The Behemoth (Our biggest ever newsletter)

Hi folks,

It’s a very exciting week here at Rusty Towers! This newsletter is so long, we’ve separated it into some sections to make it a little easier to read. There’s a new show joining the network, an update on our RQG dice set, the penultimate episode of Trice Forgotten and a very big announcement about our Kickstarter campaign. So, let’s get into it!

First, we are very pleased to welcome The Cellar Letters, a bi-weekly, found footage, horror audio drama series, to the RQ Network.

After a series of traumatic events, including losing his job, Nate and his dog Bella move across country to the East Coast. Nate documents the whole process, as he seeks to try something new and have a fresh start.

The new house appears perfect: huge, loads of room, a yard for Bella to run in... and the rent is unbelievably low. But there’s something not quite right. The house feels... off. Knocking noises at night, and a locked room in the basement, filled with letters about strange occurrencesand ghostly figures.

Who wrote the letters? And why are they all stored in the cellar? Join Nate, his dog, and his friend Steve as they search for answers.

The Cellar Letters is created, written and produced by Jamie Petronis, who very gave us the following special interview.

Tell us who you are and a bit about The Cellar Letters?

Hey, I’m Jamie! I write, act, edit and do all the things for The Cellar Letters, a found audio horror podcast about a young man that moves from California to Maine in hopes of finding his ex-girlfriend that disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

What got you into podcasting?

I went to school for theater performance and got tired of not being able to book any work without an agent... so I decided to make my own. In the early days of the pandemic when the industry completely shut down, I was listening to the first episode of The Black Tapes and thought to myself “Oh wow I want to make one of these”. That day, I ordered a budget microphone and sat down and wrote the first episode. I then sat on it for 4 months and then actually recorded it.

What are you most proud about The Cellar Letters?

I’m honestly just proud that I created something that people other than my friends and family seem to be enjoying.

You can listen to The Cellar Letters wherever you find podcasts or on the Rusty Quill website.

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Next up, we just wanted to provide an update on the Rusty Quill Gaming dice project which we have been working on with the UK-based dice company, Dice Dungeon. This information will also be shared with everyone who has pre-ordered the sets.

There will be a delay on the expected delivery time, with pre-orders now due to ship in April 2023. These delays do have the upside of taking an already great design concept and making something we think you will find truly special.

We at Rusty Quill and the team at The Dice Dungeon do want to apologise for the delay, but also provide some context. We know that these are not cheap products, and our goal with every decision we’ve made is to ensure that these are truly premium dice sets. The original pitch we sent to Dice Dungeon was ambitious but with their help and insight, we’ve not only delivered but we've tweaked the designs to make a better product than we first imagined. Dice Dungeon have been invaluable throughout this whole process, and we can’t thank them enough.

Some specific things we have revisited throughout the creation process is ensuring the small details of the wooden box, such as the clasp, the hinges, and the engraved design are exactly right. As for the deluxe dice themselves, we spent some time with the manufacturer ensuring that the colour was right after an initial sample looked almost blue in certain lights. At Dice Dungeon’s suggestion, we also tested including gold flakes within the mix of the dice themselves. Additionally, we originally had planned for the dice to be encased in brass metal, however we had concerns over how it might tarnish, effecting the longevity and performance of the product. Eventually, we found that gold electroplating, whilst not the colour we had originally envisioned, looks incredible and will be extremely resistant to corrosion and tarnishing.

We also worked extensively on the resin set. We discussed several colourways with Dice Dungeon, including plain red, or even a layered, multicolour (with each colour representing a player character, as you can see in the image below). However, samples of multicolour did not have the desired look in comparison to the other set red dice, and Dice Dungeon suggested creating a smoke effect within the resin. Some early tests of this were quite dark, and again we revisited the mix to get it just right. On the plus side when considering the blend of colours in the red dice, the grain of the wooden box, and mix of the gold means each of set of dice will be unique, making them extremely special.

(Image description: a mock-up of three polyhedral dice. They featured colour layers ranging from pink, to blue, to white, to yellow and black).

These amends took a bit of time, but we do believe the final product is so much better for it. However, another aspect of this delay is that the demand was just so much higher than we ever anticipated. Thank you so much for supporting this project in a way that has gone above and beyond our expectations. An example of the effect this has on production is when you consider the intricate details in the wooden box, each box takes over two hours to create, which adds up considerably with the sheer volume of pre-orders we’ve received. Each box is machined in such a way that they are all unique, and no set of dice will be quite the same. We have been sent a physical sample of the dice as well to examine and have sent back a few suggestions to ensure that sets are up to our high standards. We were so pleased with the samples and can't wait to share them with you. Unfortunately, for now you will have to take our word for it, but they look incredible in person.

All these delays compounded, and we also have to take the holiday period into account. We do apologise but hope that this update helps explain what’s been going on behind the scenes, the improvements we’ve been making and the knock-on effect this has for delivering the products.

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Next up: our Kickstarter Campaign for The Magnus Protocol will officially launch tomorrow, Tuesday 22nd November at 4pm GMT. This is a long newsletter already, so before we go any further, check out this video of Alex and Jonny to find out a little bit more.

