I'm looking over the posts here, and I see names of people and places that I do NOT recognize. Gloom Frost? the "Isle"? dragons? getting armor from a demon? contacting another plane? I have three keys/badges to the stairs, and my characters are around 250K experience... Either I have a long way to go, or I have somehow missed a whole lot... If it is the former, where are teh things I mentioned? I've cleared Dragon's eye, Valley of shadows, teh Ice place with the ice trolls, the fire pit.

I guess I'm getting paranoid. What have I missed? Or how do I continue?

Those areas are from Heart of Winter. I take it you are probably on Icewind Dale.