Some background on our halloween costumes, Esme Weatherwax and Mustrum Ridcully

BLOT: (02 Nov 2013 - 11:49:49 AM)

Some background on our halloween costumes, Esme Weatherwax and Mustrum Ridcully

Not too terribly long ago, I read Terry Pratchett's Lords and Ladies, a Discworld novel that has a number of plot elements, but namely the Witches and the Wizards coming together [comically] as the Fay/Elves start to re-enter reality with horrible implications as to what this means. The story was the genesis of my Victorian era GURPS horror game, with Sarah's character, Esme, even sharing a name with Granny Weatherwax. It is also, with the hint of sparks between Weatherwax and Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully, what made me say, "Hey, let's go as those two for Halloween!". I mean, she's a witch and I'm a fat guy with a beard; what else do you need?

Well, turns out you need a pair of costumes. For Ridcully, the base costume is simply a waist-coat and coat with slacks. I went for a non-plain shirt to try and reflect Ridcully's slightly blue-collar sensibilities. And a pair of thicker shoes to kind of hint towards what you might wear to go off in the woods. I skipped the staff and crossbow for now. Still, I needed a robe. Sarah stepped up to the rescue on this one.

She started with Simplicity's 1582: hooded cape costume in different lengths (by Andrea Schewe). For the material, she used a nice red crushed panne velour. She sized the costume up to help it fit over the four layers on under it, and she did an amazing job. The hat was made tall and thin so that it could curve over. We picked up a black vest to go with the outfit, though I would have probably preferred something a little more gray or brown (we waited too long and had to go with what we could get). The final outfit looked like this (pictured with a coworker, Paul M., dressed as Zatoichi):

You'll notice my beard is not whitened, there. We had thought about it, but decided against it. Much like the crossbow/staff question, it added a few degrees of complication for long-term costume wearing [I was going to be wearing it to work, etc]. As it is, the five layers doubled as a portable sweat lodge, especially considering how relatively hot late October has been in Alabama. I had to shed the robe and coat before the evening was over.

With Sarah, we ran into a slight problem: since Granny's costume is a little less specific, it is harder to really make it stick out as definitely Granny. She mostly needed to wear black, get a hat with pins in it, and then wear a cape. Sarah got a turtleneck sweater, a black pencil skirt, and a hat that was just frilly enough to stick pins in. She picked up a broom to match Granny's oft maligned flying instrument. We did not get a cape, though. We'll need one of those for future variations on the costume. We also did not age Sarah, so I guess that means we're both younger versions of the characters.

We don't have any individual pictures of her, but here is the two of us together, a little more "in character". Click on it to see a fuller version over on Picasaweb.

And there you have it. Since it went so well, I think we'll keep up the tradition. Next year I'm thinking we should do the King in Yellow (her) and Cthulhu (me). Or something. We'll have to see. I'll try for costumes that don't force her to sew for so many hours, though. I've been thinking about how to accomplish a proper Cthulhu mask, and I'm thinking some sort of molded clay multimedia piece to give it a weird otherworldly appearance. Also, we'll fix these Discworld costumes up a little more and then probably work on using them at later dates.

As for Halloween night, itself, it was ok. We only had maybe 10 trick-or-treaters show up, in two different groups, but there were a few homemade costumes so that's always cool. Becca and Paul (not the Paul previously pictured) and Andrew came over and we played a longish and, at the very last minute, ultimately doomed game of Elder Sign. We had beaten Azathoth against the ropes but then an adventure that cursed us every midnight ended us. I drank just about the only pumpkin beer and I am to drink all year, and it was the higher abv Fat Jack, which I liked. Then, passed out too late for having to get up so early, and suffered through the next day.

Me in 2013

OTHER BLOTS THIS MONTH: November 2013