Long time no see. And that's us done with book 6! Oh gosh, time flies, eh? So what is next is this- From Monday, we'll be running a fantastic guest story, which will update every weekday til Friday 1st April. 4th-8th April, I'll do some Character Q&As, then Widdershins will be back on Tuesday 12th April. If you'd like to submit a question for the Character Q&A, please use my Tumblr Ask Box to do so- no signing up required! Yes, it's a little more than my usual time off, but this is a pretty big story coming up and I'd like to get all of my ducks in a row, as it were. Also, I'm going to be at Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle in April, and since that's my first US con I'm going to need the travel time! Trust me though, I am leaving you in good hands in the interval. Better hands than Henry and Izzy are now in, anyway...
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Cast: Catherine Barber, Edmund Barber, Florence De Montfort, Harriet Barber, Henry Barber, Isabelle Holt, Ms Acedia, Nicola Barber
Comments (43)
ThoughtBubble
14 Nov 2026 – 15 Nov 2026
Harrogate Convention Centre
Manchester Megacon
31 Jul 2027 – 1 Aug 2027
Manchester Central
obligatory profanity
My thoughts exactly.
Hmm... aged wizard vs. aged wizard and aged legendary bounty hunter? Bearing in mind that a moving stagecoach on a country road in the early 19th century is no place to hold a pistol steady, I'd give Acedia a couple of seconds before the shock wears off and she goes down hard.
Vaguely related note: So Acedia's still loyal to Luxuria? Interesting, since we knew at least three of the other five turned their backs on him. Or maybe she just insists on helping reseal him? She is a wizard, after all.
Oh, and early update! Yay!
Knowing her personality, I'm surprised they didn't find Acedia snoring away in the coach ;p
Let's hope she gets too lazy to hold the gun!
They didn't even get off the farm.
This is why Henry never bothered with making plans ahead of time.
oops
OLD PEOPLE FIGHT!
Did they not even consider that if they had been attacked in the city that they weren't necessarily safe at the farm? That was a quickness going south,
jaw drops
.
Thought that might have been going a little too well...
OK, I was not expecting that
We know that Elodie and Tilde have no further loyalty to Luxuria, and I suspect that between Luxuria and the later events at the hotel Gula that the Butler wants to pretend he never heard of the deadly sins. I hadn't really considered the loyalties of Ms. Acedia, Ms .Ira, and Mr. Avarita. Ms. Acedia probably would not have been my first choice of who to be worried about in that group.
Kate, enjoy your time off. You've certainly earned it.
Come to think of it, Ms. Acedia was indeed the closest to Mr. Luxuria among them......he could have chosen to seduce anyone into his arms, but in the end she was the one "with" him. I've been wondering if Lust's association with Sloth has some deeper meaning or metaphor. (They did mention that Sloth was one of the more dangerous ones, I think......)
because lazy people take shortcuts, and cheat.
Well, from what we saw Ms. Acedia is capable of doing some form of magic. Teleporting no less, which I am not sure if we've seen any wizard do anything similar. And let's face it, teleportation is a big deal even if it takes you an hour to cast it.
Both sins involve a lot of sleeping around. Though technically not quite the same kind...
not simply closest, The first time Luxuria introduced his crew, he presented Acedia as his wife, no less, so i guess someone really want her husband back.
wait, wasn't Lust the only one to make it out of the binding in the end? So she didn't really lost her husband and was still working with him all those years i guess
look at all those pillows haha
and i'm guessing the driver is also one of the 6?
It's tough to tell given how far in the distance the driver is in each frame, but I believe the driver is a man and that he's too young to be one of Luxuria's subordinates.
...heh
Yeah, should've taken a peek in the carriage before climbing in . . .
Harriet didn't peek inside her carriage either and saw her sister in it only when the door closed too.
does ANYONE in their family look inside before sitting? do they happen to sit on people before realizing the carriage was full?
So this is where the parents buy it. Yay...
How in the world did they not see her when they were getting in?
Well, it's dark, they're old and they might have seen /someone/ is in the carriage, but someone being in public mode of transportation is not that weird. Carriages work more like trains than taxis, I believe? And they most likely have not seen Acedia for decades and they only saw her in a crowd of people for one day decades ago while being far more preoccupied with Mr Luxuria. Also less expected events are less likely to be noticed immediately because of how brain works. Meeting an enemy from decades ago in a carriage on your son's farm is pretty unexpected. Even if they saw her clearly and remembered her it would take them a while to process this. Pointing a gun at them helps adrenaline rush things up a bit I presume.
