I keep finding more and more references to ancient roads and/or paths. There is even a tavern quest about putting up marker posts along the road to help travellers find their way (King's Road).

Even in ruins, the structures here are immense. Walls that now stand a hundred paces high are but the remains of greater edifices, rubble strewn about them suggesting that some towers must have been many times as high as that.

A faction hub has walls a hundred paces thick, and there are others that have similar type building descriptions ... factions in the north, like Dragnu Mundas and Tantarkim come to mind, but there might be others I can't recall. I'll do a search of the full text though.

The remains of a royal hall cover an area big enough to contain a whole village. In the ruins of crumbled townhouses are the Clan crests of dozens of proud families, some familiar (Moedagh, Reashag, Bealagh), others long forgotten by all but the Dwarves. Collapsed tunnels and gates sealed with rubble hint at networks of passages beneath the mountains, now inaccessible.

I haven't been able to figure out the other clans, and can't remember how many there were. 12 maybe, but can look that up also. Still don't have any idea who they are. One guess might be Clan Dollagh or The Lost Clans (that seems way to obvious, right?). The tunnels that I'm looking for HINT at more! Yes, this is why I believe we have to find the tunnels and the mine. This is just 1 place, but it is also the strongest clue.

In ruined shrines, tablets still stand attesting to the glory of this fallen city.

Ruined shrines and ruined ancient temples are all over Illy. I have a long list of excellent quotes ... we need more to narrow it down and find the one that has a connection to the Dwarves.

In a tavern quest, it says that directions were carved onto the face of a tablet ...  I believe it's in one version of the  King's Road tavern quest. Sounds like a promising clues to me. Might not be a clue to DK, but I'll take a clue to something else too lol.

A plaque in the overgrown marketplace attests to once vibrant commerce: "Give thanks to the east, for Obsidian and fine silks. Give thanks to the west for grain and meat. Give thanks to the north, for Iceheart and oak. Give thanks to the south for spices and fish. All the goods of the world are brought here, by the skill of the Dwarven Clans in obedience to the Artefores."

Great quote. One of the most well-known and it's been picked at. Mostly people focus on the items, like iceheart and ancient oak, fish and spice, but no one is quite sure what to do with all of it.

I think the focus is the last part of the last line. The dwarves were great because of their obedience to the Artefores, however they drifted away from the Artefores and they weren't supposed to do that. The failure of the Dwarves to remain obedient ot the Artefores is what caused the fall of their once great kingdom.

The Great Clans that used to be *cannot* reclaim the glory that they once were ... not without their gods who gave them all of the gifts that enabled them to be as great as they were. And they do want to reclaim their former glory ... sounds like a great quest ... 

Another tablet recounts the names of craftsmen who were presented to the gods each year as the finest jewelers, cabinet makers, glass-blowers, armourers, potters…. But their works have long since vanished.

Another instance of stressing the value and importance of craftsman and craftsmanship to their culture, social structure, economic structure and spirtual beliefs. The gods are the Artefores who gave them the gifts to be excellent craftsman.

Close to the royal palace, the wall of another shrine reads: "For the glory and might of Duraz Karag, we thank the Artifores. We give thanks that they made our crafts people deft and hard working. We give thanks that they made our kings wise. We give thanks that they made our mountain ranges rich with iron and Silversteel. We give thanks that our warriors are strong, our children healthy, our women enduring, our families dutiful. Upon these things does Duraz Karag stand. May it last for ever."

Yes, may it last forever. That is the ultmate goal of the Dwarves. They are proud of their heritage and some can claim a lineage back to the First Dwarf. They also claim that the Dwarves have been around for 2000 years, and plan to be here for another 2000. They built fortresses that have endured. There is one that fell completely to the greenskins - Great Mountain Home of the Parvacones faction. Caer Arodd used to be the name and it was a Dwarven citadel / fortress. It did not endure, so I'd start there. There is a suspicion that Treggar of Treggar's Crows committed treason and sold out the other Dwarves to the greenskins, and he may have been the one to tell them how to get in through the tunnels. Or he was framed ...

But they kind of screwed up by not following the Artefores as they were supposed to do. It did not last forever, so that's a problem. You don't get gifts from the Gods, take the gifts to become the greatest kingdom, and then ditch the Gods like you don't need them anymore. Guess what happens? DK went down. Duh.

