Yeah, that one is hard to figure out. I died a lot to it when I was a newbie.
I think a good way out of that would be that the mud sticks to your face for a given time (say, 1000 turns) and then dissolves. So you can clean your face, getting an Ap bonus, or you can wait it out, getting *twice* the Ap bonus.
That would both help newbies a little bit (they would at least be able to survive) and add a bit of a decision for experienced players (shall I play 1000 turns blind to get more bonus?) (yes, I know Ap is largely irrelevant, but well... one can always roleplay).
The only reason why I don't run to post this as an RFE is that it would rule out the possibility of being blind the whole game, as Soirana did.
I think a nice improvement to ADOM would be the option to voluntarily start a character with a defect or disability (deaf, blind, limp - movement costs 1.5x the EP -, etc.) This would be fun both for challenge games and for roleplaying (I've always liked tabletop RPG's where the PC could have a defect).