Hi Josellis,
The death realm can be a real pain to get out of. While using -fullbright is a cheat, sometimes it's the only way to see where you're going without getting a new monitor. When I first started playing Planeshift, the nights were so dark that you couldn't see anything even by Harnquist's store. To solve it, I would cheat by having Warcraft running in the background because it made everything brighter.
A better solution is to move slowly, use 3rd person perspective, follow others, and to avoid dying.