The Listening Club TTRPG Special - Episode 2

Summary

The Magnus Archives: The Listening Club TTRPG Special – Episode 2

Release Date: December 18, 2025
Host/Game Master: Johnny
Players: Lowry (Elodie Jones), Anusha (Margot Maria), Ian (Alphonse Platt), Pip (Barry Knapp)

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Main Theme / Purpose

This episode continues the Magnus Archives’ TTRPG special arc, following a group of ordinary friends—fans of the fictional “Armitage Library” horror podcast—whose routine listening club is disrupted by a mysterious message from a missing member, June. The players roleplay their characters as they investigate June’s sudden disappearance, blending meta-commentary on podcast horror tropes with real suspense, dark humor, and inventive roleplay.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Recap and In-Character Setup

Timestamp: 05:42–08:15

• Johnny recaps last session: All players portray “normal people” in a listening club for the horror podcast “Armitage Library.” The latest episode, #100, ended with narrator Arthur G. Neville supposedly defeating the drain-dwelling monster “Mr. Clot”—though possibly not for good.
• Elodie: Immediately cross-references episodes in a spreadsheet, focusing on when the “clog monster” first appeared.
• Players discuss podcast horror tropes like “monster never truly dies” and whether something/someone is behind the recurring villain.
  • Margot: “The way they keep killing it off and bringing it back … it’s like it’s getting too obvious now, you know.”
  • Barry: “Exactly. I get it. It’s an immortal amoeba. … But who’s behind the creature, is what I’m wondering.”
• The group's absent member, June, is established as the club’s founder and a hardworking, stressed, but organized character.

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2. Inciting Incident: June’s Urgent Message

Timestamp: 10:20–12:07

• June sends an urgent, out-of-character email: “Need to see you now. Urgent. Quick.”
• The group feels something is wrong as June never misses meetings.
• Margot tries calling June (voicemail), then the group decides to visit her flat.
• Elodie offers: “My laptop’s got plenty of charge. We can just do this on the bus if we want to, like, hop over.”
• The gang takes the bus to June’s nearby flat.

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3. Investigation at June’s Flat

Timestamp: 13:27–17:44

• Group arrives, buzzes her flat—no answer.
• Margot uses her “barista” solidarity to charm the downstairs neighbor into letting them in, then attempts (unnecessarily) to pick the lock:
  • Johnny: “You spend a while tinkering with it, and then you realize it is unlocked … whether you tell other people this or … that's up to you.”
  • Margot (embarrassed) just goes along as if she succeeded.
• The group is uneasy about breaking in, but Johnny reassures: “Look, we’re checking up on a friend, that’s all.”

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4. Searching for Clues in the Flat

Timestamp: 17:44–24:33

• Flat is gloomy. June’s keys are still there; it seems she hasn’t left.
• Room by room search:
  • Bathroom: Empty; nothing unusual.
  • Bedroom: Messy, stacks of podcast transcripts, highlighted notes on “Moldy Pencil Productions” (the “Armitage Library” company).
  • Living room: Fresh food, no mess; open envelope with a letter—“Dear June, Thank you for getting in touch … Please find what you requested enclosed. —A.G.N.” No visible enclosure.
• Studio/Office:
  • Dark; high-backed chair, thick headphones with viscous dark liquid (possibly blood) on earpiece.
  • Multiple Sony minidisc players—iconic in the “Armitage Library” fiction.
  • Barry plays a minidisc, hears “garbled audio nonsense … a bit unpleasant.”
  • Margot is cautious, photographing evidence and wants to keep searching for June.
  • Barry: “Is there enough to drip?” (regarding the liquid)—narrative tension with even mundane details.

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5. Piecing Together Digital Evidence

Timestamp: 24:33–29:56

• Elodie uses tracking skills to dig up a possible phone number for Moldy Pencil Productions (not public-facing)—the number is not in service.
• On the laptop (password: “Armitage” with a 4):
  • Surges of online research about Moldy Pencil, secret addresses, audio distortions, a custom software called “Open Ear” for cleaning up audio.
  • June had downloaded and used a custom audio-cleanup program.
  • Margot: “There are coherent words coming out of the tracks … But I’m very concerned that if I listen to them too closely or too loudly and I kind of just gesture at the headphones as a case in point, that could be blood. This could be bad.”
  • Joke as the group (and Johnny the GM) explain minidiscs to “the youth.”
• The group debates if there’s a supernatural risk to the audio; references to horror tropes and past in-universe show episodes where “audio gets you.”

