The most fun I ever had in Adventure Mode was when I made a corrupt politician (tons of social skills but no fighting skills), had him recruit a small band of soldiers, hunt a vampire, hack it to pieces, gather that vampire's blood in several dozen mugs, then feed the blood to influential nobles in his home town and out them as vampires. In lore, he was trying to become the ruler, so he would infect them and renounce them for being monsters, leaving no one left in the town influential enough to become Lord except for him.
It was fun because it was a "natural" ascension, so the townspeople didn't hate him for becoming lord and thus there were no insurrections.
About ten years later (a combination of fortress mode and intermediate periods of random adventurers who rarely went anywhere in their careers), I returned to him, infected his hearth-people as vampires, then renounced his lordship, essentially passing it on to his vampiric successors. He then traveled to a vast flatlands a medium distance away from the town and designated a camp, building a great tower. I used the remainder of the goblets filled with vampire blood and made a ritual chamber, where prospective vampires could be transformed (in lore) and join him. This was before the artifact update, but I believe adventurers could still name their weapons and make them artifacts, so he would collect "legendary" weapons from other towns by killing the lords and taking their knives, then name them and put them on display in the treasure room. Finally, he filled the main hall with coffins, a feast table (where he put the bodies of the aforementioned lords), and a throne. I then retired him and made eleven more adventurers, all having them travel to this tower and drink of the goblets, then become his hearthpeople. And so, "The Council of Twelve" was born.
Fast-forward a few years through Fortress Mode again, my fort dies, and I make a new adventurer. Step into the shoes of my vampire hunter. She starts with the politician's home town, ruled by vampires and living in fear of a vast criminal organization living beneath it. As it turns out, many of the vampires have even left the town, blending in across the world. She then began her quest to hunt down all vampires in the world, both the 26 I had created and the 12 that existed naturally in the world, with a vow that she would return and wipe out the Council of Twelve once her mission was complete. I made her exclusively stick to leather, hoods, and cloaks, avoiding any metal armor asides from the odd boot or lone gauntlet, refusing to have matching pairs to help accentuate her Van Helsing-ness. Her weapons? A wooden spear, and a silver short-sword, with a bronze crossbow and silver bolts that she used rarely.