The Magnus Archives - The Magnus Protocol 21 – Breaking Ground

Episode Date: July 11, 2024

CAT2RBC4254-04011998-12042024Architecture (landmark) -/- corruption (entropy)Incident Elements:- Live Burial- Rapid Aging- Doppelgangers- Compulsions (supernatural)- Mentions of: strangulation- SFX: tattoo buzzing, screamingTranscripts: https://rustyquill.com/transcripts/the-magnus-protocol/This episode is dedicated to Elena, thank you for your generous support! You can 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 NewallWritten by Jonathan Sims Script Edited with additional material by Alexander J NewallExecutive 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) Lowri Ann Davies as Celia RipleyShahan Hamza as Samama KhalidBillie Hindle as Alice DyerSarah Lambie as Lena KelleyAnusia Battersby as Gwendolyn BouchardVera Chok as Ink5oulCallum Dougherty as BystanderBeth Eyre as [ERROR]Jonathan Sims as ChesterDialogue Editor – Lowri Ann DaviesSound Designer – Tessa VroomMastering Editor - Catherine RinellaMusic by Sam Jones (orchestral mix by Jake Jackson) Art by April Sumner  SFX from ecfike, khenshom, NuclearTape and previously credited artistsSupport us on Patreon at https://patreon.com/rustyquill     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:Phantom Peak – UK immersive experience – 15% discount with this linkDriveThruRPG – DriveThruRPG.comJoin our community:WEBSITE: rustyquill.comFACEBOOK: facebook.com/therustyquillX: @therustyquillEMAIL: [e-mail] 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.

Hi everyone, it's Kareem. Today I'm here to tell you about Planet Arcana, a podcast recently launched on the RQ network. Planet Arcana is a tightly edited, tarot-flavoured, retro-futuristic actual play podcast. This science fantasy audio fiction is presented by two game runners, built through a D&D 5e framework and fully scored with in-house music. The world of Planet Arcana is rife with mystery, intrigue and crime. And no answer is ever straightforward. What really happened at the Riskatek Casino? Who's been stealing android organs? And why?

Follow as an influencer, a drug dealer and a cowboy walk into a casino, then into a vast mystery of science, magic and tarot-inspired gods. Three fools on a simple quest to find a key and open a box. Search for Planet Arcana wherever you listen to your podcasts or go to www.planetarcana.com or www.rustyquill.com. Have fun, see you later. This episode is dedicated to Elena. Thank you to the Magnus Archives for showing me an asexual character who fell in love and keeping me sane during lockdown. RustyQuill presents

The Magnus Protocol breaking ground. Enjoying the rain? More drizzle, really. Yeah. Coffee? Got one, thanks. How about a coffee you haven't let get stone cold? I'm good, thanks. I'm good, thanks. Look, I know what Alice said got you, but it's only because she cares. I know. I do too. We all do. Well, maybe not Lena.

You barely know me. Maybe. Then again, maybe digging into sinister secrets together boosts you up the older faction track a bit? Yeah, maybe. That's not it, is it? Not entirely. It's more... what if she's right? About stopping with the Institute stuff? About working for the OIR. I know Alice can square it with the whole everything's evil and let's say it's capitalism thing but I don't know if I can.

You're thinking of quitting? Maybe. Whatever weird creepy stuff is going on I'm really starting to doubt we're on the right side of it. I suppose there's plenty of non-evil jobs out there for a smart, charming guy like you. Maybe not, Lord, but... No, I... I can go back. You get desperate as always the old beep-beep. Beep-beep? Check out.

Ah, yeah. Well, that's the real question, isn't it? Does my desire not to actively promote evil outweigh my fear of disappointing my parents. Ooh, that's a tough one. Maybe you could stay and try to make things better from the inside? Of course, because that's such a traditionally surefire way to achieve change. Might still be better than living in London on a retail wage. True. For now I'm probably just going to stay and keep digging. No sense quitting until I have a better idea of what's going on and if I get fired for it, well that works

too I guess. And if it turns out it's as dangerous as Alice says? Yeah, well if, a psycho or a god or monster or something tries to kill me, I'll definitely quit. Good policy. And you? I couldn't afford to leave even if I wanted to. Sure, but something else is bothering you. Has been ever since we met. Hmm. You want to talk about it? Not really.

