While on this subject, it seems to me(?) that sometimes when an equipped mage (mine or enemy, I guess) dies/gets killed I "find" item(s), sometimes not (and they disappear).  Is that about right?  Is there a "percentage" for finding items?  If a guy wearing/carrying one dies and nobody else is left in the province, does the item disappear forever, or can later entrants "stumble acroos it"?
That sort of thing? 
