Besides Adventurers Guild, there is a spell (I forget the name of it) which allows you to convert mana into experience points. That too can be used to level Govs in cities (if you have the mana to spare).
Now that the game is out of beta, I think what these forums could really use is a section devoted to sharing game strategies only. There are strategy threads here yes, but they are few and far between, and hard to find amongst all the minor bug reports This section would then hopefully form the nucleus for strategy FAQ and/or wiki.
Yeah I've had this happen to me before, in the non-campaign too (when playing the beta). You leader just decides to die before combat even begins, and thus you go into the battle one short. It's a somewhat rare occurrence, but it is happening.
[quote who="KingHobbit" reply="3" id="3255925"] What monsters work with the collar? I have never been able to get it to work, and I usually just get killed trying to use it.[/quote] Only works on Beasts, IIRC.