Recently, something strange happened to me in Adventure Mode, but which I was only able to fully understand with Legends Mode.
Entering a town called Bindeagle for the first time with a fresh adventurer (a human female named Lershi Ceruslenshi (yes, "Bottledskunk")), I talked to a goblin and found that I could Report Success/Spread News, which was weird because I hadn't killed anyone at all at that point. Apparently my adventurer took credit for killing two people she had never even seen (although they were probably visible through a sewer grate or something). Later, after earning some kills in the city dungeon, she visited a temple and randomly accused the "first flier," a goblin, of being a Night Creature. It wasn't exactly the smartest thing to do, but it turned out the goblin was a vampire, so my adventurer ran to the city walls to collect some help to take it down. On her way, she passed through a shop—and into a murder scene. Some random pikedwarf was slaughtering a shop full of dwarves, including one soldier dwarf (the city was mostly dwarves, with some goblins, and very few humans, even though the town belonged to a human civ). After the rogue pikedwarf was dead, my adventurer combed through the murder scene, looking for clues about its motivation. Being the incredible detective that she was, she noted that the dwarf's pike listed a human kill, but she could not find a human body anywhere nearby. After killing the vampire, she made the mistake of trying to deposit the bodies of the shop massacre victims in the city catacombs, which, okay, I was not expecting a mummy such a short way away from the surface, nor did I expect my adventurer to dodge the mummy's attacks by jumping down a Z-level straight into the mummy. It was ridiculous, but now at least I could check out Legends Mode. At first I assumed that the rogue pikedwarf was a minion of the vampire goblin, because they were the only two denizens of the city that I had seen with human bone/teeth jewelry, but when I checked Legends Mode it got much more interesting.
The chain of events, as near as I can reconstruct it, goes like this:
*When Lershi (adventurer) entered Bindeagle, she claimed responsibility for the deaths of Athra and Naspa.
*Naspa and Athra were members of The Geese of Helping, a criminal gang with a feel-good name. Naspa, an elf, was its leader up until her death. Athra, a human, was a mook.
*Naspa and Athra were killed by Tawki and Uthra, dwarven members of The League of Reigns, another criminal gang. In fact, The League of Reigns was the most prominent gang in Bindeagle.
*Tawki was killed by Bemta, a Goose of Helping, but that chain of events cuts off.
*Uthra was killed by Lasiv, a human Goose of Helping.
*Lasiv was killed by Erod, a pikedwarf and a member of The League of Reigns.
So far it's a straightforward gang war, all happening beneath my adventurer's feet as she enters the city (I presume). For whatever reason, the fight that originally took place on the South side of the city migrated to the North side, which is where Dothan comes in.
*Dothan becomes an enemy of the League of Reigns and Erod kills Dothan, Semod (Dothan's wife), and four anonymous dwarves.
*Erod is killed by Lershi.
Why Dothan? I have no idea what he did to piss The League of Reigns off. Probably he just happened to be near Erod at the time. However, his backstory provides some clues.
Dothan was a gemsetter who had lived in Bindeagle since around the beginning of the third century. He may have been the soldier dwarf I found dead—it was the only soldier in the entire city that I had seen wearing armor, oddly enough—but I'm not sure. I am sure, however, that he participated in an attack on a Dark Fortress, Growledwitches, where he killed a troll, and that he killed two criminals in two other towns in the same civilization (Rereomon). Nac Admiredair, an overlord of some bandit group, was killed by Dothan in Kegtempt. Tadin Bowmagic, a criminal in Reinmint, had his right eye pulled out by Dothan before Dothan struck him down.
This opens up a whole new way to look at events. The slaughter in the shop now reads as a mafia-style hit, a massacre to intimidate vigilantes and law enforcers, orchestrated by the vicious League of Reigns. Quite frankly, it's pretty darn cool that all of this happened while I was doing my own thing with my adventurer, and that I was able to cross paths with something happening more or less independent of my own actions.
But wait, there's more!
*After killing the vampire priestess, Zin Thamopra, who had profaned the temple of the strength-goddess Lecit three years prior in 247, Lershi Bottledskunk the Sprayed Decline of Bodies took the body of Semod to The Massive Sanctuary, the city catacombs.
*There, Lershi awakened the mummy of Irud Akanbengel, a Law-Giver of Rereomon who had died in 215. Her three soldier companions were killed and Semod was reanimated by Irud.
*Lershi was killed by Irud after foolishly dodging an attack by jumping down a ramp and straight into Irud.
*Lershi was reanimated by Irud.
Visiting the scene later with a demigod adventurer, I found Lershi's backpack and weapons and Irud's right hand lying on the ground just outside the entrance to the catacombs. Weird; I had no idea Irud's hand had been cut off. I wonder if Lershi did it, or if one of the soldiers did it and it was moved by [arglebargle forces]?