Complex Event Processing (CEP) is the method of choice for the observation of system states and situations by means of events. A number of systems have been introduced that provide CEP in selected environments. Some are restricted to centralised systems, or to system with synchronous communication, or to a limited space of event relations that are defined in advance. Many modern systems, though, are inherently distributed and asynchronous, and require a more powerful CEP. We present Cordies, a distributed system for the detection of correlated events that is designed for the operation in large-scale, heterogeneous networks and adapts dynamically to changing network conditions. With its expressive language to describe event relations, it is suitable for environments where neither the event space nor the situations of interest are predefined but are constantly adapted.