Smoke and Fire?

[Slippery Jim]

What does it mean when there is a pillar of smoke?

And when there is a patch of fire floating in the air, same question.

For the smoke I suspect that a big enemy that spawns in a particular spot has been temporarily killed and the smoke marks the spot. I was tying to get the warrant out of the Outpost in that cave with all the soldiers, and there is a rather nasty 18 or so level Undead Bandit that comes out of the ground near the entrance. It killed me about a dozen times. Later, when I went back that smoke was there and I stayed and fought several undead, soldiers and other cave-dwellers, but that high-level undead never appeared.

For the fire, I have no idea. It seems completely random. I've seen in burning at the top of the prison cell across from me more than once.