Solo Blueholme: Second Delve, Part 3/3

This concludes the write-up of a solo-game exploring the Stygian Library, using BLUEHOLME as operating system.  The previous post can be read here.

Aged philologist and wannabe wizard POLSTRUM had organised a second delve into the STYGIAN LIBRARY after previously failing to retrieve MAZIRIAN’S GRIMOIRE. In addition to his faithful servant, MAREK, he has enlisted the aid of the following adventurers:

• Larkin (Eliza Larkinkis), fighter 1
• Sirka, changeling fighter-mage 1/1
• Bastien, fighter 1 (a hired retainer)
• Emmeline, fighter 1 (follower of Larkin)
• Schmidt, Cleric 1 (a hired retainer)

Additionally, thief-for-hire Kurdt fled following his death and subsequent resurrection. After a series of bruising encounters the party may have finally reached their goal...

Illustration by Alec Sorenson

Solo Blueholme: Second Delve (Part 2 of 3)

This continues the previous post:

https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2025/12/solo-blueholme-second-delve-part-1-of.html

Illustration by Alec Sorenson

Solo Blueholme: Second Delve (part 1 of...)

Illustration by Alec Sorenson

This continues the revived solo series previously explored in this post:

https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2025/11/solo-blueholme-first-delve-into-stygian.html

...with downtime activities detailed here:

https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2025/11/solo-blueholme-between-sessions.html

The game was originally begun in the summer of 2024 and has recently been revived. 

THE SECOND DELVE

Solo Blueholme: Between Sessions

Initially I planned to write-up the second delve in my solo game of Stygian Library using Blueholme as my OS(R) of choice but realised I hadn't actually finished it, and recording experience and downtime activities was taking longer than planned. The previous delve can be read here:

https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2025/11/solo-blueholme-first-delve-into-stygian.html

Some Stygian Librarians by Alec Sorenson

All of this took place in June/July of last year (2024) and has been sat in my drafts for a while: I can't stand clutter! Let the posts be SEEN!

Solo Blueholme: First Delve into the Stygian Library

Continuing on from my previous posts about the Stygian library & Blueholme, this is an Actual Play report of my first solo session in the library June 2024! Related posts can be found here:

https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2024/06/blueholme-stygian-library-solo.html

https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2024/07/solo-blueholme-session-0-chargen-etc.html

...both of which detail the minor changes I made to Blueholme (a retroclone of the first D&D introductory basic set) before starting the campaign.

This particular post was inspired by Technoskald's series of reports upon multiple delves into the library:
https://solo.technoskald.me/tagged/stygian-library

Emmy Allen's Stygian Library, cover image by Alec Sorenson 

You can purchase a PDF of Emmy Allen's Stygian Library from DTRPG at this affiliate link or a beautifully produced hardcover print edition from Soulmuppet Be aware that there will be a new edition of the book released relatively soon, to coincide with the re-mastering of Gardens of Ynn. The new edition appears to be an update to the cover only, but if you're planning on buying the Ynn remaster it might be worth holding out for the new print edition of Stygian as they appear to form a rather elegant pair...  the new print edition has been out for a year or so now, the previous remaster (with the Alec Sorenson cover) having been superseded. Otherwise the two book are identical.

Solo Blueholme session #0 (chargen etc.)

A number of weeks ago I posted regarding my intention to run Stygian Library solo. There's a link right here but for some reason they aren't showing up as such, so please scroll to the end to read the comprehensive list of pages linked in this post. I've since already run a party of adventurers through a delve in the Stygian library, and had some thoughts about what the survivors (spoiler alert! some of them survive!) do next. However, before writing that up I wanted to go into a little more detail about how I'm using BLUEHOLME as the "operating system" (OS, Really) for Stygian.

The 1977 Dungeons and Dragons "basic set" by Eric Holmes, aka. the Holmes Basic can be thought of as the "missing link" between OD&D and B/X (or perhaps even B/X and AD&D 1e), and it is not without its fans (particularly popular blog The Zenopus Archives). Blueholme is a retroclone of that ruleset by Michael Thomas, and seems to have emerged following conversations on the Dragonsfoot forum.

Blueholme & The Stygian Library, solo preparation

I've recently been playing Gangs of Titan City as a solo game, but you may have noticed various other RPG luminaries engaged in this dark practice. Indeed, it was friend-of the blog JFUR who first inspired my return to the labyrinth alone with her Into the Odd solo campaign. While ludic onanism has long been a staple of the frustrated forever GM, seeing Skullboy aka Better Legends transform his own game into an entire comic book, Delvers felt like something of a shift in the sands. Why, even friend-of-my-idealised-higher-self Semiurge has been at it—as this write-up of Grant Howitt's Big Gay Orcs (CW: butts touching one another) can testify.

Where's this suspiciously professional introduction headed? Into the Stygian Library, that's where: because when I'm not already writing about playing RPGs by myself or reading RPG books (all by myself) I like to play RPGs about books. By myself. And then write about it.

A crop of just about the first illustration in the book, by Alec Sorenson