Well, I told y’all I was close—and I weren’t lyin’, neither 
Stonesong Eyrie is not fun. Unequivocally. But it’s possible in the same way Mirrored Halls is possible—just looooonger, and with (I think) more luck (read: less player agency) involved.
3 Nysha medals because that’s what my Guild Wars defense needed (I wanted 3 seasons, to have more life for each summoned harpy, and more attack, but. I’m not even sure if that would be a different skull break-point or not). Suncrest at Level 14. No elite levels this time, and the pet only at epic (this is true for most of my runs, especially the older ones, because I took a long while to see the value of a pure-faction at 300 run 
).
Took the route with two fights—consistently seemed easier to get through Cave Troll and Pirates than middle rooms, though there are exceptions to going the “easier” routes. Mimics, for instance, and Ancient Golem—both are tricksy and not to be trusted.
I went in to the final fight hoping for a full team: Harpy Mage / Harpy / Queen Xochi / Bladewing. I started the fight with two harpies up top instead, I think—bye, bye, 4 unique troops stats.
But the strategy all along, I knew, was going to be to stall and cast harpies so many times that Bladewing would be able to kill their line faster than it could be replaced or healed. I intended to (and basically did) ignore my mage entirely—storms are too risky. ONLY cast one into the game IF the opponents have basically no mana AND you have a chance at a snipe because your bladewing is full. You’ll probably only win if you can get the 20% to trigger on their Xochi, and it helps to have it trigger on their Bladewing, too.
But what avoiding storms means, of course, is that the delve gimmick is gone—and, with it, your chance for a quick—easy—and lucky win. What you’re left with instead is attrition. And, with patience, you can win that fight. Eventually.
I lost Xochi in the first hour or so. I knew I would lose Xochi, though I had hoped for otherwise. Then the game became keep harpies alive long enough to spawn replacements. Manipulate the board to your advantage, avoid and take skulls to buy time. I had a +2 Brown, +1 Green banner, to make filling harpies easier—but remember: at 5 casts to take another skull hit, you have to know when to sac a harpy rather than try to save it. Better to replace than waste mana on a sinking ship. Try to make casts keep more than one harpy alive—when at 1000 life, you’re just wasting a cast if you’re only buffing the front, unless you know you’ll get 5 casts before you take a second skull hit.
The entire fight took 5-ish hours. Over 100 harpies died, all told, and Bladewing eventually was casting for 450+ damage per cast. Came close to losing a half-dozen times—4 harpies at 1k health each is still only 12 skull hits, which can happen surprisingly quickly if RNGesus isn’t on your side with skyfalls. I swear—I looked at every move like a guild wars fight, calculating the slimmest odds of skull skyfall, and still I lost dozens of harpies to (un)expected black magic.
So good luck out there. Sorry if this is unclear or all over the place. I am delirious after so many hours of punching feathers for the Horde.
