> I dipped my lance in the river just because the option was there.

That's a good thing, though the game is sketchy about explaining why. (Supposedly if you don't, the person you're supposed to give it to will complain it's too hot.)

> An old man wants a piece of parchment I don't have,

Your inventory implies you came very close to obtaining it. It's in the castle, though, so you'll need to solve that first.

> and there's a goblin who is immune to my efforts.

I don't remember that... which means I killed it normally, or getting rid of it requires an item which I already had on hand when I ran into it and so didn't consider a big deal.

(Are you sure it's actually immune? If it gives a normal "You attack and miss! The goblin attacks and hits! You die!" message, it just means you're low on hit points. Solve this by clicking undo, doing something irrelevant to shake up the random number generator, and trying again.)

> Is the lance-owner supposed to be in the castle, or something? I've been outside of that place for a while.

He's definitely outside somewhere. Maybe someone else remembers better than me.