> Unfortunately so far the dwarves only want to kill, drink with, or gaze pitifully at me. I've been discouraged for weeks.
>
> Hint, anyone?

Sure. Forget the stupid dwarf. :-)

Sometimes you need to select a single option repeatedly to get anything to happen. Think about the types of things you might need to be patient for. There's one place in or near the gardens where you have to do this, and one place around the river. Also, sometimes you need to select options in a particular order.