It would be publicized. If the warrior reads the MOTD or announcements board he would know about the change, and could then *choose* whether to re-enter the explore area to loot his corpse or just wait for it to decay.

Here's the sort of thing I'm trying to prevent:

Dude enters explore area, does something stupid, starts trying to get out. He dies to poison/bleeding/etc. one room short of the area exit. Now he has to wait 15 minutes real-time for his corpse to decay before he can get his things. Anyone who locates his corpse can walk in and loot without having to fight a single mob. Anyone, that is, except Dude himself since he's still a ghost.