Dungeons and Dragons Eight Week Project - Summary and DMs Comments

To finish off the D&D8W posts I'd like to give a brief idea of what I was aiming for, and, perhaps, what I might do differently next time.

As I mentioned previously, this was the first time this particular group had played face to face. Indeed, although everyone knew some of the group, there were first time introductions for several members.

It was great to finally meet up. Some of the players had never seen each other before, but there was a very friendly atmosphere from the beginning.

The Adventure 

I used the five room dungeon structure for the Crypt and I felt it worked very well. It was my first time consciously following this model, though I suspect I've included many of the elements in the past.

I'm not sure if Zarrel retreating to her crypt quite counted as the Reversal and I think the players were expecting to face a tougher final form. I'd have had her retreat to regenerate, but she never got the chance; the party can deal out a lot of damage now if they work together. 

Also, we were getting close to six o'clock, the nominal finish time, and another big fight would probably have been rushed.

Harrow's desire to face the vampire while her Spectral Guardians was still in effect really drove the pace, which was excellent. In case you're wondering, yes, she did have another third level spell slot, but she's keeping it free for any required Revivify.

Looking back, I missed the chance for some monologue from Zarrel. She's got a back story that she could have referred to, but I'm sure there are hints to it elsewhere. 

This is something I'm guilty of, not giving the opposition enough to say. I tend to get caught up in the tactics. To be fair, the party rushed in, spells blazing, and she wasn't around very long anyway.

Zarrel herself wasn't taken straight from the Monster Manual. That would have been too tough. Instead, I took the Knight stat block, boosted it slightly, and added features from the Vampire stat block that seemed to me to fit the story.

Non Scenery Prep

I prepared 5 x 3 index cards for every player's spells (they all have some spell casting ability now). 

I also made magic item cards, class and race features cards and spell slot cards. I noticed that the spell slot cards weren't used, but everything else was.

All this needs something to hold it, and I found wooden boxes at The Works (a UK chain selling discount books, crafts and other sundries) that nicely hold the various cards, dice and a mini or two. 

Harrow's box with just some of the cards

Harrow shows there's plenty of room

Roland's box with mini and cards 

The Deck of Discord 

The adventure as written is based around the Deck of Many Things. I've no problem with this as background in the original, but I decided early on in the campaign to switch this for something else. 

Partly because the 'find a card and get a minor extra power' is very fourth edition and doesn't transfer smoothly to fifth. Partly because it doesn't seem to quite match up to how I imagine the Deck to work.

There's also the fact that I lent my deck from the original adventure to someone many years ago and never got it back.

So I came up with the Deck of Discord. A very Chaotic artifact. It's purpose is to spread Chaos and change the behaviour of creatures. The powers are much more nebulous than the Deck of Many things, though the party have witnessed at least one instance of a card being used directly against them. 

Roland has been gifted a platinum box by Bahamut, with instructions to shut the cards away. So far they've done this, and resisted any and all temptation to use them.

All this means that I needed a Deck. 

There's plenty of options to buy or print off the internet, but I wanted something all my own.

I'd already sketched out some of the cards, or bone plaques as we are describing them. I'm aiming for a sort of 'Medieval' look in art style, though I admit, its very vague. 

I even found another wooden box, again from The Works, but sadly my existing cards didn't fit in, so that meant redrawing them all again, this time sized to fit and on white Mounting Board so they have the right sort of thickness.  

Sadly I didn't have time to paint the box silver, but I think the thing works as a prop.  Perhaps too well:  The players are keen to keep the plaques locked away, so other than a brief inspection, they never got examined all session!

The Deck of Discord 

Where Now?

The 'Heroes of Nentir Vale' will continue to adventure remotely; their quest to reclaim Gardemore Abbey is progressing nicely,  though there are some factions that they still need to deal with (including a potential one that they are unaware of!).

It would be nice to direct them elsewhere; a couple of characters have backstory hooks that could lead east, and there's plenty to explore there, including another official adventure, though in this case I'd be borrowing background stuff than plot.

I'm certainly hoping for another live session, but not for a while perhaps.  I'd like it to be another important goal, but I'm not sure what that's likely to be yet.

But, Minis?

You've seen the character minis, the skeletons and the zombies (which didn't get used, they were for an earlier version of the Garrison, but the Heroes have already done that area online), now here's Zarrel herself. 

