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The Coming of Hanuman is a short, simple adventure for Conan the Roleplaying Game available in pdf form only. It is designed for 1st to 3rd level characters. (The adventure notes that higher level characters might be able to fight their way out of situations instead of using diplomacy. However, I can’t see where the adventure assumes the characters will use diplomacy, so to my mind using higher level characters shouldn’t be a problem if the challenge is beefed up.)
In the adventure, the characters begin as members of the Turanian army, on their way to quell a Zuagir uprising in Turan-occupied Shem. Acting on information from a captured Zuagir, the party is sent to scout the purported location of the hiding place of the Zuagir leader. At the location however, they discover a ruined city, where man-apes are holding a large group of Zuagir civilians hostage. The man-apes are led by an ‘Ape Master’ who has been given greater intelligence by sorcery and has attained some sorcery of his own. He intends to breed an army of man-apes and then travel to Zamboula, where he will present himself as Hanuman in the first step towards building a world empire devoted to his glory. (That’s Hanuman the evil ape god of the Conan stories of course, not Hanuman the monkey hero of the Ramayana.) Then the Zuagir army shows up, and then the Turanians, followed shortly by the Ape Master and the rest of his man-ape band. All hell breaks loose. There is no set victory for the PCs in the adventure, though the characters will receive rewards for saving the Zuagir captives, doing their duty by the Turanian army and killing the Ape Master.
It is a simple adventure based on a nice premise. (The two facts that man-apes live in the Kezankain Mountains and Hanuman is worshipped in Zamboula come together well considering that Zamboula lies close to the Kezankian Mountains on the Conan RPG map. However, I’m of the opinion that Zamboula should lie some distance south, which means that this coincidence loses its significance.) The backdrop of the Zuagir insurgency is interesting, and this theme could be extended beyond the adventure. However, the Ape Master is the only notable character in the adventure and the discovery that the Zuagir hideout is actually a man-ape lair is the only twist. There are no other interesting encounters or incidents.
The presentation of the adventure is quite tidy, with the standard Conan page border and decorations. It is in full colour, which is a mistake for a pdf-only book in my opinion; no print-ready version is included. The adventure includes two maps, both of which are largely useless. The first shows two unidentified Xs, one in the desert and the other at the foot of some mountains – giving no more information than this short description. The second shows the ruins (with undefined X, A and B labels) that really acts as no more than an illustration of the ruined city. I also noted that the description of the adventure in the beginning blurb is wrong and that no stats are given for Ravu of Yezud (the sorcerer that awakened the Ape Master) though they are mentioned in the text.
The Coming of Hanuman is listed as $8 on Mongoose’s website but sells for $5.60, so I can’t be too harsh in rating it. It should be borne in mind however, that adventures of a similar length appear in Mongoose’s house organ Signs & Portents, which is available for free download.
