Item - Down Among the Dead Men

This book is worth checking out, but it is fiendishly difficult. I still haven't beaten it.

The story begins with an escape from your evil pirate captor. You and three companions must sail a long way to shore while avoiding recapture, starvation, and death by exposure. This part of the book is highly enjoyable, on par with Heart of Ice. There are several routes you can take, and the obstacles you will face are straight out of seafaring lore: storms, mermaids, a ghost ship, islands whose inhabitants may or may not be friendly, etc. Expect to lose many Life Points, and hope that you have chosen the right set of skills to get through.

If you make it to shore, the second part of the adventure follows your attempt to foil the evil pirate's plan to kidnap the queen. This is where the book gets very frustrating. Having survived the sea voyage, probably by the skin of your teeth, your adventure is likely to conclude simply because you don't have enough money or the right combination of skills and items. There are at least three such checkpoints that will end the story, and they appear to be unavoidable. So far I have failed to find a path that gives me all the things I need. It just seems odd to me that there are so many ways to navigate the first part of the book but most of them prevent you from progressing through the second part. This flaw detracts from what would otherwise be a great book.

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