Okay, so I’m guessing Steve means east of Russia, because I can’t find anything on a Russian settlement on North America’s east coast. So unless he means easterly as in East Russia my guess would have to be Redoubt St. Michael, which was rebuilt into New Archangelsk, then made into Siska.
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Good going on the first two new clues everyone! I’m going to be fairly busy for the next few days, so I think I’ll be lurking on this one. I just wanted to pop in to give my two cents…When looking for the last word, I think it needs to be something that either fits in “take three ____” or has an English word in it that fits that. Like, this might be an instruction for how to finish the actual puzzle or something…so maybe that will help narrow down potential Russian settlements? If anything comes to me, I’ll let you know, but I’ve got my fingers crossed for you guys!
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Here’s what gets me. Steve say’s “Lowest, easterly town the early Russians settled first. Now, going by this it can’t be a settlement that anyone else lived in before hand. So the lowest, easterly settled sight would be Redoubt St. Archangel Michael. The lowest, easterly first settled by Russians would be New Russia, which I think fits the clue Steve was giving by saying “earliest Russians”. Thoughts?
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I’m still seeing “lowest” as an adjustment to the name of the town to get the answer.
I went looking through the list of Russian American settlements again, and (so far) it looks like St. Paul is the oldest town that didn’t have anyone there (even Aleuts) before they got there.
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St. Paul is to far to the west, but because we’re looking at the “early Russians” it would also include the year.
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Thanks to @Ashburn and @Robert’s cleverness, we’ve got the hint that Steve so graciously gave us.
The first one is “Take”
The second is “Three”
And the last clue is “Letters”
The justification for this last one, posted by @Robert:
Lowest
Easterly
Town
The
Earliest
Russians
Settled
First
Letters.
So our hint from Steve is “Take three letters.”
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Oh.
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So, to recap, our solutions to the first part of Steve’s puzzle were:
1 theatrics
3 mayhap
3eaves
3 extoll
2 Penmanship
3 mayhem
2 cartoon
The remaining steps for the puzzle are:
And the hint for the second part of the puzzle is “Take three letters”
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“They have stolen my heart”
Wouldn’t happen to be us, would it? 
Edit: just read the thing, not us (…or not just us?)
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Amazing job you guys!!! Not sure if @Steve will be getting back to us here, but he did post the next (last???) part of the story on Tumblr.
https://yesthatsteve.tumblr.com/post/168406688478/story-the-third
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So, the “heart” that was stolen - it’s the woman’s necklace, that the Silver took and hid in their vault, or so it seems to me.
This may be connected, in some way, to dreams @Augustus_Octavian and I have been having… I have a feeling. Steve is going to be waiting for us in Neithernor.
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I’m slightly disappointed. The one time I get into a puzzle because it’s something Im good at, the answer is something completely different. But there’s next time, hopefully.
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This was me every time I thought an anagram was an answer to a fragment… It never was. sheds a single tear
All contributions to the puzzles are useful though. The more of us that bounce ideas around the better.
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Gosh that took me back. It seemed to happen every fragment that we thought we were so close to an answer only to be miles away.
Edit: Also is Steve in Neithernoor currently?
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That is a good question. It is somewhat vague, is it not?
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You’re trolling us. I know where you were. You should know, I am a person with a particular set of skills. And when I find, which I will do, I will tickle you.
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I can’t wait to research these artifacts!
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Random thought: When the story says “That is until some mountain climbers and an heiress carves through the storm’s heart.” would it be meaning us and Deirdre?
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HUUUH. Now this IS interesting. Looks like we’ll be beating down some silver soon. Im down.
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