dwarven ruins

[jonnin]

Feels like a bug or missed something?
I found a path back up to the giant area where I killed all the giants long ago, near the town where all the bird golf games are.
I also found a puzzle that led to a fort where some guys let me go in after I said I was there to help not loot, and a path down to a hit point sponge boss that didn't really try to fight back. After that a chest with some junk loot. But the guys didn't talk to me anymore; I thought killing that guy would 'save' the fort? And not much else in the ruins .. chests and weak fights, hints of some giant weapon contest but nothing to do ... is there anything useful down there?

[Chilkoot]

Hey there Jonnin - some SPOILERS below:

The Dwarven Ruins area has two entrances connected to the outside world. One in the Forest of Insriach (down the stairs by the beach where you first entered), and one back up to the Baedish Lowlands where you fought those giants outside, near the town with the Fairy Golf as you noted.

This Dwarven Ruins area is where you found those guys and "saved the fort" (Haernhold, but not Haernhold). You can fight/kill them, or talk to them, but it makes no difference. You can never talk to them again, and they just stand there. Not even a thanks!

You can make your way down through that fort - a few fun puzzles along the way - and there is a boss called the Dwarven Ancestor with a chance for some very good loot in that little area. That boss used to be very tough but was nerfed in the Director's Cut.

This is an optional side-area, and has some potentially good loot, but very little in the way of story. It feels incomplete, and may have been originally planned as the location for Haernhold (and is referred to as such in a couple of places), which was added as a completely new area in the Director's cut.

TL;DR - budget ran short, area is not really finished. Instead of fixing/revamping it for the DC, they just added a new zone with the same name.

[jonnin]

ah, ok. So maybe I did most of it. Thanks!