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6. Cliffhanger: The Peril of Listening

Timestamp: 30:50–31:22

• The group debates what happened to June—a suggestion she was actively investigating some dangerous audio phenomena, perhaps paralleling events in the Armitage Library podcast itself.
• Alphonse (Ian) impulsively puts on the "bloody" headphones:
  • Johnny: “And we will find out what happens to Alphonse next episode. Thank you all very much for joining us …”
• Episode ends on "To be continued…" with mounting unease over the dangers of listening too closely or literally to horror stories—a classic Magnus Archives theme.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Meta-humor on horror podcast tropes:
  09:09 Margot: “The way they keep killing it off and bringing it back … it’s like it’s getting too obvious now, you know.”
• Relatable tabletop table-talk:
  13:00 Barry: “Oh, gosh. I don’t know if a natural 20 is a thing in this game, but I’ve rolled a full.”
• Group dynamics and genre awareness:
  16:44 Elodie: “I’m not sure if we’re breaking into a house…”
  Johnny: “Look, we’re checking up on a friend, that’s all.”
• Supernatural dread manifesting in everyday life:
  21:01 Elodie: “Everything in the world could be blood or not blood.”
• Paranoia over technological horror:
  30:33 Margot: “…I’m very concerned that if I listen to them too closely or too loudly … This could be bad.”
• Cliffhanger setup:
  31:12 Johnny: “Alphonse has put the headphones on. … And we will find out what Alphonse is next episode.”
  31:13 Barry: “The longer you stay alive, the longer you can enjoy Boost Mobile’s unlimited plan …”

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Important Timestamps

• Main RP Session Begins: 05:42
• Recap & Characters Re-introduced: 06:20–08:15
• June’s Emergency Email: 10:20
• Arriving at June’s Flat: 13:27–15:00
• Flat Investigation: 15:00–24:33
• Laptop and Minidisc Investigation: 24:33–29:56
• Discussion of Audio Dangers: 30:33
• Cliffhanger – Headphones Put On: 31:09–31:22

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Tone & Language

The episode blends tense, atmospheric horror with playful meta-references and collaborative storytelling. The tone is light and witty, with breaks for world-weary humor—and a constant underlying sense of dread, typical of The Magnus Archives.

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Conclusion

Fans of fiction podcasts, horror TTRPGs, and meta-narratives will find “The Listening Club TTRPG Special – Episode 2” engaging and suspenseful. The interrupted ordinary lives of podcast fans, their investigative teamwork, and the looming threat hidden in audio echoes the core themes of The Magnus Archives while inviting listeners into the heart of a tabletop mystery.

Cliffhanger: What truly happened to June—and what will Alphonse hear (or experience) when he puts on the strange, stained headphones? Tune in next week to find out.

Transcript

[Kareem]

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[Elodie]

G'.

[Johnny]

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[Elodie]

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[Johnny]

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[Shahan]

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[Elodie]

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[Margot]

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[Kareem]

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[Shahan]

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[Johnny]

Simplisaf. Hello again everyone. It's your boy Johnny, returning once again to Games Master, the second episode in our short little Magnus archives role playing game oneshot. And with me we have. It's Lowry, it's Lowrie, and Lori. Who are you playing in the Listening.

[Elodie]

Club? I am playing Elodie.

[Johnny]

Jones. Anusha. Hello. Who are you.

[Margot]

Playing? Hello, Johnny. I am playing Margot Maria.

[Johnny]

Bradley. Hello, Ian. Who are you playing? I am playing the redoubtable Alphonse Platt. And finally, Pip. Who you.

[Barry]

Playing? Hello. I will be playing Barry.

[Johnny]

Knapp. Brilliant. So to recap all our nonsense last episode, everyone is playing a group of just normal people who gather together occasionally to listen to the horror fiction podcast the Armitage Library. You have all come together to listen to episode 100 that is just released. You have just listened to the eponymous narrator, Arthur G. Neville, as he confronts the beast that's been stalking him for all four seasons. A terrifying creature of hair and blood, it travels through drain pipes and sort of snakes up. It's basically sort of a sentient, gory, clogged.

[Elodie]

Drain. Oh.

