#styx: shards of darkness

[snarksandsarcasm]

Felt like drawing Styx, after what are probably years of abstinence. I drew him from memory entirely, so forgive me mistakes in colours, missing scars, gear and clothes... 😅 And yeah, he's got 5 fingers, of course.

[dndspellgifs]

Fog Cloud

1st level conjuration

Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard

[diversegaminglists]

Currently free on gog.

[pinkpoodlewoof]

Some Helledryn pictures (there were over 40) by One Three Photography

Costume by Aria's Done Designs

[unpleasant-ghoul]

So. About Shards of Darkness again. Just one chest left! One! But there's two or three guards in the room with it. And I have one dart.

And I'm shittiest shit to ever shit when it comes to stealth. Not sure how I'll get it, so for now I'm taking a break.

And here's some more screenshots (mostly of post-death cutscenes)!

"What's your excuse" he asks. Styx, dear, my excuse is that I am, in fact, stupid. Dumbest of assess. Stealthy as a bucket of rocks rolling down a marble staircase and about as smart, too. But I'm the one playing this game so stupid deaths is what you get.

[mysteamgrids]

Styx: Shards of Darkness

[mtibbs89]

I might have learned something about myself but idk.

[tench]

Wait, that's it? That's where you decided to end this game????

I'm so puzzeled by their narrative choices.

Anyway, I finished the goblin series and I think, that I'd rate them as such:

1 - Of Orcs and Men is my favorite storywize (it has characters that have arcs! And fashion!) . Also found family (I'll die on this hill). Again, problem with abrupt ending (and so many gay jokes..), but other than that pretty straightforward road trip with unlikely allies to friends to "you know what you are". And horrendous fighting. But still very unique and very atmospheric setting.

2 - Styx: Master of Shadows. Honestly? I liked it! Very pretty game, very atmospheric. I love the character study of Styx in it. I was absolutely lost all the way from very beginning to the very end. I have questions to the way they tell the first half of the story (and the rest too tbh), but maybe it's a design choice, so you'd feel as confused as the main character. Would be improved significantly if the npcs were more than plot devices. But still, good game.

3 - Styx: Shards of Darkness. I would put it lower if it was an option. If you come into it not as a fan of the series (not where I expected to find myself in the beginning of 2024 but here I am) it was a solid stealth game. I feel like they lost pretty much most of the unique atmosphere, but maybe it's because they decided to sacrifice the whole character of the protagonist to some very low quality 4th wall breaking jokes. And I do like that Styx as a character can't shut up to save his life and very bad at humor, but leave it at least canon-adjacent. You can't put a player into one of the two boss fights in the whole game and put a lotr one-liner as the line of dialogue! Have some respect for yourself? For your story?? Also your players, what the hell were these death cutscenes? Still the story feels like a very rough draft. But! We finally have other characters! Two of them! Unfortunately their motivation is not very clear especially in the story that is all over the place, that doesn't know how properly end. Speaking of it, I am very confused by this storytelling move when they clearly set up the villain, but at the last second we fight some henchmen and the story ends. It was in several games of different studios and I can't say that it's a setup for a sequel because the main characters just don't acknowledge this in any way? It's odd. What can I say.

Anyway, Happy New Year, I was planning on staying late playing the game but I guess I'll go to bed early!

[kaminari-taimei]

Styx detained

[lmaverick123]

Top 15 Games that Need a Remake (2023 Edition)

I saw that GameBolt made a video about this topic, but I found it kind of dull to watch.  It had ALL of the usual suspects on there from videos that other channels have made.  I made a list like this about 8 years ago, and I thought to myself – why not actually look at this topic again?  Find games that aren’t just a few years old to ask if we could get a sequel to them.  Especially since some of…

[spiffygreen]

[pinkpoodlewoof]

Helledryn in a truck

[nemospecific]

I didn't realize episode 6 of Willow fully turned into a level out of Styx.

