- I've noticed that often the journal icon turns red, but when I click the journal, nothing has changed. This is easy to spot since I only have one journal entry in there so far that says I need to escape from the lava island. An example is when I rescued the two imps. First I rescued the imp that complained about torture, then I rescued the imp that told me to rescue the first imp. Journal gets red, but when I look, no new entry in there.
Cuz you have the quest filter on. After you rescued the first imp you got a quest to rescue the second. After you rescue the second the quest ends and is marked as completed. The quest filter makes it so your journal doesn't show completed quests. So all those time it turns red but you see nothing is because a quest just finished and was removed from your viewable journal. Just turn the filter off to see them.
I was red to tibers when I talked to the chief, they don't attack until after the conversation is over. So as soon as he's done talking just have your hero leave the hut and help the DK kill the tibers.
I didn't get a map marker for the alch either, but he's in an underground hut to the east of the town in the "forest" area. The marker will appear on your map after you go into the hut and then leave.