[Johnny]

No. He has apparently killed it forever. But there was a little postscript that was like, but maybe not. And so you are currently deep in discussion of this episode and indeed the episodes and the arcs that have led up to it. I will say there is usually a fifth member of your group, June, who has not joined you.

[Margot]

Today. What is June.

[Johnny]

Like? She's nice. Quite organized. She was actually the one who originally gathered the group together and suggested you all meet up. But she's lovely. Sort of on the. On the short side. A little bit bubbly, but the bubbliness kind of hides a certain. She's quite stressed a lot of the time. She works very hard. But yeah, she's. She always makes the.

[Elodie]

Meetings. So we've just finished.

[Johnny]

Listening. You know, the Armitage Library was produced by Moldy Pencil Productions. It's distributed under Etc.

[Elodie]

Etc. Gosh, quite a lot of food for thought in that one. Hey, Elodie is getting her. Well, her laptop is already out with the spreadsheet up so that she can start logging some details to like cross reference the.

[Johnny]

Episodes. Which episode do you think was a really good payoff.

[Elodie]

For? Oh, 37 mm. I mean, it's the episode that he first encounters the drain clog.

[Margot]

Monster.

[Johnny]

Right. They call it Mr.

[Elodie]

Clot. Must they? Yeah, it's pretty.

[Johnny]

Gross. It's a pretty gross.

[Margot]

Podcast. Good for.

[Barry]

Them. I just don't know why they just don't kill.

[Kareem]

It.

[Johnny]

Right. Because it's obviously not dead, is.

[Margot]

It? No, it's very much not.

[Barry]

Dead. So Alphonse is just doodling away on a pad making strange shapes with.

[Elodie]

Inkwell. But you know, we need to get the payoff. I mean, that was somewhat of a payoff, but obviously, you know, there's going to be another season, right. So we can't be killing it now because they're going to need it in season five. It's going to make a comeback.

[Margot]

Obviously. What I can't tell is whether this is meant to be the big bad of the entire thing or whether there's something else hidden beneath. And the way they keep killing it off and bringing it back. Killing it off. Bring. It's like it's getting too obvious now, you.

[Barry]

Know. Exactly. I get it. It's an immortal amoeba. Barry will return from. I'm picturing us in a.

[Margot]

Cafe. I was also picturing.

[Elodie]

Cafe. Yeah, maybe like a 50s diner style.

[Margot]

Booth. Oh.

[Barry]

Sweet. Barry is returning from a counter with a tray with everyone's drink orders on it. And we'll sort of put that down and start handing them over to people. I think Margo's onto something there actually, because it's not like it's a big. A big hairy sort of blood monster. Right. But like who's. Who's behind the creature is what I'm wondering. Because there's got to be more to it than that. Like, where's it from? Did somebody like, summoned. Right, somebody has to have summoned.

[Margot]

It. Exactly. There have been so many hints that there's something beyond.

[Barry]

It. Exactly right. That's my point.

[Margot]

Exactly. Puppeting it. I don't.

[Elodie]

Know. Interesting that you were talking about someone being behind it. Eldie's gonna turn her laptop around so everyone can see the screen and start a presentation. So I was cross referencing all of the prime numbered episodes the other day and the monster, or at least this.

[Johnny]

Person. Bing bong. The little email chime. Oh, and it looks like you've had an email from June. Oh, it's Ray. Upcoming.

[Barry]

Meet. Oh.

[Johnny]

Great. The latest message just reads, need to see you now. Urgent. Quick. It's been sent to all of you. Elodie's laptop is where you can see it, but if you check your phones, you have all received this.

[Margot]

Message. Hmm, that's.

[Elodie]

Strange. I mean, it isn't like her to miss a.

[Barry]

Meeting. I'll immediately just text back, like, where are you? Question.

[Kareem]

Mark.

[Johnny]

Yep. You can send that message. A few minutes pass and there's no immediate.

[Barry]

Response. Sit and.

[Margot]

Wait. Gonna try and ring.

[Barry]

Her.

[Kareem]

Yeah.

[Elodie]

Yeah. Good.

[Barry]

Call. Check she's not in.

[Johnny]

Trouble. Hi, this is June. Sorry, I'm really very busy at the moment. If you leave a message, I'll get back to you as soon as.

