Clearing the last opponents in southern Broken Valley and 'failing' the bandit ambush quest brought me up to level 12, a couple bandits before reaching the last of Bellegar's shrines. I then headed to the bandit camp and did a couple quests there. I entered the Temple of Doom, but my creature didn't seem very interested in going after the first skeleton, and I wasn't very interested in standing around waiting for skeletons to stay in range long enough to shoot a few times, so reloaded (intending to return when I got a head for my creature).
After that I used the scrying stone, getting some earrings from Toshan with +2 Hide in Shadows, +2 Intelligence and a level 6 Poison Aura enchantment. Right now I'm sticking to my +2 Poison Arrows earrings, but Hide in Shadows may come in handy.

The summoned demon at the ancient monument game me an amulet with +2 Ranger Stealth, +2 Heightened Reflexes, 2 charm slots and a level 1 Spontaneous Combustion enchantment. When not turning in quests, and once I get to another open area, I'll have to switch to this rather than the Talisman of the North.

With few opponents left in Broken Valley, I decided to do the quest for the miller (much easier on level 12 than doing it in D2:ED on level 4, though the resulting loot was poor, unsurprisingly), then remembered the Hellgate that I didn't even try on level 11. On the third summoning, I had trouble with the warrior Rush Attacking me, and had to reload a couple times. Then I moving a little farther away, but still in range, and he decided to switch to a bow rather than Rush Attack me multiple times, and was easy to kill (bringing me up to level 13). The demon (who probably would have been easy even on level 12) dropped a ring with a +0.05 healing rate bonus and a level 1 spontaneous combustion enchantment (it might be useful with a better enchantment, but by then I'll likely have better rings anyway).

I talked to Lovis on level 10, but reloaded when 4 tries opening the chest by the throne resulted in merely gold and potions. I returned on level 13, and started getting better loot. However, once it gave me creature parts I decided to reload looking for a ranger or mage head; in about a dozen tries (back and forth while doing dishes, etc) I was just offered a warrior head. Then I thought to myself "self, this is boring; take the warrior head or come back later", so we... um, I... decided to come back later.
I brought up my quest log, to pick some to complete, then decided I'd rather kill stuff, and headed to the fjords. Clearing down the path until just past the teleporter brought me up to level 14. I think I'll keep going and try for level 15, then head back to Lovis' tower and Maxos' temple. I just have to make sure there are enough opponents left to level before heading to Sentinel Island.