[unpleasant-ghoul]

Done with stealing guards' pay! One dart was enough. Shot the dude through the window, went around, killed the sleeping one, the one with a hammer, and the one right by the casket. Only the one near the casket was even suspecting anything. Guess I'm getting good at (lowest difficulty) goblining.

Finished the quest, started the next, judging by Styx's comments I chose the right path. Now taking a break, and here's more screenshots!

Styyyx, you green rat! Did you HAVE to blink when I was making a screenshot?

[chronosdawn]

A little drabble based on the Hades!Wriothesley x Persephone!Reader idea I mentioned.

GN!Reader, warnings for discussions of kidnapping and imprisonment (but I feel like that comes with the territory with this AU ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯) and mild descriptions of gore.

Word count: 1.5k

The lord of the underworld stood before you in all his imposing might, the heavy sole of his boot tapping slowly against the stone floor as he cast his gaze over you. It couldn't have made for a terribly pretty sight. You sat sour-faced, trying to ignore the way the cold metal of your chair was seeping through your thin robes. The soft peach fabric—the only bright colour in this cursed place save for the sliver of red on your captor's clothes—now marred with sprays of dark ichor from your ill planned venture.

"I thought I told you to stay away from the lower levels?" Wriothesley said finally, his eyes narrowed—twin shards of ice freezing you in place.

You refused to meet his eyes. "I don't see why I should have to listen to someone who kidnapped me."

He let out a heavy sigh, like you'd already had this argument a hundred times and he was tired of it—probably because you had and he was. "Well, you'd better start to learn. This isn't the sunny fields you're used to; this is the underworld, it's dangerous. I might have brought you here but I have no intention of hurting you, although that relies on you sticking to the rules. You're lucky I had Cerberus keeping watch down there."

You flinched at the mention of the three-headed beast that had jumped out of the shadows the moment the first of the wraiths had reached you. For a few brief seconds you'd wondered if that was the end, whether Wriothesley would come looking for you only to find your blood running down the dark stone steps and into the Styx, but then the beast had leapt over you and the bone white hand was ripped away, it's claw-like nails a hair’s breadth from grazing your leg.

It had been complete carnage after that, skeletal limbs with sagging skin ripped from emaciated torsos one after the other as more wraiths clawed their way towards you, scrabbling over each other to reach the sole living thing in the room. It was only when they'd sensed Wriothesley's impended arrival—trails of frost creeping along the floor as he approached—that they'd finally stopped coming out of the water, the few with limbs still attached dragging themselves back down the steps.

"Maybe if you'd actually told me what was down there, I might have taken the warning a bit more seriously."

"Oh? So, if I gave you a description of everything gruesome thing the underworld has to offer, then you might be more inclined to listen to me? That's a long list, sweetheart."

You scowled at him, folding one leg over the other as you crossed your arms in front of your chest. "You don't have to be a dick about it."

"Because playing nice with you has worked so well thus far?" His lips started to twist into a sardonic smile but froze as his gaze narrowed in on where your robe had shifted with your movement, revealing a couple of extra inches of skin. Before you could think to move away, he was kneeling on the floor in front of you, his large hand curled around your calf as he scrutinised the exposed part of your leg.

"Hey, what are you doing?" You tried to bat his hand away but his arm might as well have been made of marble for all the good it did.

"Were you going to mention you got injured, or had you not even noticed?" Wriothesley's tone was oddly flat as he spoke, his eyes narrowed accusingly.

"What?" You leaned forward to see what he was talking about and caught sight of set of scratches running across your skin, the blood seeping from the wound shimmering in the light of the wall sconces. “When did—ow!” Reaching down to probe at the injury, you couldn’t help but wince as your finger grazed the edge of the torn flesh, pain flaring up your leg.

Wriothesley let out a deep breath and you suddenly became aware of how your current position had brought you far closer to the ruler of the underworld than you usually allowed, how from this distance you could pick out the individual strands of grey in his hair, the light scruff on his chin.

