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And the Arien mentioned above, who bears the vessle of the sun?  She's one of the Maiar, one of the few of the spirits of fire that Melkor hadn't turned.  Said spirits being called Balrogs by some.

Ungoliant, the great spider that Melkor convinced to help him destroy the two Trees.  A spirit of darkness, who hated yet fed off of light.  In the destruction of the trees, and her devouring of many of the gems of light that Melkor stole, she gained much power, even as Melkor lost much of his.  When Melkor broke the promise he made in order to get her help (not that he ever intended to keep it), she attacked Melkor.  His scream of fear summoned his surviving Balrogs to him, and Ungoliant fled.  No one know what happened to her after that, but one of her desendants was named Shelob, who guarded a certain pass into Mordor.

I believe the only one of the three Silmarils that's still possesed by anyone is currently the North Star.  Worn by Earendil half-Elven, Elrond's father, as he sailed his ship through the sky.  The other two Silmarils being lost, one cast into the ocean and the other into lava.

Which pretty much brings us back to the question: why exactly are humans so mortal compared to other races in Middle Earth?

Iluvatar was the creator deity of the setting.  First he created the Ainur and had them sing to him, singly or in small groups.  He eventually gathered them all together and told them to all sing together with a theme that he'd made for them, though they could add their own thoughts to the music as well.

At first the song was beautiful, and started filling the Void.  Then Melkor, the strongest of the Ainur, who had spent time alone in the Void added his own theme to the song.  Immediately discord arose, and various Ainur either kept singing the original theme or followed Melkor's.

Iluvatar added a new theme to the mix.  It added to the beauty of the first, but Melkor's discord started warring with it.  Many of the Ainur singing the first theme eventually stopped singing, and Melkor's theme started winning.  Iluvatar then added a third theme to the mix.

This third theme was soft at first, but added power to itself as time went on.  Eventually there were two musics going on.  Iluvatar's themes played together.  This music was beautiful, but etched with a sorrow that made it's beauty more noticable.  The second was strong, but simply loud noise.  It tried to drown out the first music, but it's biggest triumphs were then claimed by the first.  Then Iluvatar stopped all the singing.

He told the Ainur that they all came from Him, and any changes to the music would still be part of Him.  Any attempts to change it would end up simply making things even more wonderful.

Iluvatar then took them to the Void and showed them what the music would bring.  It was a World.  He told the Ainur that they would each find that theit individual songs were part of it.  And told Melkor that that even his song was still part of Iluvatar's theme.

He then described many of his plans for the World, though not all of them.  He showed them of the coming of the Children of Iluvatar, and how things were being set up for them.  The Children weren't understood by the Ainur, though they admired their beauty.  The Children sprang from Iluvatar's third theme and not from the Ainur.  The children were Elves and Men.

Iluvatar eventually made this vision real, but it was unfinished.  Any Ainur that wanted could go to the World and finish it, but they would then have to remain in the World until it's end.

Many of the Ainur went to the World, including Melkor.  They worked together to build it into the vision they had seen.  Melkor eventually tried to take over, with the help of those who'd joined his song, and destroyed much of what had been built.  Much of that damage was unrepairable, so the Valar, those Ainur that went to the world, went across the sea to the west, and built anew while waiting for the coming of the Firstborn, the Elves.

Much of "The Silmarillon" deals with the Elves, and their war with Melkor, renamed Morgoth.  It wasn't until much later that Men awoke, though they played a big part in the end of the war.

Elves had many gifts from Iluvatar.  Stong and fair, they knew no sickness or death that wasn't from accident or violence.  Though they occasionally fell to dispair as well.  If they died, they remained in the World, Arda, and were eventually reborn.  They were taught much by the Valar, at least those that went west.  Not all did, from either fear, from Melkor's words, or just by getting lost on the way.

Men, on the other hand, were weak.  They could get sick, and they all eventually died.  This was Iluvatar's gift to Men, mortality.  Unlike the Valar and Elves, Men left Arda when they died.  The Valar and Elves would eventually grow weary of their long lives in Arda, being unable to move on until the end of it.  Men, on the other hand, would spend a short time here in Arda's beauty before moving on, thus making that beauty sweeter due to the knowledge that it will eventually end.  It was Morgoth, as he was known when Men finally awoke, who poisoned this knowledge with fear of the unknown, of what happens afterwards.

I sometimes like embarking on a flat or nearly flat map, 3x3, with a volcano on one of the edges.  I then dig a moat, then a wall all the way around with a bridge of floors over the volcano.  I love self-disposing invaders hitting the dodge traps over the volcano   

I never seem to use goblinite anyway.  Every time I attempt it, I get another siege while clearing out the last one.

Don't know what the laws are where this is happening, but in the U.S. if you don't defend your IP rights you can loose them.  Many of the infringment threats are because if they don't make the threats it can be ruled that they gave up that particular IP by not defending it.  If, for example, McDonalds ignored other companies using "Mc" in their name or products, regardless of what the company actually does, if a fast food company started doing the same it's possible that the judge can rule that McDonalds gave up the right to "Mc".

A lot of these infringement threats are acknowledged by the companies doing them to be frivilous, but they don't want to be seen as ignoring their property.

Can't say for certain without actually seeing the map, but it sounds like the path to that side of the river was disrupted.

Quite a few different things can do that.  The bridge being destroyed.  A ramp or stairway being removed.  A locked door or closed floodgate.  And likely others too.

Given that the dwarves who died were miners, I'd say you most likely removed a ramp or staircase.  Or made a ramp unuseable.
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That's an unusable ramp there, side view of two levels.  You need an empty space on top of a wall the ramp is next to for them to work.

A wall is good, but you can always dig out a ditch with a drawbridge.  Just remove all the ramps on the inside and with the bridge raised nothing can reach you.  Unless you're playing a mod it usually takes time for archers to show up.

I've had dragons that were trapped immediately after they appeared on the map, without ever seeing a dwarf or pet.  Yet they still attacked once tamed.

I think it's if the dragon killed anyone from your civilization that matters.  They can have wiped out entire dwarf civilizations, but if they've never attacked anyone from yours they're safe.  In the situations mentioned above it was on small maps with only one dwarf civilization.

The best way to get the elves, and everyone else, to bring less cloth is to have a decent stockpile of the types of cloth they bring.  In the elves case, rope reed.  Though it might just be any cloth, haven't tested it.

If you have enough cloth or leather merchants quit bringing more.  And thus have more room for other stuff.

Though good luck with the animals.  I've had poor luck getting anything worthwhile to trade for.