice is, he doesn't sound entirely natural, it's caught with a sort of horrible clarity that only a minidisc can really capture. So I'm going to give you three points of stress, Ian, because it's pretty horrible to listen to.

If you take four points of stress, you start to go down in damage, you start, you're currently hailed. And hearty. Yeah, you become impaired and then incapacitated and then debt. So right now you're still hailed, but you're quite stressed because that is weird to listen. to. Also, I just want to take a brief moment, just a brief aside, to roast Ian, because in the break between these episodes, he went away and he has brought his own collection

of mini-discs. Yeah, there's a little pot. It's a little older for them all. That's beautiful. Younger listeners might not understand how absurd this is, but those of us who lived through the early 2000s, it's very fun. They are a very good storage device. I've got albums on there that I haven't got anywhere else. Thank you very much. One of my first audio editing was on these things. I have the Wigan Pier Described Experience. That's that one there. That is it?

There's the described audio tour. I know, I believe you. Thank you. Unedited. Boom. How dare you? Wow. I'm sorry.

I think we just became a real-life listening club, and we must now listen to Ian's minidisc collection. Role-playing game councils. We are now going through Ian's mini-disc. Yeah. This is what Elody is saying as Alphonse is listening. You know, mini-discs, they're actually very underrated. Like, that's one of the things that drew me to the podcast.

Like, it's quite realistic that you would want to store things on them. Very underrated storage system. Margot's just looking at her when she's saying this. Alphonse is eyes staring blankly into space, sort of thousand yards stare. Alphonse, are you okay? So he snatches the headphones off his head and he's like, this is weird because that's not... It's the right story. It's the wrong way. His ears bleeding.

No. Cool. Elody's going to pull the headphone jack out of whatever it's playing from so that it plays out loud, that we can all hear it. Okay. Everyone except Alphonse take two stress. Oh, sorry. It's not quite as intimate, you know, it's with the headphones.

You really want to be listening to it on headphones. You know, you really need that directional audio kind of situation, yeah. But it's still pretty weird and speaking. Do these two count as the first three points of stress that I ignore completely? They do indeed. This is, uh, which episode number? Yeah, episode 51. Yeah, with the fungus thing.

But that was a police report. Wait, so is this like bonus content? Oh my God, has she been finding like bonus content behind the scene stuff? Are the mini-discs labelled? Oh, what a good question. Yes, this one just has 5-1 on them. You will notice the 51 is not written in June's handwriting. Where does she get them from?

Alphonse, you said that she got a letter, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's envelope here. Does it have like indentations that if it had like a mini disc in it? Yeah, the size of the envelope, you reckon you could fit somewhere between one and three mini-discs in there, because they're very compact. So this envelope's got A-G-N, the initials on the envelope? Arthur G. Neville. Yeah, it's Arthur. Yeah, but he's not like a real guy, though. Is he?

Well, he is, but he isn't, isn't he? Online, it is claimed at least that Arthur G. Neville is also the real name of the guy behind the podcast. He's got like a little bio on the website, but reading it, it could just as easily be a bio of the fictional character, so... A little lemony-snicket kind of vibe. Yeah, yeah, kind of lemony-snicket-esque. You do not recognise the voice on this minidisc. Has he been, like, stealing people's stories? I'd like to listen to another minidisc, see what's on there if it's also another episode.

Okay, I will say it is. Yes, this one is episode 12, in which a guy is slowly... fed into a spectral threshing machine. Oh. Again, first person perspective from the guy being threshed. Oh, God, that's disgusting. It's pretty graphic, to be honest. Like, at various points, you feel like you can almost hear the gears grinding in the

background. You take another point of stress, and I'm going to say you're going to take one stress point for each of the mini-discs you listen to. The voice is different, though. It is a different voice to the one you heard before. Can we stop doing this, please? Thank you. Oh, I feel quite sick, to be honest with you.

Yeah. Okay, sorry, I just wanted to check. You know, you've got to be thorough, because otherwise, how will you know? Is there any way of telling which was the last one that she listened to? Oh, probably 51, because that was the one that was in the device that had the USB attachment. Eledy, you had to sort of take that one out and slot another one into that particular player. Are there any clues to be gleaned from which episodes these are? The Armitage Library is notorious for being a bit hit and miss.

