So I decide to pack up my minotaur adventurer and leave my starting region for greener, more bandit-infested pastures. The random direction I chose happened to include a fortress, so I decided to bring a few soldiers with me. Enter Lokum Kobemthob, hammerer. He gets a few minor injuries between wild boar, raptor, and kobold attacks, but nothing too serious until I decide to cross a mountain range. Lokum took a nasty tumble off a slope and got his hoof ripped off by a raptor, and loses his grip on his hammer.
I pretty much wrote him off at that point, but he stubbornly continued to follow me. That is, until he spotted a passing cat. After waving a fond farewell, I continued on my way across the mountain range. I retired in an abandoned dark fortress for a while. Afterwards I continued my trek, passing over two more mountain ranges and fighting off dozens of murderous dinosaurs and giant boars. Several weeks later I FINALLY find another settlement. No quests there. So I cross ANOTHER mountain range, and find a human civ that actually has a few jobs for me. After spending the night there, I notice a familiar blinking '@' sign around the corner. There stood good old Lokum, as beat up as I left him, but decked out in a whole bunch of kobold bone/nail/tooth jewelry. I assume he made them from kobolds that ambushed us during our travels.
Does this sort of thing happen often?