(Image description: A screenshot from YouTube of Alexander J Newall and Jonathan Sims sitting on a sofa, looking excited. Alex is waving hello.)

https://youtu.be/a7008R5wXfE

Our project goal for the Kickstarter is £15,000, but we’re looking to raise significantly more than this to fully realise The Magnus Protocol, and we have some really exciting stretch goals in mind to augment the final show and offer additional bonuses and benefits.

We mentioned in a previous update that we were exploring ways to upgrade any pledges we get from Patreon subscribers. We can confirm that we will be able to do this. We’re using a platform called Backer Kit, which will allow us to match up Kickstarter backers to our Patreon members. Backers will be able to add a free Tier upgrade reward and we will verify the authenticity by comparing email addresses so please endeavour to use the same email address that your Patreon is registered with or email us explaining any issues. Please note that we won’t be doing this comparison until after the campaign is finished and the holidays are over, so please be aware that if you cancel your Patreon subscription in November or December you won’t be eligible for the Kickstarter pledge upgrade. The upgrades also won’t be available on the highest pledges as these are all exclusive numbered rewards, but we will try and find some extra bonuses or gifts if Patrons do back these levels. There will be a limited number of “early bird” pledges available. So, if you’ve registered to be notified exactly when the Kickstarter goes live, and are an active Patreon member when we do the final comparison, you can get a discounted pledge against a reward a level higher than what you paid for #doublediscount. We will give a reminder on these details in a mini update before the campaign goes live tomorrow.

We also know that some of you may not wish to donate at this time, for example due to the time of year, disliking Kickstarter as a platform, or not being interested in having a pledge upgraded. With this in mind, we are also exploring alternatives to run a post-Kickstarter campaign, with discounted pledge tiers for Rewards that can also unlock any outstanding stretch goals. We’ll update you on this in the new year, as ultimately it does depend on how well this initial Kickstarter runs. In the meantime, we have included some “social stretch goals” within the main Kickstarter stretch goals, so that you can support us, even if you cannot donate at this time.

Finally, we wanted to give you an early access sneak peek at some of the rewards we’re offering. When we were planning our pledge tiers, we did a lot of research into other crowdfunded projects, and also spent a long time discussing the value or the rewards verses the cost of shipping physical items internationally and the inherent risks involved. Consequently, we’ve kept physical items to a minimum and instead focussed on some really cool digital offerings, including much-requested things like personalised messages, season premieres and more. Take a look below at the list of Early Bird pledges. This isn’t the full list of pledges, which include a £1 “Archive Visitor” tier.

Pledge £4 or more – Archive Intern (Early Bird Price – Limited to 100)

Receive a The Magnus Archives 2 digi-pack containing wallpapers, digital art, MAG2 OST theme and more. Plus everything at lower tiers.

Pledge £8 or more – Researcher (Early Bird Price – Limited to 75)

Direct ad-free link to every new episode of The Magnus Protocol (released at the same time as Patreon ad free early access). Plus everything at lower tiers.

Pledge £15 or more – Archive Volunteer (Early Bird Price – Limited to 50)

Direct ad-free link to every new episode of our members only bonus listen-along show (released at the same time as Patreon ad free episodes). Plus everything at lower tiers.

Pledge £30 or more – Archive Assistant (Early Bird Price – Limited to 50)

Access a digital behind-the-scenes brochure. Plus everything at lower tiers.

Pledge £75 or more – Archivist (Early Bird Price – Limited to 50)

Get a personalised 30-second audio message and a ticket to all digital season premieres. Plus everything at lower tiers.

Pledge £170 or more – Head Archivist (Early Bird Price – Limited to 25)

Receive an exclusive signed script of MAG2, episode 1, tickets to all digital season premieres. Plus everything at Archive Assistant tier and below.

We will be revealing more tomorrow, so if you haven’t already signed up to be notified when the campaign goes live, head over to the Kickstarter page now.

After the fun we had last time, we decided to celebrate the launch with another livestream so please join Alex, Jonny and loads more special guests on Twitch at 17:30 BST on 22nd November 2022 for more fun and games, including Among Us, Jackbox, a very special quiz from quizmaster Helen Gould and secret streaming stretch goals.

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Last week on Trice Forgotten, poor Siva was abducted yet again, by the very sinister Mary, played by our very own Lowri Ann Davies. The rest of the crew are desperately trying to work out what has happened, but Captain Alestes is in the wind, also missing from the Netoansom. Will the crew find their two missing members, and what has Alestes been up to? And after the shocking revelation last week, what does this mean for the future of Siva’s place on ship? This is the penultimate episode of season one of Trice Forgotten.The final episode drops anchor in two weeks’ time.

Here is our full schedule for this week:

Monday 21st November

SEAS 09 – Raised Aloft (Patreon) (4pm GMT)

Tuesday 22nd November

SEAS 09 – Raised Aloft (Public) (4pm BST)

Kickstarter Launch Livestream (Public) (5:30pm GMT)

Friday 25th November

NOBLES bonus – Deluxe Transcript #31 (Patreon) (4pm GMT)

Have a good week all!

The Rusty Quill team