Some of the episodes are like really horrible and visceral good horror And some of them almost feel a bit like They just don't quite have that bite to them And certainly the ones on these mini-discs They're the ones you remember being like Bit upsetting, a bit real at times Yeah Above the table

I am asking is there a clue that I can have Can I roll for something Because I've got spreadsheets about these Loads of cross-referencing I'll give you an intellect role Do you have a skill that would lower it? I mean I've got an edge one in intellect I've got Decipher as my special ability skill, forensics, researching.

I'll give you Decipher. It costs one of your intellect points to use Decipher, but I'll let you use it. Oh, great, I see. And what was the number? Just need a six. 13, anyway. 13, okay. The ways you keep track on it, you have a little colour code of, like, green, which is, like, pretty chill, nothing really there.

Yeah. And red is a properly grim sort of episode. The 15 mini-discs here represent maybe a third to a quarter, of the red ones. The red ones are also notable that a lot of them seem slightly less connected to the overarching metaplot.

They seem separate somehow. Going through a laptop, now that you are familiar with the extraction process, you can sort of trace to where it's not quite a hidden folder, but it's deep in the subfolders of her audio editing software.

There is a folder which has what looks like the 15 audio files from these mini-discs and a small text document. It is labeled MPP. Who is looking through the laptop? Margot's been looking through the laptop so far.

Anyone else can, like, you know, she's very small. You can just push her on. How dare you? I'd like to click on the text document if no one's got any objections. It's just a little note, mouldy pencil productions and an address that is not the address that is listed officially. Aha. Leaning over with Elodie and, like, all of Elodie's research with the binders

and the episodes and everything we've sort of found. So do you think, is it the good... Good episodes are real. Like, we all listen to the show, and it's, yeah, it's pretty grim, but, like, what we just listened to felt real. Proper grim. Is it that the good ones are these stories on the discs? Sorry, Barry, can you call them the red ones, not the good ones?

Because I really don't feel comfortable ranking them like that. No, no, you're right, you're right, LOD, I'm sorry. But you're right, they are. They're the red ones, right? They're the red episodes. When you say real, do you mean like, he's happened? I don't know. We'll find out, because if that's their address.

100%. Let's go. I've just looked up the train times and if we leave now, we can get a train to Liverpool in 20 minutes. Just before we go, though, have we seen her keys? Yes, they're in a bowl next to the door. Smash cut to the off-peak train to Liverpool. I used my rail card. I had brought train wine.

Lovely. Smash cut again to outside. It is actually the building that is on the publicity photos for Mordy Pencil. It's just not the address that is given. It's down a backstreet in Toxteth in. It was once a warehouse. but it's now been converted into multi-level office space. It looks significantly grimmer than it does in all the publicity photos.

In those it's always sort of sunlit and, you know, whimsical and cool and creative. This just looks kind of run down and a bit grimy. There's a reason the rent would be cheap here, maybe. Mm-hmm. And it is coming on towards evening, so the sun is starting to get lower in the sky. Cut back to us, the intrepid heroes that we are. Well, the intrepid people. You came in on Elodie, finishing a phone call,

which is her just leaving a voice note for her sister. I'd be like, hey, Faye, yeah, going to this weird-looking place. You know, we know the podcast I love that I would tell you about, that you never listen to me about, but anyway, you really should listen because it's very, very good. But anyway, I'll show you the spreadsheets again when I see you next week. Yeah, I just wanted to let you know that's where we are. This is the address.

Bye, I love you. and so that she has left some record to someone where they're going. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. And has also tried to call June several times, and I assume she hasn't answered. Just no answer, yeah. Yeah. What's the kind of building in terms of security? The ground floor has a glass front entrance.

You can't easily see inside. It's a little bit mildewy. One of those rolling garage doors next to it. And then there are two levels above that you can't easily see into from the ground. Are there any buzzers or anything like that on the... There's a buzzer. It's got the little sort of mouldy pencil logo just above it. Though it looks quite old. It looks quite sun faded. It doesn't look like there are any other doors, fire exits, any other kind of entry or exit from the building.

Not on this side of the street. You could try and circle around, see if there's anything at the back. I think I'd have a quick circuit of the building as much as I can. Doing a quick circuit, it looks like there is a back alley, but it is for the use of the various businesses around here. so it does have a gate, which you would need to circumvent somehow to get into the back alley. Does it look like there's anyone there? Not obviously, no.

