[NPC] Kingdom of Bithynia

[Shmiggles]

Another Monarch enters Hades

Zippoetes was merry. While initially quite worried over Nicomedes' alliance with the Eumeniads, the newly arranged alliance with the Leonnatids was sure to tip the scales back in his favor. Soon Nicomedes would be crushed, his rule unchallenged, and a useful ally gained.

In his confidence of things to come, Zippoetes had relaxed his guard and taken to feasting and drinking, as well as nightly orgies. One night his retainers bring him a Sogdian girl called Stateira. They give him their personal recommendations of her, as she has apparently worked through all of them at some point and left them all rather satisfied, and she notably has a technique involving silken ropes that sets her apart from most courtesans. To the drunken and slovenly Zippoetes this sounds an intriguing prospect (roll success) and he invites her into his chambers for the night.

In the morning the corpse of Zippoetes is found strapped to his bedposts by silken ropes with his eyes closed and an idiotic grin on his face. As first the cause of death is unclear, but after careful examination a small cut is found in his thigh, and it is later determined that he had been poisoned via some small sharp object. Stateira is nowhere to be found. The subsequent ascension of Nicomedes to the throne of Bithynia is swift and unhindered.