[Margot]

Possible. Thanks. Hi, June, this is Margot. We just got your. Your email. We just got your messages. It's. Is everything all right? Over. That's kind of how she always.

[Elodie]

Ends messages whenever she leaves them, even in.

[Johnny]

Text.

[Margot]

Over. It's going to become a little bit of a joke between her and.

[Elodie]

June. There's no location on this email.

[Johnny]

Right? No, it looks like all the other emails that she has sent, which she normally sends from her computer. Do any of you know June other than through the Listening.

[Margot]

Club? How old is she and what kind of work does she.

[Johnny]

Do? Mid-30s. She does, like, audio stuff. She works a lot with corporate clients doing voiceover editing for.

[Elodie]

Adverts. I think she's probably done an ad. Right, for the accountancy firm that Elodie works.

[Kareem]

For.

[Johnny]

Yeah. So in which case, Elodie will probably have been over to her house once or twice because she has a little home studio. You do know where she.

[Elodie]

Lives? It's near. It's.

[Johnny]

Near. It's a short bus ride.

[Elodie]

Away. I mean, that is not like her. My laptop's got. Got plenty of charge. We can just do this on the bus if we want to, like, hop over.

[Margot]

There. Yeah, let's I think that's a good shout. Yeah, I think we should do.

[Elodie]

That. Can we get these to.

[Barry]

Go? Yeah, I'll get them.

[Johnny]

In. I'll put them all back on.

[Barry]

The tray and take them over to the cabinet. Get them all transferred.

[Johnny]

Into. Alphonse has already drained his black coffee. The barista is like, yeah.

[Barry]

Okay. Yeah, sorry.

[Elodie]

Mate. Oh, and maybe get a marker for.

[Johnny]

June. Does the barista here like you? You know what? I'm going to ask for a roll. It's going to be a level4.4 challenge. It's an intellect.

[Margot]

Challenge. Is there any way I can help? I actually did write down that Margot is a.

[Johnny]

Barista. Oh, okay. Yeah. Do you have any sort of skills that might.

[Elodie]

Assist? I've got.

[Johnny]

Performance. A combination of performance and barista solidarity. Lower that to a.

[Barry]

Nine. Great. Okay. Oh, gosh. I don't know If a natural 20 is a thing in this game, but I've rolled a.

[Johnny]

Full. Oh, yeah, absolutely. The baristas are all really nice to you because you're pretty sure the manager is into you. She's always just behind the counter, like just not giving you the eye, obviously, but maybe just giving you the eye. The barista almost rolls his eyes when you ask for them all to be put into takeout cups and then gives a sort of look over to the manager who is staring at him steely faced. You can get all your coffees to.

[Barry]

Go.

[Johnny]

Cheers. You hop on the bus. It's the number 42 going to Didsbury, just dropping.

[Kareem]

In.

[Johnny]

That. That little local flavor that it's very important, I think for authenticity purposes. And yeah, two pounds each. It's been at work. It's pretty good. Fifteen minutes later, you are stood in front of. So June has a flat. It's a three story building with a front door with four doorbells on.

[Elodie]

It. I mean, obviously Elodie will remember which one it is because she's very.

[Johnny]

Organized. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, it's the third one.

[Elodie]

Down. Yeah.

[Johnny]

Buzz. Well, there is no immediate.

[Elodie]

Response. I'll buzz a different flat. A.

[Barry]

Neighbor. What are you.

[Elodie]

Doing? Well, excellent.

[Margot]

Hello.

[Elodie]

Hi. So sorry to intrude on your day. I'm trying to get hold of June. I'm a little bit worried about her and she's not answering her door. June, your neighbor. Your upstairs neighbor, the one who always asks you to keep the music down because she's.

[Johnny]

Recording. Oh, yeah. She.

[Elodie]

Dead? No. But could I come in? I've got a package for her. Thank.

[Johnny]

You. Actually, wait, hang on. I'm gonna ask You, I like package. I am gonna ask you to roll. You need a six, level.

[Elodie]

Two. That's a.

[Johnny]

12. 12.

[Margot]

Yeah.

[Johnny]

Great. And. Yeah, the door buzzes and you can head on.

[Elodie]

Inside. Oh, she's the second.

[Barry]

Floor. Okay. Straight.

[Johnny]

Up. So. Yep, head up. It's a pretty new build house, so it's got quite a sturdy fire door on the front. No windows, nothing like that. Just the little number three on.

