ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I just started a Shaloren AM, beaten the Abashed Expanse and Trollmire... then I realized I don't have a Rod of Recall. The boss of the Expanse was in the void when I killed it, so I don't think I've picked up any loot there. So...

Q1: Would I have picked up a Rod of Recall back in the Expanse if the boss had died in the void?
Q2: If I had picked up the Rod, would it have been in my transmorg chest (aka I accidentally transmorged it)? For all my other characters it's been automatically placed in the quest and plot items list, though.
Q3: Would I be able to access the Fortress without the rod?

In other words... should I restart?

when an enemy is killed on a tile you can't access (the void, in a wall, etc...) its loot is teleported in a random accessible spot.

so if you didn't go looking for the loot, it stayed in the abashed expanse and you can't get it anymore.
Restart, otherwise you will get stuck in alt maze or alt SWL, and the game is gonna be much more of a pain anyway even if you don't. Luckily you're still at the beginning !

Oooh. Well... I'm glad I posted this in the Dumb Questions section instead of the Bugs one.

Thanks for the reply--didn't even think about alt-SWL/Maze. That's definitely going to be no fun. I restarted and managed to kill the boss on solid (?) land this time and everything is going swimmingly.

*goes and deletes previous char*

PS: Btw thank you for all your guides! They've been a great help to a newbie like me.