Well, something else happened, involving phantom levels.
I started a new game. Last night, in the caravan battle I had an issue where Scarlet did not start with bandages in her inventory. (Screenshot 1, either Log 1 or 2). I managed to complete the scenario anyway. (Luckily it was Lakshmi again, that happened to me before, in a previous version of the game. The battle was impossible).
Now, tonight, in the Rescuing Meridian battle, Zimmer is starting at level 9 and equipped with a longbow! (Screenshot 2, Log 3) I'm tempted to just accept it and keep playing, but it would bother me throughout the game. So reverting back to an earlier save.
Also, there are still significant equipment loss issues. In fact, that is why I started the game again. And it is happening again already. I've been trying to back up my saves multiple times. (Question, how does the auto-save feature work? Does it always save to the last file that you saved to?). So, I have three saved games, all at the start of Rescuing Meridian, all three with different sets of inventory. (And yes Zimmer is lv9 in all three of them). One has all the stuff that a should have, one is lacking quite a bit, and the other is lacking even more. The screenshots (#s 3,4 and 5) only show the party inventory screen, you'll have to take my word for it that the missing equipment isn't hiding in anyone's backpack. (Logs 4,5 and 6).