This game is incredible. No one's making games like this anymore, particularly for browser. I love the items, the animation, and the art. I'm so impressed you've done all this by yourself.
Turns out it was user error! Load Village was checked, not Generate Village, so there was nothing to load. However after getting killed 3 times the game quit. I just reopened it and I spawned topside with my inventory intact.
I don't understand how combat works. The combat section basically just says there aren't rules for combat other than some flavor about how it should feel.