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Somber - HLM

Home of the Lost Monsters is another mainstay in the DD modding community. As far as I understand, this mod consist of a compilation of enemies from different authors that for one reason or another were abandoned or donated to the project. As can be expected, there was a range of styles and levels of polish among the different designs.

In the vein of my "Somber" series, this patch aims to make adjustments to some of the creatures to make them look more menacing and stylistically cohesive with the style and mood of the game and my own creative vision. This is another mod that I had sitting in my shelf from a couple of years ago, which I now make public for others to freely enjoy.

A lot of the creatures worked out-of-the-box for me, particularly those done by Marvin SEO. So this mod does not rework every single monster, just a handful that I felt needed the Somber touch.

Main changes:

• Burrow worm: Added significant amounts of shadows and marks to make it more menacing and better match the woodcut shading of the game. Changed color from blue to a warm gray, as subterranean creatures are not typically colorful since there's no light underground.
  
• Sea Urchin: The original was a monochromatic purple, which really diminished what is otherwise a very interesting creature design. Cove monsters are very colorful, so I recolored it to have 3 complementary hues. I also completely redrew each eye so they match the level of detail seen in vanilla's fish folk. Each fish folk has a its own unique eye color, and so does now the urchin.
  
• Flesh Head Hoarder: Another interesting concept, but the heads looked a bit tagged on. I recolored them so that their faces would not clash so much with the monster's flesh. Each head also had perfect sets of teeth despite their gruesome condition, so I knocked off some of those pearly whites to make them look a lot more grim.
  
• Angel stonework: Added noise texture and emissive lights to the eyes to be consistent with how vanilla stonework enemies look.

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Since this mod is only a visual update of some of the creatures, on its own it does nothing and it's completely dependent on Home of the Lost Monsters.

Place this patch above any HLM related mod This will only overwrite some visual assets and has no effect on gameplay or mashes.

Credits to the many contributors to the original mod, which can be found over in the original mod's page. Sometimes it does take a village.

Thanks to some of the fine folk over at the PiC and Official Discord server for their encouragement: nothing motivates me more than a preachy and paranoid clique. Thanks in particular to Woona, Zot, and Iris for their conniving and heavy-handed moderation.

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I am a firm believer in free speech and abhor censorship, which I see as an underhanded and cowardly way to deal with opposing views. But I also think it unfair to allow haters to spam the mod's comment section and drown out the comments of legitimate users. The compromise is to allow a Discussion section where detractors can pour all their loathing. Introducing:

The Chalice of Tears
A place to unload all of your seething. I will happily harvest your tears of rage into the chalice and respond accordingly. Your grievances will stay up for posterity for all to see and take pity on you, or just be entertained. No comments will be deleted, except for anything illegal.

Keep the mod's comment section free of rage and spam. Legitimate mod users need a place to give feedback without the clutter and drama. Rage-bait in the mod comment section will be deleted. But feel free to post it in the Chalice of Tears without fear of removal.

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"Somber HLM" is not an official Red Hook Studios product or product modification, and Red Hook Studios Inc. is not responsible in any way for changes or damages that may result from using the mod. Furthermore, “Darkest Dungeon” and the Darkest Dungeon logo are trademarks of Red Hook Studios Inc. All content in the game is Copyright Red Hook Studios Inc. All rights reserved.

The reworked artwork in this mod builds on assets originally created from another fan-made mod. I’ve made visual changes to better match the gritty, stylized world of Darkest Dungeon and reflect my own personal aesthetic. These edits are transformative, created for non-commercial, and expressive purposes under the principles of fair use, as defined in 17 U.S. Code § 107.
This mod functions as a visual patch—it does not replace or interfere with the availability, distribution, or integrity of the original work.Credit goes to the original creators—no infringement is intended, only creative respect and reinterpretation.

Important: If you abuse Steam’s DMCA policy by reporting this mod for copyright infringement despite its clear fair use basis, I will formally challenge the claim through the appropriate legal channels.