[Elodie]

It.

[Johnny]

Knocking. No response to a.

[Elodie]

Knock. And the door is shut.

[Johnny]

Right? It's.

[Elodie]

Closed.

[Barry]

Yeah. Well, we'll sort of look inquisitively at.

[Margot]

Margot. So I know I didn't select it specifically as a skill, Jonathan, but can I try and pick the lock.

[Johnny]

Please? Oh, you didn't take lockpecking, did.

[Margot]

You? No, I picked pickpocketing, but I think it would still be vague. Pickpocketing vaguely within her.

[Johnny]

Bailiwick. All right, all right. Well, it is. I'll be nice. It's an internal lock. It's a very standard Yale, so it'll be a level four, so you need a 12. It'll be on speed. Do you want to spend any of your speed to boost.

[Margot]

It? Yeah, I think I.

[Johnny]

Will. So if you spend three points of your speed pool, you can lower that to a.

[Margot]

Six. Oh, I got exactly a 12. God damn it. I didn't need to lower.

[Johnny]

It. Hey. Okay, what are you using? Describe yourself.

[Margot]

Lockpicking. It looks like the kind of thing that would be used on stage for, like, lockpicking tricks, but it is very, very functional as a standard lockpicking kit at the same.

[Johnny]

Time. That was a success. You have successfully locked the.

[Elodie]

Door. Did we.

[Margot]

Not? Did we.

[Johnny]

Not? Did no one before I. You can unlock it again. I'm being. Is that not 101 of lockpicking is. Yeah. No, it wasn't locked. It wasn't locked before you started to be marginally less cruel. You spend a while tinkering with it, and then you realize it is unlocked. Whether you tell other people this or whether you are like, I've done it, that's up to you. That's up to.

[Margot]

Margot. She doesn't say a thing. She's kind of.

[Johnny]

Embarrassed. As far as anyone else is concerned, Margot has just successfully done a master bit of.

[Elodie]

Lockpicking. Elodie is very uncomfortable about this. I'm not sure if we're breaking into a.

[Margot]

House. It's.

[Johnny]

Fine. And you're the one they heard on the.

[Barry]

Anticom. They'll come straight to.

[Elodie]

You. Oh, God, Alfonso, you're right. Oh.

[Barry]

God. Look. No, it's fine. We're look, we're checking up on a friend, that's.

[Johnny]

All. Stride into the flat. You push the door open. Inside it is quiet. The lights are not on and it's still daytime. But the curtains and the blinds have been drawn. There's a certain gloom, a certain dinge inside the main hallway of the apartment, it's quite narrow. Elodie as the investigator, you notice that June's keys are still in the little bowl so it doesn't look like she's left. So Elodie's been here before. Has anyone else visited June.

[Margot]

Before? I think maybe once. Like to inquire about some audio.

[Johnny]

Stuff. You know that there's standard bedroom, bathroom, living room, kitchen, combination room and a spare bedroom that June uses as a recording studio. All the doors are currently.

[Elodie]

Shut. June? June? It's Listening Club.

[Johnny]

Hello? No.

[Margot]

Response. I think I'd start knocking on the.

[Johnny]

Doors. No response. Just going to grab a handle and open. Which of the three doors do you go for, Ian? One, two or.

[Kareem]

Three.

[Barry]

Right. Because I don't know what they.

[Johnny]

Are. I'm gonna go for two. You open it. Small bit pokey. Bathroom, shower cubicle, toilet. Pretty standard. You don't immediately see anything out of the ordinary. Also June's not in.

[Barry]

There. No, no.

[Margot]

June. Is there a particular place where she'd keep her laptop, where she would have sent the email.

[Johnny]

From? She usually works in her recording studio. It kind of doubles up as an.

[Margot]

Office. Sure, I think I'd check there.

[Johnny]

Then. Opening the door to the recording studio, it is slightly darker in here than the other rooms because she has a pair of like thick soundproofing curtains over the window that are currently pulled closed. The light is currently turned off. So the only light is currently spilling in from the hallway and it illuminates an unlit desk and a large sort of high backed office chair that is currently turned away from you. With a pair of headphones sort of just kind of hanging off the.

[Margot]

Side. I feel like I need to check if there's anything in this office.

