| “ | Jonathan Sims: Are you the same Sarah Baldwin that disappeared in Edinburgh in August 2006? Sasha Baldwin: Some of her. Skin. A few memories. Not on the inside. |
„ |
| ~ A shell to Jonathan Sims. |
| “ | “Sarah”, “Daniel”… sometimes I think I’m just not built for names. A hundred puppets, a hundred pointless names. | „ |
| ~ Sarah Baldwin. |
The Hundreds of Shells, usually called Sarah Baldwin or Daniel Rawlins, are one of the two secondary antagonists (alongside Breekon and Hope) of season 3 of the Rusty Quill horror podcast The Magnus Archives.
They are creatures of the godlike entity known as the Stranger, made from the skin of the victims of a monster called the Anglerfish, generally appearing in the form of Sarah Baldwin or Daniel Rawlins. The skin would be animated by an entity that could not physically form in reality and had to rely on these "shells" to interact with humans. These shells worked with the Circus of the Other hoping to bring about the Unknowing, a ritual that would twist reality in such that would allow the Stranger and its ilk to enter the world physically. The shells in particular were tasked with taking over the Trophy Hall, a taxidermy shop meant to be the center of the ritual.
As Sarah Baldwin, they were voiced by Alice Adzowa.
Appearance[]
When the skins of the Anglerfish's victims were taken over, they did not look how they had in life, with most of their features changing. The only exception was the hair, which remained the same. They always had glassy black eyes, and when they bled, they bled sawdust and cloves. The creature inside was capable of briefly taking off the skin, although it's unclear what it looked like underneath.
Sarah Baldwin was described as a very short woman with close-cropped dark brown hair. Daniel Rawlins was not described in detail but was apparently somewhat unassuming aside from his eyes. The entity seemed to also have the ability to take over taxidermized animals, who did not change in appearance much after being animated.
Personality[]
| “ | Sarah didn’t talk much. If you asked her any questions, you’d just get a one word answer, and, I swear, she worked hard to find the shortest word she could. She smoked constantly, so we had to ride with the windows down and the van was freezing. | „ |
| ~ Melanie King describing Sarah Baldwin. |
The creature controlling the skin of the Angler Fish's victims was a vicious entity, seemingly holding nothing but contempt for all creatures but other servants of the Stranger. It seemingly disliked humans, and did not enjoy being forced to inhabit their skin to interact with the world, seemingly finding it ridiculous that it had to pretend to be a person with a name and a life, instead of whatever it really was. Unlike some of its allies, it was single-minded about bringing about the Unknowing, caring more about the end goal than it did about enjoying itself, and looking forward to taking its true physical form in the world as soon as possible. That being said, it did seem somewhat sadistic and enjoyed tormenting or at least taunting humans if it could, in addition to being somewhat petty and violently temperamental.
Personality varied slightly from shell to shell. Sarah Baldwin was openly off-putting when she pretended to be human, being antisocial but also somewhat cruel and generally unpleasant. Daniel Rawlins seemed a bit more normal and could be pleasant company when he pretended to be human, although he did give off the impression of having mental illness. For whatever reason, all of the Anglerfish's victims enjoyed smoking, which may have been left over from their previous lives, as the Anglerfish generally targeted smokers.
Biography[]
As Daniel Rawlins[]
This entity seemed to be an old one, living outside of reality for untold millennia. At some point in time, it developed a sort of arrangement with the Anglerfish, and it gave it skins so it could sort of take form in the real world. Upon taking on several shells, it became acquainted the Nikola Orsinov and her troop, who had been working to bring about the Unknowing and twist reality to allow the Stranger in. Hoping to be let in as well, the Hundreds of Shells began to work with her.
As Daniel Rawlins, it took control over the Trophy Hall, a taxidermy shop that was to be the center place of the Unknowing, supplied with merchandise by Breekon and Hope. It prevented anyone from purchasing from the shop besides the circus, and more importantly, protected an ancient gorilla skin: the oldest taxidermy in the world, and the skin Nikola planned to wear during the Unknowing. On one occasion, a man from Inland Revenue came to the shop to investigate for money laundering. Daniel talked to him for several minutes and then scared him away by animating the taxidermy.
