Contest of Brews

They did,

Reputation: Brewmaster of Katapesh

2D Rep?

Permanently? What happened?

Yeah, he tired to mess with the other contenders, failed a binding spell, failed his tax -> (knocking his fort to zero) DoF 1: and summoned a mid-tier devil.
Malathrax (The Devil) got a free ride to the material plane and is going to do what he does best in a huge middle east inspired freemarket city, buy some souls!

He’ll show up later in the game.

Come to think of it, does having your forte stat dropped to zero knock you out?

Yes, taking physical stats to zero incapacitates you. It’s coma time until it recovers to at least one.