Zarrel Gardrinsdottir

Zarrel again

I wonder if any of that gear is worth anything?

I didn't want to go for the standard Gothic lady vampire mini, this girl's a fighter, and should look like one. In fact I avoided undead minis altogether and used the Reaper Figure Finder for something elven looking.

Shardis, Female Elf Rogue (SKU 77741) was exactly what I wanted, and I already had the mini from one of the Reaper Bones Kickstarters in one of my boxes of unpainted minis.

I deliberately gave her very pale skin, VGC Elfic Flesh, and her clothing is based on VGC Jade Green, with dark green for the undertunic and yellow leggings.

So that's my random thoughts about a great fun gaming experience and the prep I did.

I'm busy getting the next online session ready, always working on the next one. I'm also getting something painted for my Old School orcs, which after working to a deadline for this is kind of relaxing.

Dungeons And Dragons Eight Week Project- The Undead of Gardmore Abbey 2

With the bony contingent finished I got on with the more fleshy vitally challenged. 

These are mostly zombies, and already the online play means I won't need one particular group of them (Chillborn, if you're interested).

Still, I may well need others, and looking forward, encounters with zombies in crypts are always fun (?!).

Collecting Zombies

I painted up ten Reaper Bones zombies way back in 2016, they were the first minis where I experimented with clear basing. Sorting through the loft of shame I could only find 8 of them, but I've a another set of the models unpainted.  So here they are.

  

So that's an extra five, and I think it's all my unpainted Reaper zombies finished.  I'm adding a few other makes of zombie to bulk out the collection and add variety. 

The Dread Warrior is a WotC prepainted mini, and was already finished but for a coat of matt varnish and clear basing.  There's a WotC prepainted Strahd Zombie from the Ravenloft setting, and one of the second lot of  WotC zombies (the first one is pretty poor).

Although prepaints, the Strahd zombie and the vanilla zombie were repainted more or less from scratch. 

Finally, a mini from the Magic the Gathering minis game, simply because it was already part painted, and, with the armour and axe, fitted the ex military background I want for some of the zombies in the Abbey.

Painting the Zombies

All of these, even the pre painted minis (except the Dread Warrior) and the part done MtG one, were given a wash of Army Painter Dark Tone followed by a white dry brush.

Then assorted Vallejo Express Paints for the bulk of the painting. I wanted the same sort of look as the more recent zombie models I painted, which means a second wash, so I avoided Speedpaints.

As a nod to my long ago zombies, I did some flesh in Space Grey, which I think gives a nice 'spooky' effect.

But how well do the newly painted zombies compare?  Well here's a comparison shot of the old and new Reaper bones Zombies.  I deliberately went for different skin tones, and I've used a wider range of colours for the clothing, but I think they look OK together.  The main difference is the more gloss finish on the early zombies, I may give them  a coat of Matt varnish at some point.

Or not.

A Shamble of Zombies

Is that the collective noun?  It should be.

So here's my D&D collection of zombies; various makes and two lots of painting, but I think they'll do.

But

You might be thinking "but Mister C,  what about all those Reaper zombies you painted earlier?" 

I've still got them, currently languishing in a box set aside for Frostgrave/Rangers of Shadow Deep.  They aren't exclusive to those games, but I wanted an excuse to finish off this group and sort through my undead collection. 

They also have a different aesthetic. Those RoSD ones are, or were, definitely civilians, and they look recently raised. Most of this batch look older. The clothing is more ragged and the flesh more sunken. OK, I'm self justifying here, but it's an excuse to organise my collection a little more, and I can always combine them into one huge horde.

I do think that the Reaper zombies I just painted would look perfectly at home in modern games.  The clothing can easily be interpreted as modern dress.

I also found that I had few 'martial zombies', unlike the skeletons I did recently, zombies seem to rely on fists (and teeth) rather than weapons.

Dungeons and Dragons Eight Week Project - The Undead of Gardmore Abbey 1

Madness At Gardmore Abbey features a lot of undead, both in the original adventure and my remix.

What Do I Need?

The heroes have already met quite a lot of undead creatures, but there are plenty more to come. 

They've realised that there are two main groups; recent undead raised by the necromancer Vadin, and creatures dating back to the fall of the Abbey, presumably created by the intense magical effects released. 

In terms of minis, general skeletons and zombies will always be useful, as will ethereal types that can work as spectres, wraiths or even ghosts.

