Zenobius and the Bawdy Baboon

Hello, dear traveller, Darren here. Our new adventures begin as we board Zenobius' ship The Clytemnestra, take sail, and visit ports around the civilised (but perhaps not so savoury) known Roman world...

Discover how Zenobius began life in the article "Introducing Zenobius from Concept to Creation".

Welcome to Portus Oplontis: 

A sun-slicked tangle of crates, curses, and coin, its stench nestled snugly between the lights of Pompeii and Herculaneum. It’s the kind of dock where everything’s for sale, especially silence.
Today, however, silence is in short supply. A ship of dubious patronage and even more questionable paperwork has drifted into port under the command of one Zenobius the Cilician; erstwhile sailor, smuggler, self-proclaimed merchant for hire, and suspected of less salubrious acts.

The harbour master’s been itching to collar him for months, but alas, no reasonable proof of activities exists. That is… until now.

One of Zenobius’ prized baboons has escaped his ship, The Clytemnestra, and is currently turning Oplontis upside down. Between the colourful language, broken amphorae and riotous merchants, our hero is attempting to conclude business that both he and his client would rather the authorities have no knowledge of.
Zenobius, keen to avoid paperwork and a far worse fate, hires your gang to recover the beast before the local authorities get their hands on it, or worse, him.
The harbour master, smelling scandal (and a promotion), sends his own retained miscreants to bag the baboon and bring the rogue to justice.
The chase is on. The monkey is loose, and Portus Oplontis may never recover.

Setup

Ideally, the table should be a busy dockside with plenty of stacked cargo and tight streets.

Throwing Stones ( Advanced Rules - page 46 ) must be used for this scenario, placing suitable terrain pieces to represent Tiles or Bricks, Amphorae or Sacks as evenly as possible throughout the terrain.

Objective

Player A is Zenobius' hired hands (or Crew), they must secure the Baboon and make sure it does not come to any harm.
Player B has been hired by the Harbour Master to capture the Baboon as evidence.

• The player in possession of the Baboon at the end of five turns is the winner.
• Player A must be carrying the Baboon to be in possession of it.
• Player B must be carrying the Baboon to be in possession of it.
• If a Gang Fighter is removed from play, the objective is dropped where they last stood.
• Gang Fighters can not leave the game at any point unless removed from play.

The Baboon

To capture the Baboon, a player must be in base contact with the baboon and complete a successful Pick-Up action in their Action Stack. The Baboon is carried in the same way as a regular Objective until it is dropped, escapes or the game ends.
Every time a Mob Token is drawn, the Baboon is activated by the drawing player in addition to the Mob.
After completing the Mob Activation, the player must roll a d6:

• On a 1, 2 or 3 the player must move the Baboon a distance equal to the dice roll in inches in any direction they choose.
• On a 4, 5 or 6 the player must move the Baboon a distance equal to the dice roll in inches in the direction indicated by the ‘V’ on the dice.

If a mob Token is drawn whilst a player is in Possession of the Baboon, after completing the Mob Activation, the player must roll a d6. If the result is a 5 or 6 the Baboon will escape and move a distance equal to the dice roll in inches in the direction indicated by the ‘V’ on the dice.

If the Baboon comes into base contact with a piece of throwable terrain (as detailed on pages 46-47), it will immediately make a Ranged Attack with the relevant profile against the nearest Gang Fighter in range. If no Gang Fighters are in range, the Baboon does not make a Ranged Attack.

If the Baboon comes within 3” of a Mob Base, the Mob Base will immediately Flee; trampling any Gang Fighters in its path and dealing 2 damage.

Deployment

Place a coloured token for each Gang Fighter and a red token for each mob in the Draw. Both players alternate drawing tokens. As a token is drawn, the corresponding player places one of their Gang Fighters in their deployment area. If a player draws a red token, they may place a Mob or Vigile Base (depending on which is being used in the scenario) anywhere on the table that is 8” away from a table edge and 8” away from another mob base.
Place Zenobius as close to the centre of the table as possible.
Place the Baboon or an Objective Marker to represent the Baboon as close to the centre of the table as possible.

Let us know how your games went

We hope you've enjoyed our little scenario and have seen the extra twists I've envisioned with these unofficial test rules. Please drop me a line on our official Gangs Of Rome Facebook group and let me know how you fared, or indeed how the Baboon fared, in your games. Till the next adventure!

Darren Evans

Discover the next scenario for Zenobius' crew, "The Lion's Share", HERE