A Hilltop view

Hi folks,

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

We are rapidly coming to the end of Act 2 of The Magnus Protocol season 2, with just two episodes before our next mid-season break.

To celebrate the conclusion of Act 2, we’ll once again be hosting a Drop – a live listen of episode 50, hosted on Patreon. Knights and Nobles will be able to join us at 6pm on Tuesday 2nd September to listen to the episode and discuss it with the rest of the community and members of RQ cast and crew!

After the release of episode 50, The Magnus Protocol will once again be on a hiatus. As we’ve covered in previous newsletters, 2025 has been exceptionally busy here at Rusty Towers, with Protocol, work on several new Neon Inkwell series, and production on Magnus Live: The Hilltop.

We are well into development on this now, with many RQ folks, including Alexander J Newall, Jonathan Sims, April Sumner and members of our production and ops teams, taking on core responsibilities for bringing the show to life.

So far, we’ve finalised the script, held one online, one in-person table read with cast members, worked with artists to created backdrops and merchandise, started preparing costumes and props and completed many more essential behind the scenes tasks.

The Hilltop is shaping up to be something truly special but as we work to create a theatre production to this standard with the hopes to tour it in the future, we will need to temporarily slow down production on the third act of Protocol season 2. We have shifted our planned production timelines to account for this. Work will continue on the series, and we anticipate production will return to normal after The Hilltop performances have finished in November this year.

That said, we will be sharing new content on the Magnus feed to keep you all going, including a Protocol spin-off: Sheeple Chase. Sheeple Chase is written by Sasha Sienna and gives us previously unseen insight into the friendship between Celia and Georgie prior the beginning Protocol season one. You can read more about Sheeple Chase in a newsletter update from a few months ago.

We have been able to work on both The Hilltop and Sheeple Chase because of the fantastic support we received on Kickstarter for The Magnus Protocol, as well as your ongoing support here on Patreon. We are so grateful to you all for being here, and really hope you enjoy these forays deeper into the Magnus-verse.

Meanwhile, in episode 49 of The Magnus Protocol, Alice brings home a souvenir. As always, the episode will be available to our early access supporters on Tuesday at 4pm BST, or on the public feed on Thursday at 4pm BST. 

Finally, we’re very excited to be sharing the first episode of Thirst – the latest series on The Penumbra Podcast – on the Magnus feed today! If you’re looking for something new to listen to, be sure to check out this dark horror-satire about an exploitative reality show with a grand prize to die for. You can listen to the first episode on the Magnus feed, or find every episode of Thirst wherever you find podcasts or on the Rusty Quill website.

Here is our full schedule for this week:

Tuesday 26th August

The Magnus Protocol 49 - Pipelines (Patreon & Kickstarter Backers) (4pm BST)

Thursday 28th August

The Magnus Protocol 49 - Pipelines (Public) (4pm BST)

Have a good week all!

The Rusty Quill team