The Two Lands (Amonkhet) Setting

Next time I run D&D 5e, will do it in an Egyptian setting. The high-magic and almost superheroes level of power of even middle level (5+) characters makes me reluctant to run a more realistic, low-magic, gritty setting, which is my general preference. I have Warhammer and house ruled B/X for that. So some ideas on rules, adventures, and other setting elements:

·         Named Two Lands as reference to the Desert v. River Valley, Duat (afterlife) v. Life, Ma’at Justice v. Chaos/Disorder.

·         Races from Amonkhet, a pdf put out by Wizards. My preference is humans and the Amonkhet races (Aven: birdfolk, Minotaurs, Naga: serpentfolk, Khenra: jackalfolk) only, plus Tabaxi for Cat-folk, which is pretty theme-appropriate. Naga, snakemen, considered evil, but could have a Drizzt type rebel/good situation (snakes do kill disease bearing rats). But if we can’t get away from elves and dwarves, then elves are from an Atlantis-like culture in the north, and dwarves/halflings are like earth-spirits who watch over children (I’d really love to ban the martial dwarves of standard D&D). To make humans appealing, only humans (and elves?) can be the arcane casting classes of wizards, sorcerers, etc. The other races are the ‘Favored of the Gods’ in other ways and are granted their race abilities but cannot command arcane magic.

·         Potentially banned classes: Warlocks. I just don’t like them, and I don’t know who their patrons would be.

·         Desert rules that penalize with exhaustion for wearing heavy armor or carrying a lot of gear without a (easily eaten and scared) donkey. I’m thinking something like a CON save every few hours for medium and heavy armor, heavy armor at disadvantage. Likewise, water is a big issue out in the desert. So heavy use of exhaustion rules. I’ll probably warn players there won’t be a bunch of forest stuff.

·         Gods and society: the major Egyptian deities, as in the core rules, especially the Ennead (the nine major gods like Horus, Osiris, Isis, etc.). The names will be close to standard (greek) with some updates: Herekh for Horus, Sutekh for Set. Each settlement or city will have its own patron deity and cult, some highlights are the City of the Hawk (Nekhen) and the City of Bast (cat-goddess). Herekh or Horus, the cult of Pharaoh-King, will be the default starting deity for the default starting City of Nekhen. There will be rival kingdoms centered around the capitals, so the Pharaoh of Nekhen may fight the Pharaoh of the Delta or whatever.

·         Enemies: Yuan-ti serpent cultists of the evil, destruction god Apophis, the world-eating serpant of chaos who wishes to transform reality back to the chaotic nothing-ness of the Waters of Nun. Apophis offers powers of pleasure and destruction to cultists, so there are some serpent cults. Liche-Kings, powerful undead liche-sorcerers in the Necropolis of the Desert. Gnolls in the desert, worshippers of the god of storms and beasts, Sutekh (Seth). Other enemies could be barbarian skull-stackers based on the Hyksos, Assyrians, and sea peoples, maybe reskinned as orcs or something. Amonkhet has some good stuff too. Giant Crocodiles, desert dragons.

Starting adventure: travel through the desert to old tomb where sage-priest believes there is a ‘disturbance in the force.’ Fight gnolls on the way, mummies and zombies in the tombs, maybe rescue a noble or captured priest. Drop a couple of magic items, some hints about the rise of a liche-king, maybe a corrupt serpent cult in the city.

·         City of Nekhen: Ankhu, High Priest of Osiris, asks sorcerous band of heroes to investigate disturbed tomb of ancient King Djaf. Ankhu saw trinkets from Djaf on the black market and has had dreams of the dead king in anger. He believes tomb raiders disturbed the tomb and have set loose the angry dead king’s spirit loose. The Pharaoh is busy fighting barbarians and his rivals, so Ankhu tasks the heroes with what’s going on, and rescue the mummy of Djaf for reburial in an active pyramid-temple for dead kings.

Spoilers:

o   Secretly, the Cult of Apophis has stolen an important artifact, the Scepter of Djaf, from the tomb, in guise of mere tomb robbers. The Cult has prominent nobles in the city loyal to it, who command money and has transformed (empowered) cultist servants. It sent a few cloaked spies to follow the PCs, who bear no marks or clear reason for spying (really just given some coins to ne’er do wells). If the spies return a message to the Cult, it summons an angry, giant crocodile to kill the PCs as they cross the river to the west, the Desert of the Dead. Some modern pyramid-temples dot the west bank.

o   Travel west, 4 days by foot, 2 by horse, chariot, or camel, see CE gnoll and LN (respect the dead) khenra raiders (2 different encounters). There is a caravan near an oasis on the way to the tomb with a khajit trader, two aven royal messengers for tracking the gnoll warbands. This is only few hours travel from the Valley of Djaf. Outside the tomb are ravenous ghouls, and sphinx guarding the valley of djaf. The sphinx will attack the PCs initially, but will relent if they convince it they come in respect for the dead. (The sphinx was hunting when the tomb was raided).

o   Encounters in the tomb (mastaba above underground tomb, serekhs of Djaf): Traps!, angry spirit of the king, appears at intervals, galleries of skeletal warriors, mummy noble warriors as get closer to Djaf’s sarcophagus, pool of resurrected crocodiles (snakes?) to cross, minor guardian demon or two (can turn with true name, spells naming caster’s virtue), giant beetles, dopplegangers (from magical ushabti), a stone golem. Giant Serpent, Naga or Yuan-ti in sarcophagus chamber to prevent PCs from rescuing mummy.

o   If manage to return to Nekhen, one more assassination attempt by trained assassin with venomous dagger with markings of Apophis.