Fair enough. Let's just say I have a complicated immigration status. Really? I'm surprised the Civil Service didn't pick that one up. I think that OYAR might be a bit less rigorous than the other branches. Anyway, if I have to go back, I couldn't take Jack with me, but staying with him means I have some difficult decisions to make. Look, Celia, if there's anything, anything I can do to help you and Jack.

You really mean that? I do. Thanks, Sam. I'll keep it in mind. I do. Thanks Sam. I'll keep it in mind. Well, if neither of us is quitting, we should probably get back. Yeah.

Institutional evil doesn't just grow on trees, right? Yeah. From the desk of Mr. Leonardo Kennings, ACCA, co-treasurer of the Magnus Institute Manchester, to his esteemed brethren of the same, my most distinguished colleagues, by now I'm sure you have all read the proposal in detail and made your own personal assessments of the formulae and calculations submitted by Dr. Welling and his team. I wouldn't for a moment criticise the fine work they've done, or the compelling case they've made, or the potential transmutative properties of the dome. Nor do I believe they are mistaken about the potential power we might be able to harness, were we to sponsor an exhibit of our own there. I cannot however in good conscience support the

project as it has been laid out, nor do I believe it is a useful expenditure of the Institute's significant, but certainly not infinite, financial and political resources. I have spoken before about my concerns over the choice of the Millennium as the date for our grand experiment. I do accept to a certain degree, Dr. Welling's proposition that the turning of the millennium is an important psychological focus of transmutation, thanks to the cultural emphasis of change placed upon the shifting of an age. That said, I still believe that determining the date should be the provenance of the astrological, not the cultural.

The constellations have played a key role in our researches for centuries, and I fully reject the notion that they should be dismissed as irrelevant to the great work in such a way as the Christian God has been summarily discarded. It should be kept in mind that the year 2000 has no relevance for cultures that do not use the Gregorian calendar, of which there are many. It means nothing to the Chinese, Indian or Hebrew calendars, and thus excludes vast swathes of the global population from our equations. The stars, by contrast, are eternal and near unchanging, thereby providing a far more stable base for a project that has always been conceived of as a universal transmutation. I understand, of course, that this particular debate is one that myself

and those who think as I do have long since lost, and I do not wish to reawaken old schisms when a unity of purpose is so profoundly vital to the success of our endeavors at this time. Nonetheless I believe it is worth raising once again in relation specifically to the Millennium Exhibition proposal as to go forward with this would tie our intentions even more irrevocably to this conception of Gregorian dates as having true and meaningful significance, even beyond this admittedly more abstract consideration, I believe that the Dome Project is almost uniquely dangerous to our work as a place of power. The calculations provided by Dr. Welling and his team presuppose that any outputs from the site will be broadly

balanced. That as a symbol of the future, it captures both optimism and despair. The belief in a better world, and the terror that a new millennium will bring nothing except new ways to suffer. It is my belief, however, that the actual balance of energies involved will be profoundly skewed towards the fearful and despairing, thus invalidating the majority of the calculations provided by Dr. Welling and his team. Public support for the dome is limited at best, and the stated plans hardly inspire confidence in its utopian ideals. Even beyond this, however, Dr. Welling's calculations have failed to account for aspects of stagnation. This modern social and political order following the fall of the USSR has taken root in the popular imagination as a natural and final state of society with an emergent and inherent stability.

The turning of the millennium is therefore felt as an end of history to borrow a term, and in this context the dome may be seen as a monument to this order, a full stop. Not to mention a desperate cry for relevance from an imperial power locked in a death spiral of diminishing importance. If my suspicions on these points are correct, these echoes of stagnation almost entirely antithetical to our transformative ambitions make the exhibition profoundly unsuitable to be utilised in the work. And this is not to mention the location problem, as I believe it may already be in the process of developing into a locus without our intervention. You are familiar with the peninsula on which the edifice is to be constructed. Dr. Welling

et al. explained it in the proposal, though not in great detail. Specifically, I would note that they rather glossed over its history as a gas works and the incredible levels of soil toxicity that still remain in the area, currently the focus of much of the building and land reclamation efforts that will ultimately allow for the dome's construction. Knowing this proposal was forthcoming and suspecting that it would elide this particular concern, I myself made the journey down to London some weeks ago to personally inspect the site. I still have connections and clout enough to have a tour arranged on my behalf, and what I saw there troubled me deeply. The laborers were in poor shape, grey-faced with