All of these are available in Reaper Bones and I might have something in my WotC prepainted minis collection (Burning Skeletons and Chillborn, for example).

I'll look through stuff I've already got painted or part painted, and see what I can use, but, inevitably, I'll need to add to the collection.  Fortunately, I've a lot of prepainted WotC minis, and a lot of unpainted Reaper bones.

First Up, Skeletons 

Out of this lot I've managed to paint up or complete, including basing, seventeen skeletal undead creatures.  One of these, the Undead Elf, required no work as I completed them as one of my Palette Cleansers back in 2021.

All 17 skeletons, including an elf from a long time ago

I'd already got a few completed skeletons back in 2015, they do need rebasing though, and I need more than them.  To accompany them I found some part painted skeletons still on their broccoli bases, and a number of unpainted ones.

I started with the unpainted minis (the tiefling is a WotC prepaint, but it needed a lot of work, so it's effectively starting from scratch), prepping them with a bit of mold line removal, base removal and pinning, then a good wash in hot soapy water (they are the original white bonesium, and it needs to be cleaned to take paint properly). Then they were given a wash of Army Painter Dark Tone. As I mentioned regarding the Heroes, this really helps bring out the details. Next, a white dry brush and then on to colours.

I used my Army Painter Speedpaints, which do have the potential to reactivate, so it's one coat only here, which should encourage me to get these done quickly and not over complicate the painting. 

APS Pallid Bone for the bones and then yellow and green for the cloth and shields. These were mixes based on Zealot Yellow and Orc Skin to match the finished skeletons, with various other shades added to give variety and make them look grungier.

The first batch after Speedpainting 

When everything was dry, they were given a light coat of Colour Matt Varnish to seal the Speedpaints, then a dry brush of VGC Off White on the bones.

I experimented with some Vallejo Effects paints, Dry Rust and Rust. I'm pleased with the results, an improvement on my usual Dark Flesh and Fiery Orange.

I also drybrushed VGC Desert Sand around the feet, cloaks etc to give a dirty, dusty look, but this didn't come out very well.  However, it did highlight the wood texture on spear shafts, so I used this an all the wood.  Remember, "we don't make mistakes, we have happy accidents".

I treated the dwarf and the halfling as individuals rather than matching the rest of the skeletons. I've more of these minis (Reaper Bones SKU 77561 and 77562) so at some point I might do some converting to give me even more dead adventurers.  It was nice to reunite them with their elven chum.

I'm particularly pleased with the WotC undead tiefling. The original mini is mostly just dark metal armour and bone. I wanted to add a bit more colour, and looking carefully, I decided that they must be wearing some sort of tabard; it's not all just armour. I used Army Painter Speedpaint Red for this, and blue for the wide belt. After a quick varnish to seal the Speedpaints I lightly went over the details in VGC yellow; the idea was to make it look like embroidery that had faded and worn away in places. 

The first batch

Unarmoured mooks

Armoured warriors

The adventurers

Old Bones

I took the opportunity to update some older painted and part painted minis. In most cases this means rebasing on clear rounds, with possibly a bit of detail and/or shading adding.  These are the 2015 skellies, to which I added a batch that I must have started and abandoned.  

Once the bases were sorted I gave the bone a coat of APS Pallid Bone.  Some of them needed a little more to make them match the first batch, but essentially it was just a case of varnish then drybrush of VGC Off White.

The armoured skeleton is Reaper Bones Barrow Warden 3 (SKU 77348),  I part painted it years ago in rather uninspiring steel with brown boots and bronze trim on the pauldrons. Even the shield was steel.  It was too monotone and dull, so I used APS Gravelord Grey to shade the armour some more,  especially the mail coif, APS Grim Black on those bat wing shoulders and I painted up the skull shield using VGC Bonewhite,  Off White and Dead White. 

Once finished,  I daubed some of the VSX rusts on the armour, and now I'm really pleased with the results. A fitting leader for the skeletons.

So now I've got sufficient skeletons, not just for the game, but for future in person D&D games.  I've also got roughly the same in unpainted and part painted skeletons, this time with a red and yellow livery, not to mention various scythe wielding skeletons, skeletal monsters and even dragons, so plenty more to expand the collection if I want. 

I'm not tackling any of these now, but I do potentially need some more fleshy undead. That might be next, or possibly some scenery. 

Dungeons And Dragons 8 Week Project - The Heroes of Nentir Vale

As I mentioned in the introduction, I'm putting together minis for a face to face D&D session in August. 

