Akush (Dungeons & Dragons)

A desert filled world with the enormous river Djeda dividing the world into two parts. As an ever encroaching desert and dark sandstorms punishes those not pious enough, the three kingdoms struggle to maintain their power and superiority over their foes.

The ever active gods seek to stop chaos from overtaking the world and destroying everything that they built.

The World

The three rivers

Three mighty rivers course through the land and each river nourishes its region. The Djeda is the largest river that stretches from the coast of the Vorassian sea into the distant deserts and all the way into the Chalindan jungle to the north.

The Asuth is the westernmost river that is at most half the size of the Djeda. Asuth stretches from the coast into the Cloudpeaks. The river is born from the mighty glaciers that form the top of the mountain.

The last river is the eastern Hejd. While longer than Asuth, the width of the river is far less and its floodplains are not as fertile as the other two.

The three middle Kingdoms

Three Kingdoms rule the land around the Djeda. The Lower Kingdom, the Upper Kingdom and Sajd. At the dawn of the current age, The Lower Kingdom stands as the most powerful, Although its armies are not as large as the Upper Kingdom, its economy is far stronger thanks to distant trade routes. The balance is a fragile one however, as the dark sandstorm threatens far more often in the lower kingdom than in the upper kingdom.

Ahut

Lawful Evil Large Town

Hadrianapolis

Hathors Stjärnport. Its the city were most people arrive.

Shops: Jhazeids shop (level 8), Ptoleis (Levle 10), Vareidis (Level 11), 8, 13, 12, 16

Edjun

A large city with a huge temple of Osiris. The

The Upper Kingdom

Helepolis

The largest city in the upper Kingdom, Heleolis is the city of the gods. Named such because of its many ancient temples and palaces, Helepolis stands as a beacon of power compared to the other cities of the nation.

Sajd

Ruled for many years by a fully elven family, the current pharao of Sajd is a half-elf named Ir'ash. She has ruled since the sun set 20 years ago when her father succumbed to a horrific disease. She was the oldest of his children, born out of wedlock and she came into power after disposing of her younger fully elven siblings. While not popular with the nobility, Ir'ash is popular with the people as they view her as one of their own rather than one of the elite nobles. Ir'ash is a powerful sorceress who is said to have earned the service of one of the great sphinxes.

Sajd is populated by many elves and despite being originally from the north, the elves have taken the middle kingdoms culture as their own.

The Khem

Created by Seth as a punishment for those of little piety, the Khem scours the land and remakes everything it touches. The Khem takes the form of a dark sandstorm that sweeps over the land. Mortals foolish enough to be caught in the dark sandstorm finds themselves wrapped in eternal night and are soon overtaken by horrific demons, undead and creatures of the primordial chaos. Worship of the gods keeps the Khem at bay.

The Khem corrupts anything it touches. Ancient shrines are cursed, old graves are upturned as their inhabitants rise as undead and the very land can become something different...

Monsters

The land of Akush is overrun by many beasts and monsters. From the vengeful undead that rises if a burial rite isn't done correctly, to the creatures that are left behind when the Khem passes. basilisk, chaos beast, dire animal (bat, bear, lion, wolf), Dragonne, ghoul, ghast, giant insect (bettle, wasp, praying mantis), Golem (stone), Grick howler (as minion of set), Lamia, Lammasu, Lich (wrapped in linen), Lillend, Mohrg, Monstruous scorpion, Mummy, NAga, Night hag , Roc, Skeleton, Sphinx, Wight, Yeth hound, yuan-ti, Zombie, and the followin animals: baboon, bat, bear (brown), bison (wildebeest), camel, cat, cheeta, crocodile, crocodile (giant), dog, donkey, eagle (vulture), elephant, hawk, leopard, lion, lizard, lizard (giant), rat, rhinoceros, snake (all) and toad.

Stone Sphinx: A massive construct made to resemble the mighty Great Sphinxes. They are often put as guardians of great treasure or the tombs of ancient pharaos.

Great Sphinx: Powerful, wise and dangerous, the great Sphinxes of the desert vary in size and shape. Most measure at least twice as tall as a man and some even measure as large as buildings.

Cosmology

The cosmology of Akush is one of a single bubble of chaos nested inside a vast primal ocean and abyss primordial chaos.

The Khem (The Negative Energy Plane)

• Normal gravity
• Erratic Time: Time passes erratically on this plane. See text for explanation
• Finitive Size: The edge of the storm deposits anyone leaving it in the Twelve Hours of Night.
• Major negative-dominant: Some places are only minor negative-dominant.

The Khem is the consuming and twisting storm. A remnant of the Primal Abyss, the Khem was to strong to be cast out of the world by the gods and has thus remained in the cosmos despite the gods attempt to oust it. Seth's usage of the Fallen Rock to imprison the Khem was a failure and let the Khem ravage the world fare more often than previously, but it also let Seth control parts of it.

The Khem appear as a perpetual sandstorm, with howling winds always tearing at any visitor. Strange demons stalk the storm and visibility is at most around 60 ft. at even the best of times. The Khem absorbs other places into it and leaves others it previously absorbed behind, making the geography of the Khem a strange and random one.

The passage of time for a group in the Khem is determined upon entering the Khem by rolling on the following table:

Passage of Time
1d100	Time on Material Plane	Time in the Khem
1-10	1 day	1 round
11-40	1 day	1 hour
41-60	1 day	1 day
61-90	1 hour	1 day
91-100	1 round	1 day

d% 	Time on Material Plane 	Time on Erratic Time Plane
 01-10 	1 day 	1 round
 11-40 	1 day 	1 hour
 41-60 	1 day 	1 day
 61-90 	1 hour 	1 day
 91-100 	1 round 	1 day