[Johnny]

Chair. Are you turning the lights on first or are you rotating the office chair.

[Margot]

First? So I put the torch on, on my phone and I kind of pull the sleeves of my very big jacket over my hands so I'm like putting fingerprints on as little as possible. And I go up and I kind of like. I don't push it or anything. I just kind of look round the edge of the chair very, very.

[Johnny]

Slowly. There is nobody there. You do notice in the torchlight, it takes you A second to recognize them. They are Sony minidisc players, which you recognize as the iconic media storage device used in the Armitage Library. All the horrible ghost stories are all recorded onto Sony.

[Barry]

MiniDisc. I might come into the room, like, after Margo, and immediately just kind of almost offhandly pick one of these up and just at random and press.

[Kareem]

Play.

[Johnny]

Yep. It's kind of garbled audio nonsense as far as you can tell. It's a bit unpleasant to listen.

[Margot]

To. How many are.

[Johnny]

There? 12 sort of small portable ones and two slightly larger units that will be used for.

[Margot]

Recording. I'd take a photograph of them and consider gathering them up, but I'd want to check other rooms for June.

[Johnny]

1St. As you're looking around, Barry, have you turned the light.

[Barry]

On? Yeah, I think I will do. Now that we're both in the room looking at these mini displayers, I'll flick the light on.

[Johnny]

Yeah. You notice that the light is slightly reflecting off one of the inner ear cups of the pair of headphones dangling over the end. They're the sort of big, thick wired headphones, your sort of old school audiophile style. And you will notice if you look closely that the left ear cup on the inside, it's shiny with a. With a slightly viscous dark.

[Barry]

Liquid. I'll pick the headphones up by the connecting band and lift, turn the angle and see if any of whatever this is drips.

[Johnny]

Out. There's not enough for it to.

[Barry]

Drip.

[Johnny]

Okay. It's hard to tell what it is. Could be blood, could be anything that's not.

[Elodie]

Blood. Good. To narrow it.

[Margot]

Down. Everything in the world could be blood or not blood.

[Barry]

Johnny. I'll very tentatively just reach out and dab it with a finger and then bring it to the light. I'm very inquisitive and I'd like to know what it.

[Johnny]

Is. It's red. You think it might be.

[Barry]

Blood? I'll sort of put them down on the.

[Margot]

Desk. I'm gonna take a photo of.

[Johnny]

It. Meanwhile, Elodie, where are you and Alphonse.

[Elodie]

Looking? I will have a look through the kitchen, living room area, and I'm basically looking for signs of where she might be. Did she leave in a hurry? And potentially in the back of my mind being like, do we need to call the police or.

[Johnny]

Something? Bedroom is a lot more chaotic than you'd associate with June, but not in a suspicious sort of way. You just think that this is maybe the room where she keeps all her.

[Elodie]

Chaos. Elodie has a cupboard where she keeps her Chaos. No one's allowed to see. See in.

[Johnny]

There. She was clearly working on some stuff around the podcast. She's got a whole bunch of old transcripts with bits highlighted and circled. This is clearly where she does a lot of the work that she brings to the listening club. You're an investigator, so I'm gonna say you do notice that on a couple of the more recent transcripts that she's been going through, she has quite heavily circled the public address of Moldy Pencil Productions. Alphonse. Looking through the kitchen and living room, you can't see anything immediately. Like there's no body, there's no splatter of gore. It looks like the food in the fridge is fresh. It looks like she was here until pretty recently. Okay. Although none of the appliances show any use of immediate use. You know, the kettle's not warm, anything like that. On the small coffee table in the living room is an open letter that just reads, dear June, thank you for getting in touch. We really appreciate it. Please find what you requested enclosed. Agn. I'm gonna look in the envelope. Is there anything enclosed in there? Is there? No. It's a slightly bigger envelope than you would expect from a, like an A5 letter. But whatever was in there, it's not in the envelope or on the table.

[Barry]

Currently.

[Elodie]

Yeah. So gang.

[Barry]

Huh? She got a letter.

[Johnny]

From. From.

[Barry]

Arthur. Should be writing to.

[Elodie]

Him. Oh, she's been like highlighting Moldy Pencil Productions address as well. I'm actually quite impressed with the level of. Sorry. Anyway, I think maybe I'm just gonna give them a call. Like, is there a phone number for Moldy? I'm gonna Google to look for a phone number for Moldy Pencil.