Player Characters are the most important requirements, so a big welcome, please, to....

Two thirds of the Heroes of Nentir Vale

The Heroes of Nentir Vale

The party consists of Roland, a half elven paladin of Bahamut; Tharnak, a dwarven paladin of Kord; Harrow, a tiefling cleric of the Raven Queen; Namfoodle Timbers, a gnome bard; Kei, a dragonborn wizard; and Tarryn, an elven rogue

Of these, Kei's player has chosen a Dragonborn Elementalist, an old WotC pre-painted mini.  He's going to repaint it to bring it more into line with his vision. Tarryn's player has an idea of what she wants and is looking at various options, probably from the Reaper Miniatures range, and again, want's to paint her mini herself.

So that's four player characters to paint and, in some cases, convert.

Kei plus the base models for Harrow, Tharnak and Roland.  

Below is the necromancer about to donate her scythe (and left arm) to Harrow

Roland 

I had several options for Roland, mostly needing weapon swaps to show his magic glaive. The player has chosen Reaper's Erick, Paladin Initiate (SKU 77197). It was pretty simple to swap his sword for a polearm taken from the ever useful Frostgrave Soldiers sprue. I know it's not actually a glaive, but it's close enough and it looks nicely ornate.

Painting wise I gave him a wash of Army Painter Dark Tone to act as primer and to help the detail stand out more*.

Armour and other metalwork was Chainmail, washed in more Dark Tone, then highlighted up.

The player requested royal blue for the tunic. I tried a lighter blue for the undershirt, but this didn't look right, so I went with white highlighted up from wolf grey. 

The shield is something he must have picked up in Gardmore Abbey (he doesn't normal use a shield, but the mini has one slung).  The device is supposed to represent the claw marks left by Bahamut, and ties in to my adaptation of the original module.

I'm really pleased with how Roland has turned out.  The fairly passive pose is unusual for an adventurer, but I imagine him resting for a moment, contemplating Bahamut's glory.

Tharnak

Tharnak was a bit harder to source than I thought; the bulk of my dwarf miniatures use axe or hammer, not sword. But I found this Reaper dwarf, Durgam Deepmug (SKU 77400), and removed the axe in his left hand, ready for a shield (added after the bulk of the painting was finished).

As with Roland, I gave Tharnak  a Dark Tone wash. This has the same effect as Reaper's liners, but I've misplaced my Reaper paints.

Metalwork was painted in the same way, and at the same time, as Roland. His player wanted dark red for the tunic and reddish brown and yellow for the pants and the fabric portion of the gloves. Other gear was painted in appropriate brown shades. The brief was good quality, but worn. He's still using the stuff he left his clan forge with.

As with Roland I'm pleased with the result, with the exception of the shield.  The detail of the symbol is good (for me), but far too small.  It's something to revisit if time allows.

Harrow 

Harrow was also difficult, mostly because a lot of the female tiefling miniatures are, shall we say, underdressed. I did find a Reaper Hellborn Paladin (SKU 30185) but she's equipped with sword and shield.  However, my son found a necromancer mini with a great scythe.

It seemed sensible to use the elf's left arm to replace the paladin's left arm and shield. The right hand, without sword, could then hold a holy symbol.

Harrow's player has a portrait, which gives me the colours for skin, hair and horns. She's trying to avoid the goth stereotype of the Raven Queen, and would be happy if strangers just thought she was some sort of itinerant farm worker. So muted colours, a mix of metal and leather armour and nothing too showy.

Again, another fun mini to paint, I'm particularly pleased with the skin tones.  But I was running out of ideas for colours for clothing and equipment.  The mini is rather more armoured than the character (better than some of the cheesecake alternatives) and the player specifically wants her to look as ordinary as possible; difficult with some of the fancy armour pieces. 

I've only just noticed that I completely forgot to paint her arm bands.

Namfoodle Timbers

I was anticipating difficulty finding a mini for Timbers, gnome bards with acceptable instruments are rare.  In the end, the Wizkidz Pathfinder Deep Cuts Gnome Male Bard (73205) pack has acceptable options. I hadn't appreciated how petite the mini would be until it arrived, so I had to scrap my plans to give him a more appropriate instrument.