Ok, so they want to be great once again and reclaim their glory. This is a recurring theme throught the lore. Everywehre I look, there is something about the dwarves and how they messed up big time. They don't know how or are not able to fix their mess, so we probably have to help them ... in some way ...

Leaving the city to return home, your people note a few small scattered cairns, little piles of mossy stones, also brought low by time. These, they suspect, may be crude monuments to slain Orc warleaders, whose hordes over-ran the vast city in the Second Age.

Oh wow! That little line I've seen before, but have forgotten about. Must not have rang any bells for me the first time I read it.

The other huge problem the Dwarves of DK had was the invasion of the greenskins. They are still having this problem. What they want most of all is 1) to reclaim their ancient homeland from the greenskins and 2) to regain the favor of the Artefores.

I will come up with a list of possible culprits. The tavern quests have some orc warlords, battles, funerals, and the shame of defeat. A lot of weapons traded hands too along the way.

Another thing about this line is that it might not even be the greenskins. This is a general explanation for the stones, but the Elves have a different version. They say the Giants threw boulders at the traders as they travelled along the road (a trade route, a relic of the Second Age). Well, the Elves are notroious for their superfluous use of poetry, and the Dwarves criticise their ability to tell the facts. The Elves also placed more emphasis on the moral of their stories, and for this story, the moral is that wit can win over brute strength.

Your followers regret that they did not return with any treasure or insight. The ruins of Duraz Karag are so vast, they say, that it must contain some secrets, but they had no clue where they might even start such a search.

They didn't return with treasure or insight, so it must still be there ...

'so vast' ... it is rumored that they had a network of tunnels back in the day. This network of tunnels went through a mineral deposit of each mineral (Wedding Breakfast tavern quest). It was that extensive.

Hmm, no clue where to start searching a vast network of tunnels ... ??? ... how about a map? In Shaft 54B, in order to find the tunnel that had the treasure they really wanted (got beer the 1st time, but suspected there was more and they wanted more), they found the map office, and that led them to the armoury.

There are other references to maps ... 1 that I know very well is mentioned in the Fyrgis faction that on old maps of the area, it used to be wooded grassland, not a great cursed swamp. Old maps exist. I would look in a library ...

Libraries are another major theme throughout the lore. There was also a side in The Herald about discoveing the library of Qingdao. This is the entire thing -

I am still sorting through the tavern quest texts, but am finding some very subtle and not so subtle clues and pieces of missing information. The puzzle pieces are still scattered though and it's a slow process figuring out which parts go together.

I firmly believe that the tavern quest texts contain valuable clues and hints that will help us find *something* ... I am amazed at the information they contain, and can't wait to share more of what I have found. Am just too overwhelmed atm ...

Clan Bealagh, as military leaders of the Dwarven Defence, ordered the Dwarves deeper into the mountains, retreating before the foul greenskin horde. The mountain’s tunnels and caverns would ensure that the United Dwarven Army did not get outflanked by their more numerous enemies.

It was a good strategy, but alas, the greenskins had brought reinforcements to counter this very tactic. Monsters of fire and dust, bursting with unbridled fury, entered the tunnels and decimated the ranks of the United Dwarven Army.

Our shields are now rusty and the weapons are now not nearly half as shiny as those our ancestors gripped. We now wait, struggling to survive against both kobolds and elves. No matter how dire it gets, all of us now have the same dream: to once again walk down the tunnels and halls of our ancestral homeland. We long to retake the glory that was once ours, in an age of prosperity and peace, the glory and wealth that once belonged to our great and powerful Clan.

Clan Moedagh

Just like Clan Bealagh, Clan Moedagh is now barely a shadow of its former glory and power. They too have the same dream, of once again being united under one Great King and one banner, but unlike the other Clans, they keep to their own, their ancient alliance with the other Clans now forgotten. They dwell in their forts and underground cities to the north west of Tor Carrock, having little to do with others, and interested only in ridding their tunnels and mountains of the greenskins that now infest them at every turn and corner.

I worry about our brethren in Clan Moedagh. Their quest to rid the greenskins from our ancestral tunnels and homeland is a noble one, but I fear that by turning their backs on all the other Dwarven Clans, they’ll lose their connection and focus with the First Dwarf and our Dwarven heritage.

