Seas of Blood, more tries

Well, I’ve played a few more times and Seas of Blood is really kicking my butt. About half of the time, I’ve been killed in the second scene and I’m not sure how winnable this book really is.

First play today:

• We headed south to Enraki and I killed the abbot of the warrior-priests. Got a cool +2 sword for it, too!
• Next stop was the Rivers of the Dead, where I fell into a cave, got sprayed in the face with acid, then insta-killed when a skeleton grabbed onto my wrist and wouldn’t let go.

Second play today:

• Went west to the Scythera Desert to raid the village. With my crummy Crew Strike of 7, between the village’s militia and the lizard men I was reduced to 1 Crew Strength.
• Went to Assur to pick up some more crew, but my luck of 7 meant slim pickings and I had to spend all of my gold to get 4 crew (now 5).
• But, we heard about a shrine up the river to some gods of pestilence. I’m not sure why a pirate would care about this at all, but it’s a FF book so you know there’s some required item.
• Inside the shrine was bird man with a staff that hits for skill and luck damage! Ouch!
• But it doesn’t count for much, because on the next page the tunnel collapsed and I was insta-killed.

I’ll keep at it, but I admit that it’s becoming a bit tedious.

EDIT: I just checked out Champskees’ walkthrough, then re-read the rules in the book… No wonder I’ve had such a rough time. Crew Strength is 6 + 2d6 and I’ve been using 1d6. However, I also see a note that even with a perfect 12/24/12/12/18 there’s still only a 77% chance of winning, and 0 for any stats below that. Hmmm.