Telescope

Hi folks,

Wishing you the very best for the coming week from everyone at Rusty Towers!

Firstly, a huge thank you to everyone who voted in the Fancast episode poll last week! We’ll be looking through the results and sharing more information on the fancast livestreams very soon, so watch this space.

Another huge thank you to everyone who has so far backed The Magnus Protocol Mysteries, Indie Boards and Cards new game inspired by The Magnus Protocol! There are just a few days left before the campaign closes, and the team has made some incredible stretch goals thanks to the generosity of the backers, including additional audio content to bring the game to life. The team has recently announced a new ‘all-in’ pledge level, as well as a pay-as-you-go option. Make sure you pledge soon to avoid missing out on the game and the amazing add-ons: you can do so over on The Magnus Protocol Mysteries board game BackerKit page!

Next up, we had some gremlins in the Patreon back-end last week and it looks like the images we shared didn’t display correctly. For those of you who don’t follow us on socials, here is a photo of Alex and Rusty Quill’s silver YouTube plaque, sent to us after we hit 200k subs!

(Image description: A photograph of Alexander J Newall holding a silver YouTube plaque. He is holding it so that it covers the bottom half of his face, and he is looking off to the side with his eyebrows raised). 

Speaking of social media, we thought we’d quickly remind you that we’ve been expanding our social media presence this year. We share news and updates regularly to the following platforms, as well as our pre-existing Facebook and X accounts:

• BlueSky - @rustyquill.bsky.social

• Threads - @rustyquilluk

• Instagram - @rustyquilluk

• YouTube Community Tab – Rusty Quill YouTube

As well as this weekly newsletter for paid Patreons, we do also share less frequent updates for any free Patreon members to do our best to give folks plenty of ways to stay up to date with everything that’s happening at Rusty Towers.

We were really excited a few days ago to see that Polygon has written an article about Monte Cook’s The Magnus Archives RPG! For those of you who didn’t back the original campaign, you can now purchase the RPG directly from Monte Cook, or on DriveThru RPG.

This week on The Magnus Archives/The Magnus Protocol feed, we’re sharing the second Rusty Fears 6 winning story. This story is inspired by the prompt ‘telescope' and is called ‘The Telescope Game’. It is written by Ian Martinez-Hay and performed by Trice Forgotten and The Magnus Protocol’s Shahan Hamza. As always, it will be shared in early access on Tuesday at 4pm GMT and publicly on the feed on Thursday at 4pm GMT. 

As a reminder, once all six short horror stories have been released, there will be a public poll for listeners to vote for their favourite. The overall winner will get the opportunity to write a case that will be featured in The Magnus Protocol, so be sure to listen to every story and keep an eye out for the voting form in a few weeks’ time. 

Finally, as with last week, we are featuring another show from the team behind The Other Stories, Hawk and Cleaver, who recently joined the RQ Network! This week, we have an interview from another one of their talented team members, James Barnett, about the show After the Gloaming, a gothic horror podcast.  

Tell us who you are and a bit about After the Gloaming?

My name is James Barnett aka Jimmy Horrors. I am a writer, narrator, and podcast producer. I am the creator of The Night’s End podcast and After the Gloaming and I am a frequent producer/narrator on The Other Stories by Hawk and Cleaver. After the Gloaming was born from my love of the Gothic genre. I partnered up with some really fantastic writers and voice actors to bring this show to life, including my trademark meta-story format in the anthology setting. It very much is a labour of love, and I hope you enjoy listening to it. 

What got you into podcasting?

I’ve always been drawn to audio storytelling. It started when I heard Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds. It blew me away. From there my interest was on a slow boil until I found The Other Stories, which I found perfect for my daily commute to work after I was burnt out from audio books. The bite sized horror format encouraged me to try it for myself and I created The Night’s End. 

What are you most proud of about After the Gloaming?

I am so fortunate that so many talented people agreed to work with me on this project. Voice actors such as Karim Kronfli, Harlan Guthrie, David Ault, Mark Nixon, Bridgitte Freeman, Drew Sebesteny, Jamie Petronis, Xander Zweig, Alexandra Elroy and so many others. Also, writers such as Taija Morgan, James Dermond, Charlie Maliha, John Kiste, Caitlin Marceau, and others. With these collaborators I feel I have made something special here. Stay tuned for season 2.

You can listen to every episode of After the Gloaming wherever you find podcasts, or on the Rusty Quill website. If you enjoy the show, please consider leaving a rating or review, as this is a great way to support a show!

Have a good week all!

The Rusty Quill team