Attaining 23d level was short lived for me:-(. Here is what happened.
Would like to hear what some of you would have done in my shoes.

After getting great XP the past two nights fighting evil eyes in Beholder
with relative ease (plus gaining 23d level), I adventured there again last
night. The previous two nights, I had been grouped with a 22d level
paladin. At times other parties were camping the place where the evil eyes
and named Lords spawn but after those parties left the paladin and I were
still able to hold our own. The evil eye spawns were staggered on each side
of the rock so we had time to med/heal in between combats plus kill the
green/blue minos that also spawn nearby. Basically we were very efficient.

Last night when I logged on late there was only me (23 bard at the time) and
a 25 warrior in the zone. We teamed up and headed to the evil eye spawn
site. As we moved down the path that leads to the evil eye spawn, green
minos started attacking us. These were tougher than normal because
apparently the evil eyes buffed them with all kinds of enchanter spells. We
killed them all but had to heal before going down to the gorge. A 19
paladin soon joined the party and I assumed that with three of us things
would be much easier.

The three of us made our way down to the gorge with me singing the invis
song. This tactic didn't work because the evil eyes had buffed the minos
with See Invis. Once again we got jumped but were able to kill the minos.
We then made our way to the gorge and healed up before attacking the eyes.
There was an eye and a Lord on each side of the rock. We went after the
Lord first. I weaved Guardian and Elemental with drum equipped and let the
two fighters tank. Not 10 seconds into the combat, all hell broke loose.
Tons of minos and muddites appeared out of nowhere. I got stunned and was
unable to keep the resist songs up. Eventually all three of us were slammed
with spells. Charm, Darkness, Whirl, etc. Basically the entire enchanter
spell list got dumped on us. The other two parties members died and I was
able to zone out with less than 50HP remaining.

I knew it would almost be impossible for just the three of us to
successfully camp the evil eye spawn site. All we wanted to do was retrieve
their corpses and get out of there. Unfortunately, we couldn't go in Invis
because everything could see us due to the eyes buffing the minos with See
Invis.

Here was my quandry and what I would like feedback on. I told them that in
my opinion I didn't think that the three of us, me the only one with all my
gear, could successfully retrieve their corspes. They had died while under
charm and didn't even know exactly where their corpses where. It was very
late, after midnight Hawaii time. I suggested they wait until tomorrow when
more people were online and the zone was much safer. They pleaded with me
to help them. Knowing what it feels like to be in that situation, I decided
to forgo common survivability sense and helped them get their corpses.

I told them I would run down into the gorge and get everythings attention
and then lead everything to a zone. Hopefully, that would clear the area
and they could go in and use /corpse to pull their corpses back to a safe
location. Not the best plan but with Selos and my resist songs I thought we
had a chance. The first time I tried running to the Runnyeye zone. I died
about 5 feet from the border. Second time I never made it out of the gorge.
To rub salt in the wound, neither one of them was able to loot their corpse,
I went back to 22d level, and now my corspe is back in the gorge (had to
camp because it was late and I wasn't gonna try again).

What would you guys have done in my shoes? I didn't want the guys to think
I was bugging out on them by not helping them get their corpse. If someone
did that to me, I would probably never group with them again. I felt like I
was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

This pain would be lessened if I could get resurrected. However, there are
no clerics in my guild high enough to cast the spell so I would have to get
assistance from someone who doesn't know me. Anyone have a suggestion on
what I should offer (money/items) that would be worth their time to stop
whatever they are doing and help me out?

To all those who subscribe to the digest, I apologize for the extremely long
post.

Galtin the Depressed