Should we just press the button? Do you try the door before or after you press the button? Almost at the same time. The buzzer goes, there is no answer, but the door is unlocked. Oh, great. There is a little front desk, but there's no one sitting behind it. It looks a little bit dusty. Not like no one's been here for years,

but like it's not been cleaned recently. and there is a staircase leading upwards. Is there on the desk any kind of pad or something where people sign in and out of the building? Ooh, good call. Yes, there's one of those sort of paper sign-in books. Going to have a look at that? Yes, there are about 12 names that all seem to have signed in and out several times over the last few days. Though looking at it again, you do notice that they are all in the same handwriting.

I would have grabbed some of the mini-desks, is it, the same? handwriting as the handwriting on the mini-desks? It is. Big brain. Is there anything odd about these names? Do we recognise them? Are they characters or are they... Are they like names of the editors?

If you compare them to the sort of the list of staff on the MPP website, they are all staff members of Mordy Pencil. Can I use my tracking skill to try and work out of June is here? I don't know how. If it's dusty in here, are we seeing, is there evidence inside? said dust. Yeah, footprints. Do you know what? Yeah, I'll have a roll. Roll your tracking. I'd say you need a 12.

That's one of my skills, and I have an edge in intellect. It would be 15. It's 12 with your tracking. Do you want to spend two points to lower it to 289? Absolutely, 100%. Really didn't need to do that. That's a 19. A 19. Okay. You do notice that there was a slight scuffing on the carpet inside the door, as though something heavy was being dragged.

No. And just one or two, very small. You wouldn't have noticed unless you were actually looking, spots of blood that dripped. I will quietly draw everyone's attention to that. Should we call the police? Where's it heading towards the stairs or the lift or... Up the stairs.

Looking at it, you're not sure the lift is working. Margot probably head for the stairs. Okay. Yeah, I'll go after it, like, subtly slash unsubtally try and get in front of you. I'm a three-to-time stare-type person, those elegant limbs. Oh, yes. Oh, no, I'm too slow.

Elegy's at the back trying to call the police. You don't seem to have any signal in here. Shit. At the upper level, there is a glass door that leads into what looks like an office space. It actually looks like the office space you recognise from the various publicity pictures. There are figures sat at the various desks, but through the door you can't make out any details. Are they moving, or are they still? It's hard to say.

They seem to be sat at desks, whether they're completely still or just sat at a desk, you're not sure. Right. Well, look, June's obviously hurt or in trial. I don't know what the fuck's going on here. I'm going to push the door open and start being like, excuse me. You go up to the nearest person behind the desk. I'm very much going for the practised the hand of like, excuse me, mate, I think you're going to have to leave. You place your hand firmly on the shoulder and the plastic head of a mannequin falls off the shoulders.

What? What? They all seem to be just mannequins sat at desks. Ah, right. They're not people. Are they blank-faced? Yeah, no, no faces. No faces. Wigs, but no faces. Oh, no. You said before that you didn't see much movement, which implies some, is there any movement from these mannequins? No, no, I was just hedging. I was just hedging. There is quite a pungent smell, though.

Oh, geez. A nasty, earthy, decaying smell. and you notice that on some of the tables appear to be heads, like mostly skeletal, like old. At first you think they're props, but the smell is pretty potent. Each of which seems to have one side of its head around the ear caved in. Right, let's go, let's go, let's go now, we're calling police, we should not have come here. Elid is absolutely rounding everyone up to chay and get him to go.

Unfortunately, I'm afraid there is an ad as the door behind you remotely. And I'm probably going to call this episode there. No, let us out. Damn it, why didn't you tick lock picking? So many doors. We haven't met a single person. God damn it. There's the barista who's manager as a thing for Barry.

I thought we'd be in social situations. Should have taken your opportunity to pickpocket those baristas. Yeah, you really should have. Can pickpocket the mannequins, see if they've got anything on them. I mean, who knows? Who knows? All right. Thank you very much for joining us. for this penultimate episode of The Listening Club. Join us next week to find out exactly how horribly they're all going to die.

What? I think we're going to be fine. I've got a sister. She knows where we are. Yeah, no, no, obviously not necessarily. Not necessarily. Not necessarily. No.

Bye. Bye. under a Creative Commons attribution non-commercial share-a-like 4.0 international licence. To subscribe, view associated materials, or join our Patreon, visit RustyQuill.com. Rate and reviews online, tweet us at the RustyQuil, visit us on Facebook, or email us via Mail at RustyQuil.com. Thanks for listening. Thank you.