Gearheart is part of a warrior quest.

The gnome in the emporium is part of a known quest that starts in qeynos I
think, and involved making a part for a ship. HOWEVER! The gnome sells a
component called a metal disk. Why? This sounds like a tinkering item but
why would this islolated gnome sell this? Is it a hint of some sort? I
questioned the gnome at length and could get no information from him.

The minotaur in the zoo of akanon, I killed this minotaur and lost faction
with the king of akanon, someone went through the trouble of giving this
one particular minotaur good faction with gnomes, why? Was it a technical
reason, to keep him from attacking newbie gnomes or is it related to the
story in the tinkering book about Gimblestan bringing back a minotaur to
the zoo?

A third book is a possibility, its also possible that someone just happened
to have some cork and a spriket left over and thought what the hell... I'll
trash two items in one click and be done with it. But instead they found
something new to make. It is amazing, however, that the thousands and
thousands of people out there who search for quests, search for new things
haven't stumbled upon this third book though. Considering how obscure some
quests and some items are, this third book must be REALLY obscure. But it
could be out there!

Solusek gnomes seems like a good place to try to learn about tinkering and
I intend to go there at level 24. Being an enchanter, I'm told that
monsters won't bother me if I'm in elemental illusion, so maybe I can check
the place out and get lucky, who knows.

I haven't fished with animated bait yet, but I think its likely that it is
a component in a recipie, maybe for the collapsable pole. Either that or
it may be a quest item or maybe it has some better fishing abilities. No
tests have really been done to see that I know of.

And the collapsable pole has one very good use, if you do fish a lot, the
pole never breaks, it only weighs .1 lbs, and can be stored in small
containers. Those are some fairly nice benifits to it.

Rotgut