You will eventually meet one of the mages that cast the mind control spell on the army camp, after which the spell will be broken. Until then you can either kill them or avoid them; there is no way to get help earlier. I ran away at first, but when I could not tell General Alix or Captain Mitox about the camp, I returned for the experience points.
Before hitting the gong I had 29 stacks of 50k gold, as well as 59 silver charms and 6 gold charms. By the end of the game I had found or purchased another 60 gold charms.
I also brought about a thousand minor restoration potions with me (I used 3 in the wastelands for healing) and a few hundred regular restoration potions, but as long as I had Alchemy up a couple levels, started making regular restoration or health/mana potions and mixing them. I didn't need the potions, but at least it broke up the hack and slash a bit.
A couple people have had problems with the type of chests that weigh nothing when open.
weight bug and disappearing chests (broken links are fixed in a reply)
If you clear out the Rivertown sewers before going to the castle it will make things a bit easier later.
Part of the black market quest is received in Verdistis, but timing isn't an issue for that. I had Tingalf arrested before going to Verdistis, and upon being asked to investigate a suspected black market dealer, I could immediately say that that had been taken care of, to complete the last portion of the quest. There are other places in the quest that can get partly broken if they are done too much out of the expected order (checking the quest log can help, as it contains additional information).
