Finishing up Delve solo with the Biomes expansion and delves of Brightfort Harrow.
Delve solo - intro | partway | biomes end | all season 4 | all dungeon solo
Disclosure - I'm a DriveThru RPG affiliate
Expanding Delve with Biomes
biomes | delve thoughts | gameplay
Adding to the initial intro of Delve.
Delve: Biomes is a big expansion to Delve, at 90 pages compared to the originals 46 pages. It's one of a few expansions (and only one I've played), which include Necromancy and Feast & Famine.
Biomes adds 14 terrains which you can discover by pulling a ♠️A or ♣️A while exploring. These vary from Ant Colonies, Buried Jungle to Crystal Caves and the Underworld. Plus the very rare Hall of the Gods (for pulling the Joker when determining Biome type), where you might fight the gods. In the actual play below we encounter the Biomes of Roots and Lava.
Each new Biome has it's own Rooms & Units and tables for Natural Formations and Remnants.
Delve Solo Experience
biomes | delve thoughts | gameplay
Adding to previous thoughts.
Biomes adds lots of variation to the base Delve game. Having extra units, rooms and exploration results makes it a far more enjoyable experience (once you've played the base game a little).
I'm happy I tried Delve, there's probably a lot more tactical options to explore, as I didn't touch on traps, offensive barricades, secret passages, breeders, lifts, adventurers, prisons, tracks, overseers or kitchens much or at all!
It's a satisfying game with a mix of push your luck, tactics, infrastructure, combat and journalling (if you want to do some).
If I played again I'd use a larger grid (my squares were a little under an inch) and a greater variety of pens, pencils and colour.
Looking over again I got a few rules a little wrong and forgot a few others (such as being able to dig into blank squares). But that's part of playing games, especially solo!
Delves of Brightfort Harrow
biomes | delve thoughts | gameplay
Following on from last time...
Month 5-6, Year 1, Brightfort Harrow [Turns 17-24]
Our digging spilled into a swamp and we had an infestation of murder toads. Euron, our pathfinder, lead our gunners to defeat them without losses.
We found an abandoned treasury, which we've repurposed...
Another slumbering wyrm. We will be sure to be careful.
Months 7-8, Year 1, Brightfort Harrow [Turns 25-32]
Found a lost magical crossbow, which all the gunners find inspiring. Where is it from?
Dug into a sprawling elven root system, below our main entrance. About as bad news as you can get! My niece has shown me plans for a lumbermill, but I'm not sure that's a good idea yet...
Built a shrine of fortune in thanks for overall good luck.
Dug down into a hive of clockwork spiders, quickly dispatched by Euron and our gunners. What did all these creatures guard?
A kennelmaster took the dormant spiders and has worked out their secrets. They serve us now.
We built a lumbermill on the edge of the roots. Why waste good wood?
A monstrosity of shadow emerged from the roots and we lost a brave unit of axe-kin who slew it. Our priest identified it as an ancient creature of shadow named Mannegock.
Months 9-10, Year 1, Brightfort Harrow [Turns 33-40]
Great wealth exploring new depths and a cavern of crystals found below the gunner barracks.
Ah, the curse of hope. More ancient archives contained a dust which infected our new crystal cavern, which has now collapsed...
Our excavations in the west here are at a stop, as a large cavern with an ancient elemental blocks our way. Choosing not to tangle with it for now.
We pressed on with our digging in the west, and found an abandoned enchanters workshop. These roots were clearly here long ago.
The deeper we go, the stranger it gets. Ethereal dwarves tied to crystals here have been freed. These now wander our halls, healing the sick and dying. A new hospital has been built.
Months 11-12, Year 1, Brightfort Harrow [Turns 41-48]
We disturbed more strange beings. A gnomish wizard stranded here with his apprentices and took our intrusion badly. Euron, our pathfinder and the gunners soon defeated them. Looks like they were studying crystals.
We have made roots into a golem. Maybe soon we will disturb one of the sleeping wyrms!
An underground lake! Maybe the source of the roots? We made a small boat.
Another wyrm slumbering, a beast of the lake. Maybe a rare Deeplake Dragon? We left it alone, like the others.
Year 2, Brightfort Harrow [Turns 49-60]
(I changed the turns to each represent 1 month after the first year)
We celebrated our first year in a big feast.
Toxic gas beyond the roots escaped and flowed out the entrance.
More ancient lore, stowed in crystals. One of our builders has been infected with some kind of madness, constructing bright green barracks, which none will want to live in...
The Axe-kin have been brought back to full strength.
A shaft that goes down deep has been discovered. None have explored the depths yet.
Another crystal cave in the depths? What causes this enchantment here?
The Emerald Hammer-kin have formed in the green rooms. A shrine has been built to guard against the volcanic shaft going deep below.
We started building enchanted barricades in tactical places.
A miracle! Among the crystals we found the Chisel of Life and Death. Offered a root golem in thanks.
Year 3, Brightfort Harrow [Turns 61-72]
There is lava here. Our engineers say it is a series of lava caverns. We should be careful now.
Our engineers have constructed pipes to provide heated floors to our troops. The gunners, axe-kin and hammer-kin seem most happy about it.
Constructed strong enchanted barriers to seal off our hold from lava and the volcanic shaft.
We started exploring the roots and lava. Built a library and started recruiting mages.
One mage has brought the legendary Tome of Fortune as a gift.
These mages have opened a portal to the depths! The potential is limitless!
We have discovered a river while trying to expand our library. It flowed out through the portal.
My diggers showed me lavafalls, a blessed sight! More mages have arrived.
The crystal caves have been mined out. Another source of wealth must be found.
Years 4-10, Brightfort Harrow [Turns 73-79]
[Changed 1 turn to be 1 year, to keep length going]
More crystal caves, but blocking the way to where we planned to build a second escape shaft for the lava caverns.
We dug into a magma flow, which now falls down into the volcanic shaft.
An inventor's laboratory is our newest build.
Our inventors have been busy. A trapmaster has setup in the area near the elemental beast.
Years 11-16, Brightfort Harrow [Turns 80-84]
At the base of the roots we found an ancient lizard. A few dwarves can pass it at a time without provoking its ire.
An old golem forge, whose golems we overran with root golems. We need to go this way to drain the lava caverns.
We dug down into more creatures of legend. A cave kraken resting under the lava. We sent in mages and a root golem to destroy it, so we can dig our lava tunnel.
Our priests insist we disturbed something else. An ancient pair of monstrosities they call the Nightqueens of Kos.
[Monstrosity, Twinned, Mastermind, Dark]
We dug up into the lava and it flowed down without problem.
Final Entry
All appears lost.
These Nightqueens of Kos returned, bespelling Euron the Pathfinder and the clockwork spiders. Some of us fought them up at the entrance, but others are trapped deeper into halls.
I give this record over to my niece to lead a few in one last attempt to drive out these fiends...
Epilogue
And so the dwarven hold of Brightfort Harrow was abandoned, lying dormant until others return centuries later, seeking the treasures lost in it's depths...
Unit Roster (just before the end)
- 25 Gunners at 1F
- 10 Soldiers (axe-kin) at 1I
- 1 Pathfinder (adventurer) at 2L
- 1 Hound at 2H
- 1 Cleric at 2D
- Clockwork Spiders (50 strength) at 2J
- 2 Root Golems at 3D
- 25 Soldiers (hammer-kin) at D7
- 1 Cleric at K4
- 10 Mages at 3E
Finishing Up
That was a fun game.
Looking forward to turning this into a dungeon, which I might explore in another solo actual play. Shadowdark might be a good match!
