I'm glad I could be of some help. I really liked this game too.
Now, for your other questions:
For which equipment to keep and not to keep, sometimes that is hard to say. Some items are magic, some offer better protection and then you have to consider how much everything weighs on top of it all! I know you have Gothmog in your party (he was in mine too). I don't know if you still have it, but he was wearing something on his chest with a moon or something on it. He was the first one I used to figure out about magic items. Wear the shirt (or whatever it is), check his stats, take off the shirt, check his stats and something changes. It was one of his stats being less without the shirt than with it. The same method applies with items that are cursed. If you wear the cursed item, your stats will go down, not up, if the item is worn.
The rabbit's foot is supposed to boost your luck. I could never figure out if it was just luck for hitting things or for spells too. I could also never figure out if your character had to have it in their hand or just in inventory. The theory is, every character has a certain amount of luck. Let's say your luck is 100. You try to hit an opponent and would ordinarily miss, but your luck helps you and you hit instead. Your luck would then decrease. So if you rely on luck to hit (or cast spells?) and your luck score goes to zero? As the saying goes, you are out of luck or your luck just ran out. At some point during the game, I decided I was going to rely on skill rather than luck, then threw the rabbit's foot away.
Sorry about the water on the ground, but it was worth a try. The snakes and the traps
. Now I guess you know why the snakes have wings near their heads. I think the green walking trunks are supposed to be some kind of slime monster. I thought they were the second worst drawn monster in the game. At least you have the worst drawn monster in the game to look forward to!