Some guy: "I've always loved [insert hobby here]! It's my life and passion!" Some supernatural being: "Is it now? It would be a shame if "someone"... made you go through a traumatizing experience involving said hobby and then you'd hate it for the rest of your life :)"

Jon sounds so tired... poor guy. Missing his smug bastard energy already 😔

Out of the corner of your eye you see him: Shia Labeouf

Jon did NOT need to sing hes so extra

The most paranormal thing in this podcast is the fact that nobody's getting charged for murder/trespassing/etc. after the monsters are gone. Jon, dear, are you okay? Do you need a hug from somebody who isn't a worm?

His description of meeting an American irl is spot on. Much louder and excited than you expect and obsessed with accents, especially English ones.

Can we talk about Jon’s voice acting during the statement? He sounds so... soft and cute, idk. “I’ve aLways wAnted to Go hUnting :D” idk I love him.

Wolfmen in America is too far-fetched? Well, Jonathon, just wait till you get an American Werewolf in London

the hiker- "tommorow would be a good day for a run" me- oh no,,,,

I loved that little bit after the statement ended. Seeing how affected Jon actually is, in opposition to his usual cold self, it's the beginning of angst and pain judt like i like it

Okay but did anybody talk about Jon's soft singing voice. I wanna hear him sing more

I told myself I was gonna stop listening for the night on episode 27 and we see where that's gotten me.

As a Virginia native, I was glad to hear that they did their research! “Leave no trace” is a mantra for us mountainous types, Blue Ridge tends to be a preferred hunting region, Richmond is quite a ways away from it.

“Incest, murder and madness” is a sick band name

As an American, the second they said Appalachia I knew they were not going to have a good time

Really feel bad for Arden, and that this old dude lost his new friend while trying to experience a hobby he'd been wanting to try for awhile. :(

Is Jon ok? He went from “this is absurd, they’re lying obviously” to “I’ve asked Sarah to look into it...” He just sounds so tired :(

As soon as he said the common name of the tune I knew that man was going to hunt them for sport.

me listening to this initially somewhat wholesome entry: *:)* statement: _”..on the appalachian trail,”_ me, an american, knowing: *oohhhh no.*

Jon sounds so tired. Everything going on with the flesh hive seems to be taking a toll on him, and likely on the rest of the staff of the Magnus Institute, though we only hear from Jon regularly. But considering that the next episode is called Hive, I'm hoping that Jon and everyone else can get some rest soon. They deserve it.

If the Jon Magnus lived in America: American jon: so anyways I wrastled it

there's almost nothing I find as creepy as something whistling at night. Be it in the woods or anywhere else really.

13:37 , for everyone who wants to hear jon sing .

Jon saying he knows what it feels like to be hunted (presumably because of the whole crimson blood and death omen) makes me sad :(

"And finally decided to take a three day hike into blue ridge on the Appalachian trail" see now that was his first mistake.

How I know this was written by an Englishman. No Appalachian would whistle in the woods. And if you hear someone whistle, laugh, or call your name. No you didn't

