Not just a PC death, but a TPK (Total Party Kill).
AD&D 1st Edition, the infamous Ravenloft module, being run by a DM who took some pleasure in womping on PCs.
We had fought Strahd (the BBEG vampire), and knocked him to 0hp, causing him to go gaseous and retreat to his crypt. By this point, one of our 9 PCs is dead, and another is a mindless automaton (thanks to drawing a bad card from her Deck of Many Things in a futile effort to raise the dead PC).
We gave chase, and found ourselves in the crypt level of the castle, where there were literally dozens of crypts.
One party member (played by a fairly stupid player) wandered off by himself. He walked through a doorway, which had a Teleportation spell on it. It teleported him into a crypt, and teleported the wight that was inside that crypt into his place. More importantly (as you'll see), it only teleported their bodies. The wight was now wearing all of that PC's *stuff*, including 2 rings of shooting stars (also important for later).
The wight starts wandering around, and our party's cleric spots him. The cleric turns the wight, who goes running off through the doorway to the upper levels.
The cleric comes up to me (a magic-user), and says, "I just turned a wight, it went running out that door, it'll be back in 10 minutes when the turn wears off, do something!"
So, I placed a Fire Trap spell on the doorway, then paced out the area of effect of a Fireball. I found a small side room that would be well outside the AoE of the Fireball, got the rest of the remaining party members into that room, and waited, with a Fireball prepared.
Wight came back, running through the Fire Trap. I hit it with a Fireball. The wight failed both his saves. The sinister DM said, "Now I start making item saving throws." Both Rings of Shooting Stars failed, and the DM ruled that they detonated.
While we were outside the area of effect of the Fireball, we weren't outside the area of the rings' detonation. The DM had us make 2 saving throws; I rolled 2 natural 20s, which was still good for something over 200hp of damage. Obviously, we were all flambe'd.
6 months later, my girlfriend (who had one of the other deceased PCs) and I were at GenCon, in the Exhibit Hall. There's a man sitting at the TSR booth, and his nametag says, "Tracy Hickman." We pointed at him, and yelled "YOU!" He looked up at us, startled, then smiled and said, "Let me guess, Ravenloft."