Sometime later, Daniel was attacked and killed by Gertrude Robinson, the head archivist of the Magnus Institute and an avatar of the Eye trying to stop the Unknowing. She stole the Gorilla skin and hid it where none of the other shells were able to find it.
As Sarah Baldwin[]
The entity at some point took control of the skin of Sarah Balwin and moved into an apartment in Sydenham. She at some point became associated with Georgie Barker, the host of the What the Ghost podcast. This associated led to her being contacted by Melanie King, the co-host of the YouTube Channel Ghost Hunt UK. Melanie was looking for someone to be her sound engineer, and had heard Sarah was good at that sort of thing. Her and her team were touring the Cambridge Military Hospital, and Sarah agreed to come with them, presumably hoping to kill them all. They passed the day uneventfully looking for ghosts, and when the night fell, they decided to sleep in the ruined hospital. In the middle of the night, Sarah had an encounter with a specter of the Slaughter, who assaulted her for trespassing on land that did not belong to the Stranger. Sarah was apparently hurt somehow but survived.
Shortly thereafter, she was forced to take over the Trophy Hall after the death of Daniel Rawlins. While owning the place, she was attacked by Jonathan Sims, the new head archivist of the Magnus Institute, and Daisy Tonner, a cop working for the Institute. They asked her several question, which Sarah answered vaguely. Daisy ended up shooting her several times, but she escaped.
Sarah worked with Nikola for the next several months and was apparently in favor of killing Jonathan Sims when they briefly kidnapped him. When the Unknowing finally came, all the shells danced the "Corpse du Ballet", a demented dance that helped change reality. The ritual was interrupted by Jonathan Sims and several of his allies from the Institute, whose perception of reality was warped by the Unknowing. Sarah used this to her advantage, and told Jon that she was Tim, one of his friends. By doing this, she got ahold a detonator meant to be used to blow up the Unknowing and stop it. However, due to reality twisting, the real Tim somehow got ahold of the detonator. As Sarah argued with Nikola about how long the ritual should last, Tim confronted them and set of the bombs, destroying the Trophy Hall, ending the Unknowing, and destroying all the dancing shells, forcing the entity that controlled them out of reality forever.
Powers and Abilities[]
| “ | You have hundreds of shells, Sarah! And soon you will have tens of thousands. You can have your little girl within every dark corner of the whole world! | „ |
| ~ Nikola Orsinov to Sarah Baldwin. |
The entity controlling the shells seemed virtually immortal, but completely incapable of interacting with reality without help. The skins it wore were apparently mortal, although they could survive being shot several times, and presumably required some sort of ritual to destroy. It was unclear what needed to be done for it to take control of a skin, but it seemed like they needed to be hollowed out and filled with cloves and sawdust. It seemed that the entity could take control of any skin touched by the Stranger for a brief time.
Its shells seemed to have limited shape-shifting abilities and could change their appearances to look different from how they had in life. Like the rest of the creatures of the Stranger, they were empowered during the Unknowing, and their shapeshifting powers increased. However, because of the shifts in reality, they could accidentally become the people they shifted into.
Quotes[]
| “ | Nothing, except what people give it. But they give it a lot, make it a place of power for us. Enough to keep certain items here. The couriers brought them, and took them, and moved them where they needed to be. | „ |
| ~ Sarah Baldwin explaining the Trophy Hall. |
| “ | This in-between is not as comfortable for all of us as it is for you. | „ |
| ~ Sarah to Nikola during the Unknowing. |
Trivia[]
- Despite her being a victim of the Anglerfish, the skin of Megan Shaw was apparently not used as a shell. It was seemingly instead used as a costume by Nikola Orsinov, as a being identified as Megan Shaw was seen wearing a clown outfit.
External Links[]
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The Dread Powers and Their Servitors The Library of Jurgen Leightner Others The Magnus Protocol | ||
