Stop at 15.

Go east of Arkham (whatever that place is called) with the possessed villagers.

Make sure you have a shitton of -ac items (entwined rings, etc.) In fact, at low level, you should always gear like this (not damage).

Go around and collect the possessed villagers. Be careful you don't get a shade or that goblin nutsack.

In the portion that has the possessed villagers (who track you), there is a room that they can't go to - I think a child is there? Have them track either east or south of that location, and sleep there to rest up.

Attack, flee, rinse and repeat.

Takes maybe 5-10 hours. 2-3 hours if you 're a drow/elf/etc.

Keep in mind, that at this point, I usually get the respective defenses to 80% by having a bunch of creatures at the hamsah docks attack me.

Also, the key is GREAT AC. That's why I usually spend 1 or 2 hours at low level gathering items and coins. Rings are obvious for AC, for neck I usually get iron collar, some of the cloaks from the dwarves in mortorn (near the first door with the key). There are also some pretty good AC armors that you can buy (not necessarily from the bazaar) - can't remember them off the top of my head.