The black ring guards in the quarry tower can be left until much later. In fact that is the only quest in Broken Valley that you will be able to complete after you have the battle tower; any other open quests will fail and most NPCs will no longer be available. There is a warning before that happens, though.
You get the talisman of the north by using the other 3 in the correct order at a statue in the middle of the derelict tunnels (where you can also find the talisman of the south):
Talismans.
Parchment ScrollsAt the start of Maxos temple, what is broken around there? It may help to break any crates, etc and loot the place to help find what the clue in the book is referring to.
You need to use a vase, like a lever, to open the locked door.
Once you finish Maxos temple, you will get access to sentinel island. Your first encounter there you can mindread to go up a level, so the higher level you are (I made it to level 18 in the fjords) the more of an experience bonus that will be. You don't need to get to a high level, but it would be better if you got to a new level before entering, to get a full level bonus.
In the temple of doom, you can avoid the poison if you stay on the trail of blood and bodies. There is one spot you will need to jump onto a raft to get over to the next section, but at level 15 you shouldn't have much problem with brief exposures to the poison.
Talk to the necromancer, enchanter and alchemist; once you start using their services, any new parts or formula in your inventory will be added to their list. Whatever remains are duplicates, which can be sold.
Any merchant with gold should buy gems, minerals and plants. If you don't need them for potions or equipment enchantments, you can sell or destroy them (keep any malachite gems you have, but any common ingredients can be easily replaced once you have the battle tower; you will also have a chest then, where you can store everything you don't want to keep in your main inventory).
Once you have the battle tower you can unlearn all your skills and re-invest the points elsewhere, for a price. The cost doubles each time you unlearn skills, but you should have plenty of gold to do so 2 or 3 times, if you wanted to.
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