[Johnny]

Productions. Elodie. They have an email address. They have social media handles. They don't have a public facing phone number. From what you can say, I will say you can send whatever email you like. You will receive what seems like an automated holding email. And if you get a response, you would not expect to be getting a response within the next few.

[Elodie]

Days. One of my skills is tracking. Can I argue that I could find an illegal website or.

[Johnny]

Something? Absolutely. Could you make me an intellect roll? I'd say you probably need a 9, but I'll lower that to a 6 because of your.

[Elodie]

Tracking. Great.

[Johnny]

13. They don't have anything immediate in like their public facing stuff, but there's all sorts of official documentation that you have to file to be a company that is stored various places that if you know where to look, you can find it. And you can indeed find A phone number. That is the official phone number that has been given to various regulatory bodies and official organizations for Mouldy Pencil.

[Elodie]

Productions. I mean, she's calling that. I'm just calling Moldy Pencil Productions just so everyone knows what she's.

[Margot]

Doing. Good. I'm gonna check this.

[Johnny]

Laptop. This number is not in.

[Elodie]

Service. This number's not in service. Great. There's a.

[Johnny]

Laptop. Incidentally, your researches into Moldy Pencil, they have a lot of, like, behind the scenes photos. They apparently have about 12 people working for them, all of which have, like, a really nice sunny profile about how much they just love listening and microphones. From the page, it looks like they've got, like, quite a nice little office space. Anisha, you can open up the laptop. There is a password screen. Do you want to take a crack at what the password might.

[Margot]

Be?

[Johnny]

Yeah. Give me a pitch of four passwords. Margot might.

[Margot]

Try. Okay. Does the password have to be a particular length? No, I think she would try. Testing, testing. 1, 2.

[Johnny]

3. As in typing.

[Margot]

Out. Yeah. No, not Moldy pencil. Mouldy pen, because that would throw people.

[Johnny]

Off. Nope, not moldy.

[Margot]

Pen. This is my password. Kind of upper and lowercase.

[Kareem]

To.

[Margot]

Nope. And I think should try I love llamas.

[Johnny]

27. June does love llamas, but that's not the password. I'll give you an intellect roll. You only need a 9. Do you have any skills that might.

[Margot]

Help? I mean, I've got an intellect edge of.

[Johnny]

One. Yep. You can lower it to a six for two points if you.

[Margot]

Want. I've got discerning.

[Barry]

Motive. Isn't this also lock picking but just.

[Elodie]

Electronic? Yeah.

[Johnny]

Yeah. You know what? I was gonna give you discerning motive, but Ian ruined it by trying to get lockpick in. So for being cheeky. No, you don't have a skill. I will let you spend two intellect.

[Margot]

Points. I wasn't even cheeky. That wasn't on.

[Johnny]

Me. No, but Ian was cheeky on.

[Elodie]

Your behalf as a.

[Johnny]

Team. Collective punishment as expressly forbidden by the Geneva.

[Margot]

Convention. I'll spend two instead of three because I have my edge. So you need a six, and that is a.

[Barry]

17.

[Johnny]

Nice. 17. Perfect. It's Armitage, but the A is a.

[Margot]

Four. Oh.

[Johnny]

Okay. A lot of her stuff is to do with work. You are very clearly breaking quite a few NDAs looking through her laptop. But a lot of her recent Internet searches. There's a lot to do with Mordi Pencil Productions. A lot of address searches and trying to find out a location. It seems like she doesn't think that their official address is their real address. She's searching a lot of stuff about audio distortions. Audio. Strange thing, aspects of the audio sit, like on various message boards, Seeing if anyone else has come across anything. And she recently downloaded what seems to be a sort of audio cleanup program, Like a custom piece of audio cleanup.

[Margot]

Software. I'm going to choose one and I'm going to give it a.

[Johnny]

Listen. That's just listening to it, like, straight off the.

[Margot]

Minidisc. I'm showing my age here by asking how minidiscs.

[Johnny]

Work. Okay, so minidiscs, they're.

[Margot]

Like. Is it like a record where you can take it out, flip it over, you've got.

[Johnny]

A. No, they're like little CD cartridges that you use to slot into a.

[Margot]

Player. So more like a cassette.

[Barry]

Tape. Like, imagine a cassette tape, but there's a CD in.