In fact I sometimes find it difficult on a mini this small to pick out fine details. It might be me, but these WizKids minis are particularly prone to this, especially the supposedly ready primed ones. I can paint equivalent sized 15 mm minis perfectly well, but I struggled here. Thinking back, it was the same with Torin.

The player asked for burgundy tunic and dark green trousers. 

The burgundy was a base coat of VGC Dark Flesh, highlighted with VGC Gory Red and Blood Red. The trousers were VGC. I thought his boots and pauldron would look better in grey than brown.

I could complain about his lyre, but it's actually a reasonable representation. The solid plastic for the strings is annoying, but I don't suppose there's any other way of modelling strings at this scale.

This was the least enjoyable mini, probably due to the difficulty of actually working out what I was painting.  It might be the sculpt, or my painting, but I think he looks very worried.

So a set of character minis, and the most important minis for the game.

Some of the players have never experienced face to face D&D, so using minis will be a new experience for them.

Converting and painting these minis reminded me of the ones I did back in 2019.

Moving On, What's Next?

With the PCs done it's time for some opposition. There's one encounter the players have been building (and levelling) up to and I think there's a good chance it might be on the agenda for the session. 

*I was surprised just how much detail is on the mini.  The first Reaper Bones minis were criticised for lack of detail, but I think it's often just harder to see in the white plastic

Painting Reaper Bones Tomb Rats 07031 and Townsfolk

I don't really need any new rats. I have a good number of the old Bones rats painted and based, more than enough for the first mission,  but the newer Tomb Rats are much more impressive, and given that we've lost Companions to them both times we've played*, they just look the part. 

I've got villagers as well (painted as one of my 'Palette Cleansers' back in 2021) but I'd like more of the Townsfolk painted up to match the old chap from last December. 

Slapchop seems an ideal way of getting these minis done quickly.

Tomb Rats

Painting the rats was straightforward.  As with the Zombies,  I gave them a wash of Army Painter Darktone thinned with Vallejo Thinner,  then a drybrush of white. 

I used mostly Army Painter Speedpaints as there wasn't much complicated in the colour scheme,  though I did use Vallejo Xpress Color Fairy Skin for the tail and noses, as its a bit pinker. 

Fur was a mix of Army Painter Speedpaint Sand Golem and Hardened Leather to give some variety,  and a line of APS Dark Wood along the spine.  Reactivation helps blend this in.

I also painted an albino rat, but it needs some work to base properly, so I'll not include it here.

All the rats were given VGC Off White teeth and black eyes.

Four Tomb Rats

I said the painting was straightforward; the preparation wasn't.  I'm sure my readers know that I prefer my roleplaying and skirmish minis on clear bases.  With the exception of my Lord of the Rings collection,  and more recently, my Oldhammer stuff, I've been clear basing since 2016. Some minis are easier than others, but these rats were a real pain to remove from the integral bases. 

Townsfolk

The Townsfolk were also pretty easy, though again, removing the bases, especially for both the women in their base hugging skirts took some effort with a Stanley knife.

Colour choice was the only thing I struggled with. 

Three more townsfolk

Stylistically, these Townsfolk look a bit later than the zombies or the old chap. Indeed, they'd not look out of place in the sixteen hundreds.

I deliberately tried to match the colours of the lady zombie in the green dress for the younger of the two women. It's not exact, but hopefully it links them.

Young woman and zombie 'twin'

Otherwise, I mostly used various combinations of Speedpaints, though once again the VXP Fairy Skin was used on the younger woman.

So that's everything I mentioned in my planning post painted. Enough minis for the first mission, and my entry for Dave Stone's Paint What You Got Challenge. 

But I've been working on some scenery and if I can get that finished in time, I'll add it to my entry. 

#EDIT# 

Further to Bodvoc's comment below,  the newer Reaper Bones minis are made of a much harder material. The original Bonseum was softer and more flexible.  Bonseum Black (actually a mid grey) is much tougher. It's harder to cut, and doesn't bend as easily,  great for detail and reducing 'floppy weapon syndrome'.

It does make it a beast to remove large amounts though, and like the original (and Restic) leaves a very rough surface if sanded or filed. 

Puddle bases are much easier to remove,  if nothing else,  they can be sanded down. 