“It doesn’t look like it’s too deep at least. You got lucky, a serious wound from a wraith will scar even a god.” He kept his gaze on your injury, a faintly faraway look on his face and, not for the first time, you found yourself thinking of what could scar someone like Wriothesley. Whether it’d been a wraith that had carved its claws down his throat or something else—something worse. Maybe you should start paying more attention to the areas he said were off limits to you.

“Does it hurt?” You went to shake your head only to reconsider. It hadn’t hurt, or at least not enough that you’d noticed, but now as you focused on it, you became aware of dull but persistent throb in the area around the wound.

“It didn’t earlier but it’s starting to now. It’s not because the wraiths are um—poisonous or anything, right?” It was an effort to keep the panic out of your voice and you didn’t think you managed it entirely but Wriothesley simply chuckled at you.

“No, they’re not. You probably just didn’t notice the pain earlier because of the shock.” He ran his thumb down the side of your leg and though his touch was gentle, you still grimaced as it sent a flare of pain up your shin. “Healing magic isn’t really my forte so I’ll send for someone more qualified to come and take a look. In the meantime, this should help with the pain.”

A gasp escaped your lips as frost blossomed over your skin, an intense cold spreading over the area around the bloody scratches before being replaced by a heavy numbness such that you could only barely feel a faint pressure where Wriothesley’s fingers were still curled around your calf. You couldn’t feel the injury at all.

“That’s um…”

“What? Not even a thank you for acting as your rescuer and tending to your wounds?” He looked up at you from beneath dark lashes and you felt the words sitting heavy on your tongue. You’d thought before about how easy it would be to give in. Putting aside how you came to reside in the underworld, Wriothesley had never tried to force anything from you even if there had been a teasing comment here and there. You knew what he wanted though, could see the loneliness that clung to him like the fur-lined coat he favoured, that drove him to commit the act of stealing away a god, and no matter the temptation, you refused to give it to him.

“Considering that it was your beasts I needed saving from, I’m not sure a thank you is truly owed,” you replied instead, the words dripping from your lips like poison.

He dropped your leg as though you’d burned him. “My beasts, huh? Yeah, I guess it’d seem that way to you.” There was a faint trace of humour in his voice, though his wasn’t the tone of someone telling a joke, but rather the sort you used when you were the punchline.

“You can wait in your rooms,” he said, standing and turning to walk towards the towering marble arch that served as the entrance to the room. “I’ll tell our resident healer to come and find you. But seriously,” he paused on the threshold, turning back to look at you over his shoulder, the lower half of his face hidden by the collar of his coat, “keep away from the lower levels. If you want to act out at me for bringing you here, throwing your life away to the things that call that place a home is not the way to do it, and I can’t always be around to keep an eye on you. Not that I imagine you’d want me to either.”

He left without waiting for you to reply, and you watched his form disappear into the gloom that seemed to seep from the walls of the underworld, leaving the room feeling oddly empty. You looked down at your leg, frost still curled around your wound. Sometimes you wished Wriothesley was as terrible as the stories you’d heard about him on the surface claimed—wished he was a little easier to hate. Because you couldn’t give him what he wanted, not if it meant being stuck here more than you already were; a land that had never seen the sun and where every flower you’d tried to grow withered before it could bloom. You needed to find a way out of here and soon, you thought, the feeling of Wriothesley’s hand still fresh in your mind, before you were tempted into something that would ensure you could never leave at all.  

[tench]

On the other hand all the 4th wall breaking jokes makes sense if you consider that Styx is on two highly hallucinogenic mind-expanding magical substances 24/7 (and I doubt you should be mixing those) throughout the whole game. He ate magic meth from the breastplate of the dead elven queen-centipede. He drank world-tree juice condensed from the bodies of his dead clones. He saw God, he fought God, the God turned out to be Harry Du Bois, so it wasn't that much of a fight. But grandpa was on one hell of a bender.