blank expressions as they shifted barrows of dirt and shoveled sodden earth with such rhythmic defeat that were not for the bright yellow of the excavators and the omnipresent fluorescent waistcoats, I might have believed it an etching of some grim Victorian salt mine. Their fingernails were cracked and dirty, their voices were hoarse, and their words often gave way to ragged bouts of coughing. I had not previously considered that there might be any need of mask or respirator, but shortly after my arrival I found myself surreptitiously holding my handkerchief to my mouth and nose, if only to lessen the pervasively acrid smell. The foreman, a sprightly young man whose weak moustache gave him the air of an overambitious

school prefect, was talking excitedly about the engineering of the building, about struts and sheets and material loads. And when I asked him how long he expected the dome to stay up, he went quiet for a moment. He told me he wasn't sure. Could be there forever, he said, with an odd manic edge to his voice. Or it could be gone in a year. You just never know, do you? You never know what's coming." Something about the way he articulated this thought, this clearly disordered conception

of the future, sat rather ill with me. I began to develop another suspicion, that the contaminants of the place were not simply chemical in nature, but may have contained a more psychical poison. To be clear, had that been the extent of what I observed, I would not be so vociferous in my opposition to Dr. Welling's proposal. Unfortunately, it very much was not. Following my guide's strange comments, I began to hang back somewhat from the rest of the group, attempting to make my own determinations without the consideration of being watched. I espied a worker operating one of the concrete mixers that arrested my attention. He was of East Asian descent, Pakistani I believe, and his face was locked on the aperture of the

mixer, spinning round and round, as though hypnotized by the motion. There was no one else in sight, and it seemed to me as though the din of industry and construction had faded somewhat, like it were muted as he stood in his senseless reverie. Abruptly, he turned and walked over to a nearby ditch that was in the process of being dug out for the foundations. I could see the telltale indications of heavy metals in the earthen edges of it, but he took no precautions as he hopped down into it and began to stare at the wall of the trench as transfixed as he had been at the mixer. Were I writing for a less learned and experienced audience, I might take some time here to caveat my reliability and sanity, but given none of us are strangers to the strangeness of our work, I will speak

plainly of what I saw for the sake of brevity. From the dirt of the wall emerged the same man as was standing before it. He clawed his way out, slowly, painfully, as though it were a grave. But this second version of the worker was not identical. His hair was white, his skin wrinkled and pitted with age and illness, and his every movement slowed with the agony of infirmity. Were I to guess, I would say he was some forty or fifty years older than the man with whom he was twinned. The younger version, for his part, seemed to break out of whatever reverie had overtaken him, with an expression of purest terror across his face. He moved to scream, but before he could utter

more than the most perfunctory of cries, the older, or perhaps newer, version of him, depending on one's perspective, covered the original's mouth with gnarled and twisted fingers. Despite his, or perhaps its, apparent age, this elderly copy was clearly possessed of enormous strength and was easily able to pull the young construction worker towards the dirt wall from which it had emerged. The struggle was grim and desperate, but not particularly lengthy, and in less than a minute, both had vanished into the polluted ground. The last thing I saw of them both being the poor young man's horrified eyes, disappearing

into the darkness and mud. I rejoined my guide without comment and had no other encounters worth noting here during my visit beyond the general malaise induced by the sight of which I have previously spoken. It should be clear enough then, why I felt compelled to write an opposition to Dr. Welling and his team's proposal to become involved with the Millennium Exhibition and the dome that is to house it. It is my firm belief that not only is this site already on its own journey to become a decidedly hostile locusts, but that the future it represents and that we are being pushed to incorporate into our grand ritual is unfit being so profoundly and irrevocably poisoned.

I thank my brethren for their time considering these letters and wish them insight in their works. You bastard! You wanted him to read this, didn't you? Just slipped it into his caseload all subtle-like and waited for him to hear it? Well, not this time. I see what you're doing. Trying to lead him on. Feeding his obsession. Colin was right about you. What do you want hmm who's in there

Alice may I ask why you are investigating Sam's terminal Oh Sam was having an issue with it earlier same errors as mine and since Colin's still not around I thought I would give it a quick go. See if I couldn't copy Gwen's solution for him. I see. And I presume that Sam consented to your intervention? Oh, er, yeah. Yes. Well regardless, he really shouldn't be sharing terminal access like this. It's a security risk. I'll er, let him know when he gets back. Please do. In the meantime, I would suggest you return to your own terminal

We wouldn't want these technical issues to put you behind your own caseload now would we yeah sure Can I Can I speak freely for a moment? Do you ever not? Fair, but look, serious talk a moment. We're going to struggle to keep on top of everything without Colin. Everything keeps breaking and we don't know the first thing about fixing it. Interesting. If anything, my data seems to indicate the system is actually functioning slightly better without his interferences. Oh well I don't know about that. No, you wouldn't.