*Something that shouldn't have happened.  I missed the bit that said that monsters don't score Critical Hits.  So it's not possible for a Giant Rat to take out a Man at Arms in one bite.  It looked good on the table top though

Reaper Bones Zombies 07055; More Slapchop

With the success of the old chap from the Townsfolk set using the Slapchop method, I tried a few variations on some zombies included in the latest Reaper Bones Kickstarter. These are lovely zombies, as with the villagers, they are dressed in a suitably 'historic' fashion. These are dead peasants brought back rather than warriors or adventurers. They'll be ideal for Rangers of Shadow Deep, and many other RPGs and skirmish games. Although these minis arrived in the Bones 6 Kickstarter they were the bonus pack, I believe they were originally in the previous Kickstarter.

The four different zombie sculpts

Painting the Zombies

As with the old man, I gave the minis a shade wash using a 1:1 mix of Army Painter Darktone wash and Vallejo Thinner, followed by a white drybrush.

This time I used my small (but slowly growing) collection of Vallejo Xpress paints. I've no problem with the Army Painter Speedpaints; I've got used to them, I'm learning some nice mixes and the reactivation can be used to blend. But they don't allow me to use different layers of paints and washes. I also felt that my first go with Vallejo Xpress paints was less than satisfactory, and I was sure I could do better.

I've recently seen a couple of YouTube videos for zombie flesh that I thought I could adapt. Essentially a thinned flesh wash followed by a green/grey wash. This seems to be becoming popular in the hobby-sphere, but I remember doing a cruder version of this back in the 1980s using Bronzed Flesh and thinned Goblin Green.  Nowhere near as well, I should add.

Test Zombie 

For the flesh I used a 1:1 VXP Dwarf Flesh:Xpress Medium mix, followed by a 1:1 VXP Plague Green: Xpress Medium mix. 

I like the result, although it's darker than my usual zombie flesh colour of VGC Dead Flesh followed by a Strongtone or similar wash. I checked with my local friendly zombiemeister, T'Other One, and he assures me that zombies have quite varied skin tones. 

Test zombie skin tones

Clothing was simply a case of choosing suitable fairly desaturated colours, though I'm slightly hampered by my limited stock of Xpress paints.

 

Three More Zombies 

I liked the test results, but for the rest I decided to slightly vary the skin tones. Nothing drastic, but I think the variety works for the subject matter.

They all got a drybrush of Vallejo Game Colour Earth around the feet and lower legs and lower sleeves to dirty them up.

Four More Zombies 

I enjoyed painting them so much that I painted another four to bring the number up to eight, as per my planning.

The second batch were pretty much the same, but I tried to make them look a bit different. This was mostly through different colours for the clothing, but also different washes on top of the flesh colour. Some of the clothing looks a little garish to me,  especially as I'm trying to make them look naturalistic (for zombies), but some of it is fine.  I'm particularly pleased with the lady in the light green dress (VXP Orc Skin) with yellow trim. 

There are a couple of things I'm not completely happy with.  Mould lines and hair.

Slapchop really emphasises mould lines, and although I thought I'd done a pretty good job of cleaning these up, there are quite a few obvious lines.  More care and attention required next time.

None of the zombies have particularly convincing hair colours.  I'm not sure if this is down to my limited range of colours or a result of using the Xpress paints.  I can easily go over these again with more conventional paints.

Vallejo Xpress Paints

At the start I mentioned that I wanted to give the Vallejo Xpress Paints another try. What did I think this time?

Well, I'm impressed. I've seen YouTube videos about them, particularly from Juan Hidalgo (who helped design the latest batch) claiming that they are particularly good for Slapchop. 

I agree. There's a better gradation between the highlights and the shadows than I get with Speedpaints, though it's not such a difference that I'll stop using the Army Painter stuff. Indeed, I used some Speedpaints on the second batch of zombies as I was running out of colours for clothing and I wanted to make them as individual as possible.

My collection of Xpress paints is small (but growing) and the first release lacked some important shades. I particularly miss anything similar to Pallid Bone, which I use frequently to dull down and lighten other colours. The second batch does include some of these sorts of colours and I intend to get some,  but my local shop selling Vallejo (Boyes, a good old fashioned department store) hasn't expanded their stock yet.

A Note on Costume 

The different coloured collars might seem odd, but my musical friends who play in costume assure me that this was quite common. In fact, in most illustrations, what can be seen as a collar is actually a separate hood, the actual hood bit being frequently worn off the head, just hanging down over the back.  Medieval illustrators didn't always show the hood, leading to speculation if it was there or not, but my friends assure me that it is much more practical to have a hood rather than just a wide collar.