Next time give him a fully upgraded club and crude bow, or go all in and full upgraded troll armor or something. That is your body fetching gear -- your second best weapons and troll sneak + your best food = recovery unless you got really screwed (rafted over to the plains and camped by a furby army kind of thing).
But recovery of your stuff is part of it. I did a new one and left a body in a crypt (** toxic skeleton and first venture into the forest) for a while, it was easier to just make new stuff and kill the guy than try to get past him to recover and then put it on and then fight.