The floor spawn was blocked by a group of liches. I only had enough gold to rebuild the creature growth boost; I spent the entire first week running around with 5-6 heroes. On the bright side: 6 Dragon Fly Hives for 40 Dragon Flies, a stables, and I only broke through to the external dragon dwelling and the Boots of Speed on the 7th day. Shakti leveled Earth Magic, but didn't find Slow. From turn 121, the opponent started taking long turns, and Galthran was showing up in the tavern, so I saw no point in continuing to stall on the spawn. On turn 123, I moved out and got crushed by GO from Monarchs — as the map reveal showed, that was the only correct decision :D
Thanks for the game.