All in all, it;s perfectly logical they would not notice her.
Perfectly logical? No. Something like this is supposed to be a surprise to logic. It has to be plausible, but it is intended to stretch logic. Now we can point to some things that make it plausible...
This has been plotted since the new witch arrived in town. That gives the sins time to get a minion driver in place since they want/need the oldsters for the plot. They apparently need/want additional family there since they could have kidnapped the ancients easily long ago.
The carriage was dark simply because there was no night light [that was safe in a moving vehicle. Gas lights were dangerous enough without being shaken.] They didn't see our loafer because there was no way to see. The wizard turned on a small magic light that provided enough light to see the gun, but could not be seen from outside. [Note the curtains completely cover all windows.]
This is all dangerous. Not only were there loads of way of the wizard being discovered, but Barber Senior was quite an adventurer, which means the chance of quick violent decisions. Facing an armed opponent and attacking is rash, but that is standard for an adventurer, and given the quality of pistols of the day, plus the likely low ability of the shooter, Barber might well have risked his chance to stop the plot right away. [A story of the Wild West a generation later involving better weapons and more trained shooters saw 3 six-shooters emptied with a grand total of one wound, caused by a not so innocent bystander who shot one of the main parties in the back.] But our sins may have felt that he would behave "logically", despite his past record.
Being unobservant could be thought of as a minor manifestation of sloth. Perhaps Ms Acedia is using a spell that makes people not notice her - a short duration invisibility spell if you will. It wouldn't work for long - once the Barber's are in the carriage they can't fail to see her - but that's all the time she needs.
From the way the panels are drawn, it looks like Izzy went in first. I'm willing to bet like with Luxuria, she used her love for Henry against her. I can imagine Izzy opening the door and climbing in too late and seeing the scapegoat, who has her gun trained on Henry from inside. She then orders Izzy to pretend like nothing's wrong and Henry climbs in too late as well, but now Acedia has the gun on Izzy. As the Green Mile explained, she's using their love for each other against them.
It's a clever call back to the start of the adventure, when Ms Harriet, Gren and Mr Malik climbed into a coach only to find it was already occupied.
Two things I was hoping to see: (1) Ms Holt leaping into Lord Barber's arms at the sight of something terrifying (it was in the Patreon reward sketches) and (2) our heroes returning the Sailfin to Mr Cunningham in one piece.
Hm... I may have to do something about that...
Here's a game we can play while we're waiting for the next exciting episode of 'Widdershins'. In a recent interview on line, Ms Ashwin said that a lady who will be the main character in a future story after the current plot arc completes has already appeared three times in the background. Can anybody find her?
There was a figure I was wondering about. This is the only example I can find right now: [http://www.widdershinscomic...](http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/december-15th-2015/ "http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/december-15th-2015/") A figure in a hat looking quite...observant, I think.
If Acedia (and anyone else she might be working with) were watching from a distance and saw Henry and Izzy getting into the carriage, could she have teleported in after them?
Or maybe they didn't recognize her at first and didn't realize she had a gun when they were getting in the carriage.
Hmm, I'm going for the latter, Nicola.
The real question is how did she get all those cushions in there?
BWAH?! I mean... BWAH?!
It's a single shot pistol. There are two of them and Henry has a stick - there are two experienced fighters and another wizard within earshot. Henry should go for it - NOW.
Many comments beg the question, /is/ Acedia still loyal to Lust? It's easy to ask in response, 'What else might her motives be?' and that is also a good question.
I bet I'm not the only one with possible answers.
Acedia needs Izzy alive. The stick is the faster weapon at this range. Flick the stick, hit her almost anywhere and her aim will be off for a moment - enough time for two or three more hits while he sets himself up for a controlled blow. Guns are very poor weapons in a brawl - the shock value of the discharge and the smoke are useful to give the firer a chance to get in a couple of blows whilst everyone's ears are ringing. In this case Acedia is not braced to fire and the gun is not pointing at anyone so Henry has the advantage.
But it's a plot pistol and therefore will never need to be fired- it radiates a powerful aura that leaves anyone nearby unable to think clearly. Much like a normal gun.
Wait its this good or bad?
Did sloth even intercept them physically during the flashback?
oh im sure it's just fine. that lady is probably just the pizza delivery lady, and she carries a gun because she's paranoid.
.....and broke into their carraige.
bECAUSE SHE LOVES HER JOB AND WOULD HATE TO SEE THEM WITH COLD PIZZA
I was drawn in perhaps an hour longer than I meant to because of this whole arc!! So good. Looking forward to team Harry getting a proper introduction to team O'Malley