ARCHIVIST Statement of Lawrence Mortimer, regarding his hunting trip to Blue Ridge, Viginia. Original statement given December 9th, 2010. Audio recording by Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London. Statement begins. ARCHIVIST (STATEMENT) I always wanted to go hunting. It always seemed such a manly sort of pursuit. I mean, killing the deer or elk or whatever else was always beside the point; it was just the idea of setting off into the wild, surviving out there, cooking and eating what you kill - it all sounded like such an adventure. I mean, I’d thought about trying it in this country, but shooting pheasants with shotguns and riding down foxes all seemed too much the domain of, uh, nitwits in tweed. So, if I was going to go hunting, I would need to go to another country to do it. Somewhere where they had a few animals worth going after. Thinking about it, I suppose that is what happened in the end, in a perverse sort of way. And it did cost poor Arden his life. Well, my desire to go hunting was always something of ‘someday’ project. I’m sure you know what I mean: those ideas you have, holidays you plan to do ‘sometime in the future’, but they’re never time-dependent and usually you just keep putting them off for more pressing things. So when I turned fifty back in February, I thought, ‘dash it all, I’m going to go hunting before I drop dead!’ When I told my friends they all thought I’d gone loopy, but I just reminded them that it isn’t just the young that can be impetuous and daft. Anyway, over the past few years I’d become great friends with an American. Arden Neeli was his name. We’d met on a sceptics message board and got on like a house on fire. When I mentioned I was looking into impetuous hunting trips, he asked how averse I was to hiking. I said not at all, I’ve a been a very active sort, and he told me that in Virginia, his home state, there were a lot of excellent places to go hunting, providing I didn’t mind waiting until October or November. I wasn’t exactly expecting the Grim Reaper to come knocking in the intervening months, so I told him it sounded lovely. We spent a good long while discussing it, and finally decided to take a three day hike into Blue Ridge on the Appalachian Trail, and see if we could find a deer or an elk for me to shoot. Nature, seclusion and guns - to my ears it sounded just perfect. So, early last month I packed my bags and caught a plane over to Virginia. The weather was cold but otherwise pleasant, and to be honest I was surprised how similar it felt to Torquay in November. I normally live in Torquay. I think I put that on your form there. If I did, it won’t hurt you to have it written down twice. I wasn’t, however, fully prepared to meet Arden in person. I’d never met an Internet friend in real life before, and he was far louder and more outgoing than I was prepared for, based on the well thought-out and considerate communications we had previously exchanged. He kept laughing at everything I said as though it was a joke, even when it wasn’t a joke, and would not stop going on about my accent. Still, all was forgiven when he showed me his gun cabinet. They were beautiful, and while I’m a member of a few shooting clubs over here, you’ve always got to keep your rifles under lock and key, hidden away out of sight. To see a dozen, well-cared for weapons displayed proudly, well, it was just lovely. We set out the following day, driving up to Blue Ridge from his home in Richmond. It took some time to get there, as everything is so much further apart in America, but we parked at Crabtree Falls shortly after midday. We had our tents and our supplies. I was very excited to don my hunters orange, and to take up my rifle. I was carrying a Winchester M70, which I had read was very good for beginners, while Arden carried a Remington Model 673, his preferred firearm, which he talked about to me at great length. And off we went up the trail. Our first day was unsuccessful. I was something of a blundering presence, and though Arden was at pains to assure me that our failure was simply due to being too close to a road, I was sure that it was my own crashing footsteps scaring away the creatures. I mean, we hadn’t gone far compared to our proposed route, but we were already several miles from the nearest road. As the day wore on, we began to look for somewhere to set up camp. We were attempting to “Leave No Trace”, as the Americans say, so we were likely going to set our tents up on the trail itself, but as we began to get them out I heard the strangest thing. It sounded like somebody whistling, a slow version of The Farmer in the Dell or, as I believe it’s more commonly known, A-Hunting We Shall Go. I looked over, and by the expression of puzzlement on Arden’s face it was clear he heard it as well. I was just about to call out to whoever was whistling, when a figure wandered very casually through the treeline and onto the trail. He walked out of thick woodland as though he were strolling down a promenade. He was short and lean, with long, shaggy black hair and a slightly unkempt goatee. His clothes were the rugged, durable sort you’d expect to see on a hiker, but he had no jacket or coat. He carried no backpack or kit of any sort. In fact it seemed like he was just wandering through the woods with the clothes on his back. Arden was quicker to pick up on this than I was and asked the man if he needed any help. The hiker stared at him for several long seconds, as though trying to deduce something, then smiled and said, “No”. I didn’t like that smile one bit. Far too many teeth to it, I’d say. He asked us where we were heading, how long we were on the trail for. There was something ever so slightly odd about his intonation, and he dragged the Rs somehow when he spoke. We answered as vaguely as we could without being rude, since neither of us felt comfortable near this man. The hiker shrugged, and started to walk across the trail, between us. As he did so, he paused for a second, and took a deep breath, and it seemed for all the world like he was sniffing us. Then he said something, I forget exactly. “Tomorrow will be a good day for a run,” or something like that. And then he just started whistling again, and wandered off into the forest behind us. I think both myself and Arden wanted to stop him, it was so clear something wasn’t right with the situation, but we were both… astounded with his manner and I don’t think either of us could have thought of how to do so. And then he was gone. I needn’t tell you that sleep came difficult. The sounds of the forest at night were far louder than I had ever heard them back home, and every cracking branch, every rustle of leaves, set my nerves on edge. It was an overcast night, and outside the tent was almost completely dark. Around two o’clock in the morning I could have sworn that I heard someone laugh, slow and softly, outside my tent. It sound like it was right by my head, just the other side of the thin nylon wall. By the time I’d managed to get up the courage to check, of course, there was nobody there. The next day we packed up the camp and set off hunting again, donning our lurid orange vests and rifles. I must admit, I felt ten times better with the weight of the gun in my arms, and was inclined to put the events of the night before behind me. In fact, after a morning spent walking and joking and, on two occasions, damn near bagging an elk, I thought we were both having a splendid time. It was about four in the afternoon, the sun just starting to begin its descent towards an early autumn dusk, when I saw my elk. I don’t know why, but when I saw him through the trees I knew that he was mine. I told Arden and we started to creep towards it very slowly. He had been teaching me since yesterday, and it wasn’t long before I had my position, and raised my gun. I sighted it just below the ear, and there was a moment, when its head turned right towards me. I could have sworn it looked me in the eye as I prepared to pull the trigger. A gunshot rang out, but it was not from my gun. The elk startled and ran, and I spun round, but Arden was nowhere to be seen. The shot still echoed through the trees, but he seemed to have vanished. I began to search frantically for him. Had he… Had he been lured away by an elk of his own? Had he been accidentally shot by some other hunters? I called out his name, but there was no reply.