They are missing the mountains for the hills, as my Father and his Father before him would say.

Tien Zao

I have not read this summary as thoroughly as some others, but a few things to note about it at first glance ...

• the title of the report - region, sub region - where the Master Minerologist hails from
• the use of numbers, and the use of them in descriptions of disstance
• the references to similarities to the Dwarven ways of doing things - Glinntre is mentioned
• references to tunnels and caves
• the use of the word 'Heart'

Region 7, Sub Region B, Geological Observations of Rothguld Rothsun, Master Minerologist, Order of Higher Minerology, Great Mountain Home (Part One):

I estimate the range to be less than 200 million years old

I estimate at 15,000 Dwarven Yards

Finally we arrived at a small chamber with an unassuming monk seated on the floor. The monk superior welcomed me as well and informed me that his was the honor of escorting me to the Heart. Upon my quizzical look, he explained that the Heart was where the Tien Zao have diligently held all human knowledge since time immemorial and that I was welcome to peruse the geological sections of this repository.

Arakvar

These large intelligent spiders live in the forested hills and mountains of north-western Norweld. Wise travellers entering Norweld from that direction take all precautions to avoid that particular area, and with very good reason: those who come across the Arakvar in their forested home rarely make it out alive.

In fact, I know of only two.

The Lannigold man-at-arms was extremely difficult to track down. After several weeks of trying to track him down, I was told that hemight have perished during a battle with marauding Northmen. That left only one other survivor to talk to: Dagarr Goldseam, of Clan Reashag.

In comparison, Dagarr was not at all difficult to track down. His reason for braving the Arakvar territory was for the greater economic good of his clan: Clan Reashag formed a special expedition group, with its mission being to scout out  the Northwestern Norweld in order to locate any possible ore or mineral veins in those ancient mountains.  All 30 members of the group were exceptional warriors and scouts, veterans of many a battle with the chaotic and blood-thirsty monsters of the North. Dagarr Goldseam was the only survivor from the expedition party.

His close friends tell me that he used to be a cheerful and rather boisterous dwarf, but the horrors in those hills have changed him, for he seldom talks now, and is given to fits of depression. [like Treggar was changed after seeing what is down in the tunnels?]

The spiders communicated with each other in the clicks and clacks of the strange arachnid language. However, the spiders “communicated” with the expedition party in ancient Dwarven.

These words did not come from their alien mouths, but seemed to be spoken aloud inside each Dwarf’s minds. As soon as Dagarr mentioned this, I deduced that these spiders must have been communicating telepathically with the Dwarves. Another note on just how intelligent and powerful these creatures are.

Dagarr recalled that the Spiders peppered them with a flurry of questions, some of which didn’t make sense: Who are you? What have you brought us? Where are the citadels? What do we do now?

With the wicked screams of the Daedalon in the background, Dagarr ran as fast as his legs and beating heart could carry him.

He never once looked back.

Fyrgis

The Fyrgis believe the marshes to be sacred, in my own base understanding of their sacred tongue (Fyrgisvangrir, a mixture of the crude tongue of the barbarian tribes and the older tongue of the northmen spoken in the Middle Kingdom during the reign of the first King with influences from old Elvish and Orcish) I was able to pick up several references alluding to a living earth.

Having studied ancient maps of this region I note that all sources dating from before The Great Corruption, or The Great Cleansing as it is known in the Norweld and Middle Kingdom, the lands of the Fyrgis are described as sparsely wooded grassland.

Treggar's Crows

Treggar was a first cousin to the Dwarven chief of Clan Bealagh, Baelon Graythorn, so he enjoyed a certain amount of respect among the Dwarves. However, after an expedition deep into the very heart of the mountains that surround the Dwarven city of Glinntre, Treggar came back a changed dwarf. Something had happened to Treggar and his expedition party down in the long forgotten underground tunnels…they all came back alive, but somehow…different.

No one knows exactly what happened next, but all agree that Treggar and the other Dwarves from the expedition party were exiled from their ancestral homeland, on orders of King Bealon himself. Some say the King found out that Treggar and his company had turned traitors and had secretly formed a pact with the Parvacones Kobolds, promising to supply the Greenskins with weapons in exchange for treasure. Others think that Treggar and the other Dwarves had contracted a rare disease that altered their personalities and minds.