[Johnny]

It. Oh, no, no, nothing. Nothing like a cassette tape. Nothing like a cassette tape. I wouldn't draw that parallel at.

[Kareem]

All. Of.

[Johnny]

Course. Completely different cassette.

[Margot]

Tapes. You can turn around and have a difference. So it's not that they are.

[Johnny]

Digital rather than analog, but they are digital physical media. I thought I might have some here, but I can't find them. For those listeners who weren't around. The next big audio storage tech after CDs was minidiscs, which were these, like, little sort of CD cassette.

[Elodie]

Things. Oh.

[Johnny]

Okay. That were very much pitched as the next big thing. And they are a fun little bit of obsolete technology in terms of using them. They are similar to a tape or a cd, but they are digital media. So you can't really. You can't, like, wind them like you can with the.

[Margot]

Tape. Okay. I think she'd go through and listen to all of.

[Johnny]

Them. They're all a bit garbled, but you do notice one of the larger sort of player recorder units does have a cable coming off it which has been plugged into what looks like a USB.

[Margot]

Adapter. Okay. I'd like to plug in the USB to the laptop and see what comes.

[Johnny]

Up. It looks like it's taking the audio from the. The mini disk and converting it into a file that can be fed into the various audio programs on the.

[Margot]

Laptop. Okay. I'd like to try and retrace the steps that June is taking here and see what programs she has. See what I can feed into.

[Johnny]

What? Yeah, the most recently used program, it's called Open Ear, a custom program designed to sort of descramble and Denoise audio. Currently you can do it, and it definitely looks like it has done something to the audio track off the minidisc. Whatever it is, is coming out of the headphones.

[Margot]

Though. I'm staying far away from the headphones, but I'm turning the volume on the laptop up to where I could just about hear what's coming out of the headphones. And I'm pressing play so I can just about hear if it's garbled or.

[Johnny]

Not. It's definitely not garbled. There are definitely words and something slightly weird about the way the words sound, but you can't make it.

[Margot]

Out. Okay, I press stop and I call the others.

[Elodie]

In. Come.

[Johnny]

In. I'm holding this envelope, but I'm.

[Margot]

Coming in when everyone's there. I explain about the headphones that, according to Barry, have blood on them. I explain about this process that June has been going through trying to clear up some audio on these discs. There are coherent words coming out of the tracks are able to be listened to and made sense of. But I'm very concerned that if I listen to them too closely or too loudly and I kind of just gesture at the headphones as a case in point, that could be blood. This could be bad. I don't know how to proceed at this point. Does anyone have.

[Barry]

Ideas? She might just be hurt. Right? Like it's.

[Margot]

Suspicious. But I feel like something in this might have. I kind of flick my own headphone.

[Kareem]

To.

[Barry]

Right? What, like. Like in the.

[Margot]

Show? Yeah, like in that one.

[Barry]

Episode. Yeah, no, I know the one you mean. It's a. It's a good.

[Elodie]

One. 24 year worm. Yeah, it's.

[Margot]

Great. Uh.

[Johnny]

Huh. Yeah. There was an episode where there was a ghost that like basically reached out of the receiver of a phone into your ear and like squidged your.

[Margot]

Brain. Maybe not that exactly, but.

[Barry]

Yeah. Alphonse goes over and puts the headphones on. Is it still.

[Margot]

Playing? They're covered in.

[Barry]

Blood. Oh, well, that's.

[Johnny]

Unhygienic. They're not covered in blood. There is a little bit of blood on them. Alphonse has put the headphones.

[Kareem]

On. It's a bit.

[Barry]

Yeah. I'll try to warn you as you. As you go over.

[Johnny]

Nasty. And we will find out what Alphonse is next episode. Thank you all very much for joining us for this most second episode of the Listening Club. Magnus Archives Tabletop roleplaying game. We will see you next week. Bye Bye. The Magnus Pro Tour rustycall is a podcast distributed by Rusty Quill and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non commercial share alike 4.0 international license to subscribe View associated materials or join our Patreon visit rustyquill.com Rate and review us online. Tweet us TheRustyQuill Visit us on Facebook or email us via mail. Rustyquill.com. Thanks for.

[Barry]

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[Kareem]

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[Johnny]

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[Margot]

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[Johnny]

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[Elodie]

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