It's okay Jon, I live in the Appalachian mountains and we just decided to ignore the Mountain Men too.

merlin fans have entered the chat "we're supposed to be hunting, it requires speed, stealth and an agile mind!" "so you're able get by on two out of three then?"

As a person who has seen multiple adaptations of "The Most Dangerous Game" i knew there was going to be hunting people for sport,still scared me to heck tho

"still all was forgiven when he showed me his gun cabinet" beast line ever

Heard about this show through OSP in a random trope talk video, of all places. This was the first episode I ever listened to, and it has since become one of my favorite werewolf stories of all time. It has all the hallmarks of a good one, and it's beautifully written and performed. Love it. 10/10

The laughter outside the tent at at around 9:00 reminds me of a time I went canoeing with a bunch of other girls, and we ended up having to camp on the side of a creepy road. None of us felt safe so all 10 of us crammed into the same 4 person tent, and to this day I am adamant that I heard someone snicker in the woods behind us, as well as feeling someone stroke my head through the side of the tent.

Damn, I'm once again struck by the delightful voice acting

jon i will throw hands with worm lady for you and martin

Whistling in the Appalachian trail is never a good sign 😭 - sincerely, someone that lives in the Appalachians

Wolfman or not, seeing elk (by either european or american definition) would certainly make for an unexplained phenomenon all on its own.

"Have you ever read the duchess of Malfi?" my a level years comparing Rosetti to this random fuckin renaissance play: it was like I was born for this

i think this was the first one that I actually rooted for the paranormal being rather than the victim. It reminded me a lot of Curupira, just.. way more intense. Curupira is a Brazilian folk tale about a mischievous nature spirit that protects the wild life, killing hunters. He's a kid though, and fairly recognizable: red/actively on fire hair, backwards feet and all, but, y'know, who's to say he hasn't grown up?

me getting so excited over jon singing when the mechanisms is RIGHT THERE

Oh I love monsters like this.

On a relisten, Jon saying he's not going to chase wolfmen in America is very amusing to me

Sorry Jonathan, but as a native Virginian, while Elk were reintroduced to the broad Shenandoah area in the mid-2010s, Elk hunting wasn't legal until 2020 x)

I love Jon i love Jon i love him i love him so much i am obsessed with this little man im going to base my entire personality on him i swear to god aaaaaaaaah!

"All was forgiven when he showed me his gun collection" is a line that is so funny to specifically me

I've been watching Hannibal (the tv show) so had an image of Will Graham coming for him. XD

That was one of the most badass gentlemen I’ve ever heard. Emptying a gun into a creature far more powerful than you, then emptying another gun.... fuck me man

I admit, the part where Lawrence shot the thing multiple times, I was cheering. Sometimes in horror, a victim will only hit or shoot a thing once and assume it's dead. Sure it didn't kill it, but he sure as hell bought himself some much needed time, at least.

oh you can just tell this character is a tory

Oh no, Jon needs a hug :^( I hope everything turns out alright for him.

I'm very new to The Magnus Archives, so to those farther ahead than me, you probably won't agree, but...I believe this one was something different than the past ones. The other ones have been marvelous, yes, but this one...it gave me the feeling of being there. Of being stranded alone in the darkness, only able to think of where you're going and if they are still following, and finding yourself stuck in the same, perilous moment you were in before. Perhaps it's simply due to this being sort of "in my home-court" since I'm American, but I believe it's more that it took such an instinctual feeling and put it perfectly into words...it voiced fears most of us haven't felt in a long time. It dragged out the fear of, not the darkness itself, but what lay in the darkness. Anyhoo, I suppose this is all to say that you did an amazing job! You're an enormous role model to someone who enjoys writing and acting, as well as someone who enjoys horror and suspense. I'm sure there's better to come and II look forward to it!

....Virginia Woolf?

13:37 Jon singing for anyone who wants to hear it again

Oh granny, what big teeth you have...

I thought I was going to have a fun time today but noooooo Now I have to shit myself all night long trying not to look at the Blue Ridge mountains right outside my window. Thanks I hate it

Almost heaven, West Virginia! Blue ridge mountain , fucking wearwolf man! Country roads!

This episode was like if the Lorax had had a shot gun: “I speak for the animals mother f🤬ckers!!!!” Not gonna lie, kind of the only “evil” spirit I don’t think was that bad lol

Hearing that this took place in Appalachia was all I needed to know 😂

The shock of hearing "Crabtree Falls" as a native Virginian! I grew up not too far from that area and used to go hiking there with my family all the time. It made this story so much creepier, being able to clearly imagine where this took place. Chilling!