Treggar's Crows also make use of magic in their campaigns, albeit on a small and subtle scale. This would include amulets and charms to offer protection in battle, lengthening and creating shadows as a form of misdirection, and several illusionary spells used in diversionary tactics.

Some mages have told me that Treggar and his Crows employ a rudimentary form of a long-forgotten branch of magic, based around ancient runes, once said to have been the sole province of a powerful race of wizards that roamed the lands long before the birth of any of the current races of Illyria.

Could this be the secret that they uncovered in those ancient tunnels, the very same secret that had a part to play in their exile?

Relevant Quotes from Tavern Quests

Shaft 54B Part 1

... discovered an abandoned iron mine not far from town ... there used to be a Dwarven outpost near to the mine and for some reason they didn't stick around for very long.

The idea that the dwarves might've left behind their valuables in the hasty evacuation of the mine really does sound too good to pass up.

...  with a single-minded goal to find Dwarven treasure.

Shaft 54B Part 2

... the drinking hall was alive with ideas about what that abandoned mine could be used for.

With the advantage of experience and the reports of your earlier scouts, the Stalkers penetrated the mine network far more deeply.

First they located an office with maps, then they used those maps to locate an armoury ...

Your scouts report that they were able to locate the heart of the mine with ease ...

Wedding Breakfast

It is Dwarf marriage custom that the couple spend their first night at a site where their birth-stones both naturally occur in the morning would host a banquets for their close family, which would be provisioned by their master; and that evening they would pay a tribute to their master. The ceremonies remind everyone of the Dwarves' roots in the earth, and also of their roots in the community, of how they are bound by obligations to their superiors.

Back in the First Age this was easy, as the Dwarves would have networks of tunnels which ran through all the required stone deposits, and the couple would simply spend their night in an appropriate tunnel, and then receive a banquet courtesy of their master. In the morning they would make a tribute to the head of their clan or family.

Now that Dwarves have had to move above ground, and their communities are less fixed, this is a problem. Often the couplehave to travel over land to find a geologically suitable site. And it is not always clear who a couple's master might be, as the rigid family structures of those ages are not as firm. Obviously mastercraftsmen provide the banquets of their journeymen, commanders pay for the banquets of their soldiers, and so forth, but it is less clear for prominent members of the community.
 

Trade, not Raid

A grovelling little Goblin in the corner of the Tavern has a cowardly idea. He has been trading with Dwarves, who are keen to fortify their mines with high quality stone, and can offer swords and chainmail in return.

A courageous Orc would storm the mine and seize the weapons by force, whereas this little wretch wants to trade. It is a cowardly idea. But it's also a good idea. It's a very good idea.

Urgent Repairs

A small mine working in the hills has a serious problem with its structural supports. A rare miscalculation by the lead engineer has left the roof of the mine tunnel unstable, and in danger of collapse.

This may seem like a lot of information to read and process, however keep in mind, that there are more references and quotes. Many more. I just quickly threw together several familar ones for this email.

There are also clues in the descriptions of the Rare Minerals and Rare Herbs.

There are clues in The Herald.

There are clues in the Tavern Quests.

There are clues in the map descriptions of the Trade Hubs.

There are clues in the descriptions of Known Units.

Nothing is irrelavant. Everything is relevant. All game text contains clues.

Please share this with anyone and everyone. We can solve the mysteries, but only if we work together, as a community. I love to talk about the lore, so please don't hesitate to contact me if you have ideas or want to brainstorm.

To summarize:

The Crafting Quest is most likely not linked to the heartbeat cyble of the Heart of Corruption (aka Audrey). We need the HoC to get the corrupted tentacles of each race for one step of the quest. We cannot say, with confidence, that the HoC is the key to solving the quest. Things look just the opposite. We must look elsewhere to find the anwers we are seeking.

I am not saying to ignore the HoC, because it is ncessary and relevant to the completion of the quest, but we cannot focus solely on the HoC, and be skeptical of other evidence that seems to be so blatantly obvious to those of us who are very familiar with the lore.

The answers we seek are in the lore. And yes, for the 1000th freaking time, I am sure.