Okay, played a bit more and got a lucky run (lucked into screaming mandrake + haste potion from witch. also got 100 calmness before trying witch, since this was a foxification run and I didn't want to lose the run early, which makes it extra funny), which basically lets you do whatever you want) and managed to win super easily from there (screaming mandrake for hero kill, and haste potion to be able to survive long enough via cabin). It does feel great to get a lucky run, even if it feels like getting a few more epithets isn't all that big of a reward. (I wish I wasn't so scared of the demo lord so I could use the opportunity to pick up A on the exam as well; I thought it was supposed to be a killscreen rather than a trivial fight. Displaying enemy stats ahead of time would help with planning for the battles better.)
It turns out I was missing a few major shadow comprehension sources since they were locked behind a few of the specific actions I hadn't checked yet. I'm not sure how I got that unlucky with what I checked. I still feel like the sources all too focused on the left side of the map and there should be more toward the right. +12 for free every run once you've found the actions is pretty nice, though I wish I found them earlier - that winning run was done starting at 68.
Bug report: The Epithets menu appears to get cut off on the bottom with no way to scroll lower. I had to switch my browser to fullscreen to be able to read the bottom one (no clue how to get it, btw). This is probably a screen resolution issue.