Onward To Hommlet - Mark Taormino's Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #0 Village of the Borderlands Kickstarter & The Hyperborea rpg

 So let's pick it right up from here on the blog. The Borderlands of Hyperborea is an old province and not well known outside of a few Hyperborean minor royals. Mostly the whole area is forgotten in the shuffle of paperwork, incompetence, etc of courtly life. How does  Mark Taormino's Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #0 Village of the Borderlands fit into the backround of Gary Gygax's B2 Keep on the Borderlands?! 

The forces of darkness have sent agents off into the Borderlands to destablize the provental and backwater areas of the valleys & environs. Why?! Because this is what armies have done since the beginning of time. 
And the Keep is especially vulnerable! There's no minor royals, administration, council, or security forces to defend the keep itself. And given the designation of the forces of the Caves of Chaos this becomes obvious. The sheer volume of humanoids under the Caves unholy influence it becomes to a point where the forces of darkness are concentrated getting ready to overwhelm the keep itself. Not to mention to the agents within said keep. 
And this brings us back to Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #0 Village of the Borderlands with it's own villain whose bringing the pain to the locals. The area of the valley is rife with it's own dungeons and ruins. What is the backstory of the Borderlands? Why has it's own history been one of constant conflict. 

And could this near constant warfare be hinting at a greater evil right around the corner?! And given the array of hints and ideas within B2 we get a plethora of rumors and tavern talk that adds to the character of MM#0. 

On Hyperborea this doesn't take much given the fact that we have a fertile strip of land sitting on viable volcanoic soil. This unto iself helps explain the reason why the soil is so suited to farmland. And this is the reason why MM#0 works as a side adventure for B2. 
And another reason why it might be perfect to add T1 The Village of Hommlet into the mix. If the player's PC's survive MM#0 and the following it up with B2 then the DM has set the stage for further conflict. The PC's could attain level five or better given the degree of encounters between these two modules and they might be of a high enough level to deal with Hommlet. 
If the PC's survive the orges, and the viable humanoid army of Chaos. Then it stands to reason that they've made it this far. The village of Hommlet is presented as a refuge after the PC's find themselves penniless and on the edge of starvation. The village is another point take the campaign. These modules could be about a series of forts build along the edge of a fertile series of valleys that were carved or engineered out of volcanos to act as a sort of artificial paradise. The Borderlands are points where humanity clings onto it's forgotten past. The forces of Chaos are encroaching on it fast! 
Why?! Because ancient evils are stirring among the embers of the past. We'll get into that next time!