I used to play it back then, nice dungeon-crawling game.
Oh, the army encounters in the wilderness.
They were such a pain, until I found out that fleeing was incredibly simple: you had to click on the "Map" monster on the far-left part of the screen and lo, you were back on the map. Weird, though.
(Also, armies seemed to comprise of actual people judging by the encounter screen, but after engaging with them, you saw that they were all monsters. Goblins, Beholders,Minotaurs...not a single human!!!)