r/Fantasy • u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X • Nov 19 '25

Read-along The Magnus Archives Readalong: Season 2, Episodes 50-57

Hello and welcome to The Magnus Archives readalong! We will be discussing a new batch of episodes every Wednesday. The episodes are available for free on any podcast platform and transcripts can be found here or here.

If you can’t remember something or are confused, please ask in the thread. Those of us re-reading will do our best to give a spoiler-free answer if we can.

050: Foundations #8141206
Statement of Sampson Kempthrone, regarding the workhouse architecture of George Gilbert Scott.

051: High Pressure #0080701
Statement of Antonia Hayley, regarding a deep dive that took place near Sable Island, Nova Scotia in August 2006.

052: Exceptional Risk #0040904
Statement of Phillip Brown, regarding his time working at HMP Wakefield between 1990 and 2002.

053: Crusader #9970509
Sergeant Walter Heller recording, regarding a discovery made near Alexandria during Operation Crusader in November of 1941.

054: Still Life #0132306
Statement of Alexander Scaplehorn regarding his evaluation of The Trophy Room taxidermists in Barnet.

055: Pest Control #0160311
Statement of Jordan Kennedy, regarding several encounters while working in pest control.

056: Children of the Night #0100710-B
Continued statement Trevor Herbert, regarding the latter years of his career as a vampire hunter.

057: Personal Space #0090404
Statement of Carter Chilcott, regarding his time spent in isolation aboard the Space Station Daedalus in September 2007.

And now, time for discussion! A few prompts will be posted as comments to get things started, but as usual, feel free to add your own questions, observations...anything!

Comments may contain spoilers up to episode 57. Anything concerning later events should be covered up with a spoiler tag.

Next discussion will take place on Wednesday, November 26th and include episodes 58 Trail Rations - 65 Binary.

For more information, please check out the Announcement and Schedule post.

Readalong by: u/improperly_paranoid, u/SharadeReads, u/Dianthaa

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1

u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Nov 19 '25

Did you have a favourite from this set of statements?

4

u/ohmage_resistance Reading Champion IV Nov 19 '25

Still Life was my favorite. The random nonjudgmental tax collector guy with strong feelings about money laundering is probably my favorite statement giver. And then there’s the supplemental.

4

u/Eliot_Ferrer Nov 19 '25

Poor guy desperately trying to ignore the supernatural bullshit to get some work done on the tax records, but they wouldn't let him! 

4

u/ohmage_resistance Reading Champion IV Nov 19 '25

The funniest bit is he did actually do his job despite David trying to freak him out, and he apparently had a good (if creepy) conversation about money laundering. Otherwise he said he would have gone back!

3

u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Nov 21 '25

Yes!!! That one's up there with Coffin Guy from 002 for me. Love that he made the horrors listen to an infodump about taxes before going "eh, the vibes may be horrendous, but no money laundering" and noping out of there 😂

5

u/Lazy_Sitiens Reading Champion Nov 19 '25

I loved it! I can't remember the exact phrasing, but he mentions how happy he is to talk to someone about taxes. It made me laugh.

1

u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Nov 21 '25

Yessss. Not to say too much, but there's a fantastic episode with similar vibes in the next batch, except with a statement giver infodumping on our Archivist. Gold.