I think many others have shared this experience. Urkki, a male human priest blessed by the RNG, is taking on perhaps the most difficult obligatory fight in the game, "bouncing ideas back and forth" with Nuurag-Vaarn. With ideas I mean the Rune-covered trident and Death bolt. This had been going on for a while, and I had ran out of potions of ultra healing. Well, the archmage was almost dead so I thought there would be no point in retreating to use my slower healing methods. I'll just pray, that's what priests are supposed to do anyway, right?
Next thing I know Urkki is dead, blasted to death by Nuurag-Vaarn. Doesn't seem to make sense, so I checked the message buffer.
Turns out it had gone something like this: "Father, I think I'm dying! Would you please heal me?" "Yeah, that's great, Son. Have some pick axes."
I wasn't even mad, the situation was simply so surreal. We had a good laugh about it with my wife, who doesn't play the game. "I prayed for healing but received shovels and died" sounds like a very special nightmare...
I've played this game for such a long time that I know there are an insane number of ways you can get killed. I should have known better. The problem is, I have played this game for so long that I always come prepared with loads of pick axes, wands of digging or the mystic shovel spell and it never even crosses my mind that pick axes would be a problem.
And, when you think about it, this feature is very bizarre: these are some of the toughest fights in the game. You would assume that your abilities and resources function the way they always do, with certain limitations, such as no teleportation. Then, suddenly, instead of healing, you receive a bunch of pick axes. In my opinion, this is actually a design flaw, especially for classes relying on "divine power". I can't imagine any level 36+ late game hero without access to wands of digging or pick axes (both are dropped by the purple dwarves of Chaosforge).
I have also included the .flg for anyone who might be interested. There was no scumming, this character was truly blessed by the RNG (found two Wands of wishing, two djinni rings and a tension room full of black unicorns for those sweet, sweet Potions of cure corruption).