“Apalashean” Jon, you just caused every person in the southeast who listens to this to evaporate

When he said everything was sharp about the Wolf man, was I the only one who imagined his skin to be like, metallic? Nope? Just me then (｡-_-｡' )

"we were likely going to set our tents up on the trail itself, but as we began to get them out I heard the strangest thing." On the Appalachian Trail, no you f**king didn't.

The whistling of "A-hunting we will go" while strolling up to others reminded me so much of the Beast in The Magicians! Anyone else here know that show?

It's the way I immediately went "Don't go there.." the second he stated they planned to hike overnight in the Appalachian Mountains 😭 I know there are a lot of doubters about the mountain range, but there really is such an unsettling feel out there at night. Even during the day if you don't have a travel partner, honestly

this is the literal interpretation of a remix between take me home, country roads and werewolves of london

Well that was unsettling. Especially the end

Kudos to Laurence for not giving up and fighting back

I just wanted to add some admiration for the classic character type utilized here. Spoilers. It’s very much a Victorian epistolary novel kind of thing, where you are introduced to this gentleman who is very very posh and a little silly, and he is seeking to attain a type of bluff masculinity that is at odds with his personality as we see it. “Oh, wouldn’t big game hunting in America be fun! I shall plan my outing carefully...” and then things go awry, and the wolf/bear/cougar/bandit is chasing him, and he’s so tired and this is so terrifying and this poor silly man is in for it, we fear, and then boom, “Oh, yes, well you see I have military training.”

"shaggy black hair" oh, a werewolf? "too many teeth" ...that's probably a werewolf "dragged the R's" oh no yeah werewolf alert. get em boys

This makes me think of a very good short story called The Most Dangerous Game

Elk in the blue ridge? An odd tale on its own... joking aside, love the series

Aww Poor Jon. He sounds so tired, and genuinely scared. I hope he and Martin survive :( Guess I'll find out.

How is no one TALKING ABOUT THE THROAT BEING TORN LIKE THE CIRCUS PUPPET EPISODE

I can’t believe this podcast has been out there and I didn’t find it till now! These stories would make the best tv series! But we would have to have all the voice actors because their voices are just so intoxicating!!! This is amazing!!

As an American, when I heard they were camping out in the Appalachian Mtns...I knew they were done for.

Yo Why does the Hunt avatar guy sound like a whole daddy.

wolfmen in america? no way! wolfmen in london? NOW THATS A STORY I CANT GET BEHIND!!

Lemme just say, as a person who's watched this entire series already, this title is absolutely hilarious

only 6 minutes in and the guy he's describing come out of the tree line looks like Dan from Dan Vs. in my brain now.

Seeing people talking about Jon's voice acting got me thinking. And if this is your first time listening, don't read this comment Considering how the archivavis powers manifest later on the series, I wouldn't be surprised if the early stages of this power was him channeling the person giving a statement, hence him changing his voice per statement, just an interesting thought I had

Told my self to watch 4 a day it's been 2 days and here I am

So class, what did we learn today? Don't go wandering off the trail in the Appalachians. Least of all at night, alone, and/or unarmed

...decided to take a three day hike into Blue Ridge on the Appalachian Trail... Awww, bless his heart.

Anyone else hear that one dude, Dylan, from that pixie Bratz movie who was mind controlled and would sing "a hunting we will go, a hunting we will go. We'll catch a fox and put it in a box and then we'll let it go" Lmaooo

The danger is gettin to John. Poor Magnus Crew.

The whiplash I got at the start of the statement when Jon's voice turned cheery dsfkjfsdhjkf

I felt Jon's pain even at the beginning of that statement wtf. Such good and subtle acting

oooh jon is growing more anxious now, the plot thickens

The most unbelievable thing about this episode is that the outdoors and gun enthusiast from Virginia is named "Arden"

Me when the episode began: Oh hey, I’m from Blueridge! ……*oh fuck, I’m from Blueridge.*

It's so fun to hear a story taking place in my home state. It's like Oh! I've been to Richmond! I've been to blue ridge! Neat :)

Damn I really think that monster was my favourite so far

Loved this man vocabulary , really lovely

Ayy I live in Virginia !!

Jon’s voice!! It sounds so different I love his acting hehe

I quite like this one

rip jon at the end of this one dayum, this is why i shouldnt have put this off for so long this gets better and better

31 episodes already?! How did that happen!

COUNTRY ROADS

literally started learning embroidery today so i could pay attention to this podcast (damn adhd), and i need to know, is there an episode that'll try to ruin that for me?