Do you really need to do the Stout Mines? Can you just drop Freyedies, take the dragon plate mail and Freyedies hammer, and take off? Will the Dragon plate mail work in later quests? Or do you miss out on something? Is Raskallion the only other thing to do?

as I understand it you can kill the king and get a suit of dragon armour (is it in his treasury to which he will drop the key) however be prepared for a big battle as all the stouts in the mine will now be hostile and attack you. The rest of the mine is much easier to do then the stupid lift area just the dam running back and forth to flip the switches.