Poisoned, cursed, rabies, the flu, and mummy-rot? You have a very sadistic DM. Almost as bad as me. In a high-level adventure, characters shouldn't charge into everything. Unless you're Sheuen. She's now started a goal to wrestle anything capable of wrestling back (she started life as a wrestler, actually). Topping her list so far is a Frost Giant prince (she broke his pinky and he ran off crying) and a Age 10 White Dragon (a VERY close one, there). I used to have great fun demonstrating to newbies just how dangerous orcs were. How about thousands of insane, hyper-diseased Hive Orcs that boil out of the ground every few years and run amok eating everything and everyone like a plague of locusts? :)