Bomb Bay
From a distance, Bomb Bay looks like salvation. A gem-like lake shimmering in the middle of the Drylands desert, surrounded by the cracked remnants of signs and long-abandoned buildings. The journey to reach it is arduous, crossing inhospitable terrain that punishes the unprepared. Those who arrive thirsty and desperate see water and drink. They do not drink twice.
The lake is lethally toxic. Salt and chemicals within the water calcify dead bodies into floating stones, preserving them in a way that prevents the Grave Mind from reclaiming the dead. The newer corpses are easier to recognize; the older ones have become part of the lake itself, their features smoothed into mineral lumps that drift on the surface. The more people travel to Bomb Bay hoping for water, the more bodies accumulate, and the lake grows a little more crowded each year.
The site is rumored to be a remnant of pre-Fall attempts to recreate salt lakes in Deserter as a defense against both the Overgrowth and the Grave Mind. The lake's apparent ability to keep the dead permanently dead has attracted both scientific and religious minds, though few survive long enough to study it in any meaningful way. The Pillar of Man conducts experiments at the site, drawn by the same question that draws everyone else: why the Grave Mind cannot touch the dead of Bomb Bay, and what that knowledge might be worth.
The lake is lethally toxic. Salt and chemicals within the water calcify dead bodies into floating stones, preserving them in a way that prevents the Grave Mind from reclaiming the dead. The newer corpses are easier to recognize; the older ones have become part of the lake itself, their features smoothed into mineral lumps that drift on the surface. The more people travel to Bomb Bay hoping for water, the more bodies accumulate, and the lake grows a little more crowded each year.
The site is rumored to be a remnant of pre-Fall attempts to recreate salt lakes in Deserter as a defense against both the Overgrowth and the Grave Mind. The lake's apparent ability to keep the dead permanently dead has attracted both scientific and religious minds, though few survive long enough to study it in any meaningful way. The Pillar of Man conducts experiments at the site, drawn by the same question that draws everyone else: why the Grave Mind cannot touch the dead of Bomb Bay, and what that knowledge might be worth.
Geography
Bomb Bay sits in the fringes of the Drylands, a desert lake surrounded by cracked signs and long-abandoned buildings that hint at a pre-Fall settlement. The lake water is lethally toxic; salt and chemicals within it calcify dead bodies into floating stones that drift on the surface. The terrain surrounding the lake is inhospitable desert, requiring an arduous crossing to reach. Newer corpses are recognizable among the mineral-smoothed older dead that have become part of the lake's surface. The chemical properties of the water appear to prevent the Grave Mind from reclaiming any body that enters it.
