{"id":620,"date":"2025-12-09T17:37:31","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T17:37:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.koltrasten.com\/?p=620"},"modified":"2025-12-09T17:37:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T17:37:31","slug":"kingmaker-episode-16-codename-mariana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.koltrasten.com\/?p=620","title":{"rendered":"Kingmaker\u00a0Episode 16: Codename\u00a0Mariana"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sequence of Events<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The group realized they needed a new password to gain entry to the&nbsp;<strong>Stag Lord&#8217;s Fort<\/strong>, as the old one had likely expired. The hunt for a living bandit to interrogate began with a walk that, thanks to&nbsp;<strong>Aurelio<\/strong>&#8216;s sense of direction, mostly went in circles until they finally found tracks. The tracks led to a rocky terrain where&nbsp;<strong>Gassi<\/strong>, instead of climbing, conjured an enormous magic staircase (level 2!) that allowed the group to comfortably reach a strategic vantage point above a bandit camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Down there waited not only bandits but also a terrifying\u00a0<strong>Bismatic Ogre<\/strong>.\u00a0<strong>Zogg<\/strong>\u00a0opened by casting a spell that caused the giant Ogre to collapse into an uncontrolled fit of laughter, which made the battle significantly easier.\u00a0<strong>Aurelio<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>Nym<\/strong>\u00a0cleaned up the foot soldiers while\u00a0<strong>Linzi<\/strong>\u00a0contributed with inspiring murderousness. After the battle, the group found some loot, including a finely forged silver mace that\u00a0<strong>Aurelio<\/strong>\u00a0immediately claimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The most important moment, however, came during the interrogation of the sole surviving bandit. While&nbsp;<strong>Zogg<\/strong>&nbsp;scared the life out of the prisoner by eating meat in a particularly unpleasant manner and threatening with fire,&nbsp;<strong>Gassi<\/strong>&nbsp;played &#8220;good cop.&#8221; The tactic succeeded, and the bandit revealed the password: &#8220;<strong>Mariana<\/strong>&#8221; (The answer to the question &#8220;Who goes there?&#8221;).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The group later encountered a group of zombies at the palisade.&nbsp;<strong>Aurelio<\/strong>&nbsp;enthusiastically tested his new silver weapon, convinced that &#8220;undead hate silver,&#8221; but learned the hard way that zombies apparently don&#8217;t care about the denomination of the metal.&nbsp;<strong>Gassi<\/strong>&nbsp;had to step in with healing magic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With this information, the group marched straight up to the&nbsp;<strong>Stag Lord&#8217;s Fort<\/strong>. The password worked! They were let in and led to a large hall where bandits sat playing cards. But the bluff didn&#8217;t last long. When&nbsp;<strong>Gassi<\/strong>&nbsp;pointed out a specific, dangerous man among the bandits and ordered them to surrender, chaos broke out. Tables tipped over, weapons were drawn, and&nbsp;<strong>Zogg<\/strong>&nbsp;was brusquely thrown across the room by the mysterious, strong bandit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Great Mysteries &amp; Clues<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>The Strong Bandit:<\/strong>\u00a0Who is the man inside the fort who seems significantly more dangerous and competent than the other bandits? He tossed\u00a0<strong>Zogg<\/strong>\u00a0around like a rag doll. Is this the traitor\u00a0<strong>Kesten<\/strong>\u00a0spoke of, or some other high-ranking lieutenant?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The Monster in the Cage:<\/strong>\u00a0At the far end of the hall, there is a large portcullis. Someone is desperately trying to open it during the fight, and\u00a0<strong>Linzi<\/strong>\u00a0notes that the sound of the lung capacity from within suggests something enormous.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cliffhanger<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The battle rages inside the fort&#8217;s main building. The group is surrounded by bandits interrupted in their card game, and the&nbsp;<strong>Stag Lord<\/strong>&nbsp;himself has just made an entrance and approached the group! While&nbsp;<strong>Zogg<\/strong>&nbsp;tries to recover from his flight, the heavy portcullis at the end of the room slowly slides up. A dark roar and the sound of heavy claws against stone echo out. Something big, hungry, and not human is about to join the party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sequence of Events The group realized they needed a new password to gain entry to the&nbsp;Stag Lord&#8217;s Fort, as the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal-entries","category-ttrpg"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.koltrasten.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.koltrasten.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.koltrasten.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.koltrasten.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.koltrasten.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=620"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.koltrasten.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":621,"href":"https:\/\/www.koltrasten.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620\/revisions\/621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.koltrasten.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.koltrasten.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.koltrasten.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}