Well I should probably... Have you heard from Gwen tonight? What? No? Why should I have? It's nothing. I simply wondered if you had heard from her tonight. She is late returning from her assignment. Something's up.

You look worried. You never look worried. Only about your caseload after all these interruptions. Of course. Do let me know if Gwen contacts you. Will do. What did you do? You do. Come back, little canvas. Get away from me!

What to give you? I'm thinking trash polka, but I never want to impose my own taste on a client. Shit! Shit! You sound like someone who might have a family crest. Maybe we could riff on that. Or perhaps a silver spoon done across the face choices choices

hey hey help you've got to help me whoa whoa whoa what's up love trying to kill me cool You've got to help me! Woah woah woah, what's up love? They're trying to kill me. Cool. Oi! Back off. I'm warning you. Nice ink. Barbed wire, is that? What?

Boring, but not badly done. Looks so sharp you could cut yourself. Oh god! Don't worry. You could cut yourself. Oh, God! Don't worry. We'll get you something much more... ...unique. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. End of the road, Princess Civil Service. Please, please don't.

You know, when you first walked in, I was just gonna give you a bit of ink. Something small to keep you up at night. But now, now we're gonna have to get creative. Tell me, how do you feel about scorpions? Shh. When I was a little girl, there was a shed at the bottom of the garden... What are you talking about? ...and someone was told never to go inside.

There were tools and sharp and deadly things... What are you doing? ...that were not right, too dangerous for a little girl... All right, stop it....but then one year we lost the garden... Stop you doing? Alright, stop it. Enough I said, shut up! Shut! Stop talking! You did this.

Well stop it, she's mine! MINE! Well, I found this one! MINE! Damn it! Fine! Go get her then! Did you hear me, freak? She's all yours.

There is more. Not here there is it? No, not here. Elsewhere. Yeah, whatever. Manky old git. Oi! You left your- Motherf- The Magnus Protocol is a podcast distributed by Rusty Quill and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial share alike 4.0 International license.

The series is created by Jonathan Sims and Alexander Jane Ewell and directed by Alexander Jane Ewell. This episode was written by Jonathan Sims and edited with additional materials by Alexander Jane Ewell with vocal edits by Nico Vitesse, soundscaping by Meg McKellar and Mastering by Catherine Rinella with Music by Sam Jones. It featured Billy Hindle as Alice Dyer, Shahan Hamza as Samar Makhalid, Anuja Battersby as Gwen Bouchard, Laurie Ann Davis as Celia Ripley, Sarah Lambie as Lena Kelly, with additional voices from Jonathan Sims and Beth Eyre. The Magnus Protocol is produced by April Sumner with executive producers Alexander J. Newell, Danny McDonough, Lynn C. and Samantha F. G. Hamilton, and associate producers Jordan L.

Hawke, Taylor Michaels, Nicole Perlman, Setius de Raven and Megan Nice. To subscribe, view associated materials or join our Patreon, visit RustyQuill.com. Rate and review us online, tweet us at The Rusty Quill, visit us on Facebook or email us at mail at RustyQuill.com. Thanks for listening. to tell you about Planet Arcana, a podcast recently launched on the RQ network. Planet Arcana is a tightly edited, tarot-flavoured retro-futuristic actual play podcast. This science fantasy audio fiction is presented by two game runners, built through a D&D 5E framework and fully scored with in-house music. The world of Planet Arcana is rife with mystery, intrigue and crime. And no answer is ever straightforward. What really happened at

the Riskatec Casino? Who's been stealing android organs and why? Follow as an influencer, a drug dealer and a cowboy walk into a casino, then into a vast mystery of science, magic and tarot inspired gods. Three fools on a simple quest to find a key and open a box. Search for Planet Arcana wherever you listen to your podcasts, or go to www.planetarcana.com or www.rustyquill.com. Have fun, see you later.