I usually bring : primary weapon, claws (to quickly kill off monsters attacking my NPC), ivandis flail (if you dont have this you need to bring a sickle instead), pouch, dwarven army axe, knife (to skin snakes, optional), one basket of strawberries (for the travellers turning into ghasts, although you can choose to make it into a combat event), 2 or 3 prayer potions, some pieces of food. To level your characters quickly, you want them fighting as much as possible. So try to get the monsters to attack you, and turn of auto-retaliate. Choose easy or medium paths at first, otherwise your characters wont hit very often. Good luck.