Sigh. The bolt of green-white lightning that's supposed to kill me (according to the walkthru) after I get the first key simply stays in place, like a skinny light bulb with me in it. Clearly a game fault (the mapping of the lightening is truncated). Anything I can do?
O.

a) reload from a previous save
b) reload form the autosave that gets saved when you enter the tomb room

if it continues to happen then download the patch and install, if you already have the patch then delete all the contents of your cache folder, if that fails then un-install, then re-install. if all that fails then try a full install if you have the space, if it is already fully installed then try running it off the disc.

Now THAT'S an agenda! Much obliged Herf. But tell me: in the event that it's a question of deleting and reinstalling, what must I save to recover my chars once everything is in place again?
O.

nothing, when you re-install your saved games will still be there exactly the same.
just make sure you un-install rather than delete the torment folder.