Oof. It's coming back to me now: an unwelcome thing in these gold box games: instant death from poison.

It's true to the game, but constantly having to restart because important characters get killed isn't much fun. Might be time to edit in a few Neutralize Poison scrolls. ;)

There are two kinds of dead in the GB game. Dead from poison can be cured with Neutralize Poison, but wait to long and the character turns into the other kind of dead for which you need Raise Dead (and -1 Con) or Resurrect.
Of you don't have NP, you can try using the 2nd level Slow Poison and head for a Temple.

Yeah, it's fixable, but the part of the game where I am you can't get to a temple (it's inside a dungeon) in time to save those characters. You have to keep reloading until you can get your characters into a tactically advantageous position before any of them get killed. Which is kind of tedious. It's a reminder that those early games were not for players who grew attached to their characters! :)

It has to do with the changing economics of video games, I think. Back in 1988 when POR came out, the games were supposed to be tough. There were a lot fewer games out there back then, so you expected one you bought to last you a while. If it was too easy, it was over too soon and you felt ripped off.