The Mass
The Mass is cold, wet, and miserable, and the Baywalkers who call it home will tell you that with something between pride and a dare. A drowned territory northeast of Old York, it was once a great commonwealth. Then the earthquakes came. The terrain sank as Old York's central island rose, and the rising waters turned a landscape of cities and highways into a flooded expanse of ruins, islands, and swamps. The survivors who clung to the remaining high ground became the Baywalkers, shaped by the particular demands of a life lived on the water's terms.
Small enclaves of high ground breach the surface, providing footholds for tight-knit communities where everyone must be both self-sufficient and cooperative. Flat-bottom boats are required to traverse much of the territory, navigating through shallow areas where submerged threats lurk inches beneath marshy streets. The undead here have adapted to the environment in ways that unsettle even experienced wasteland survivors. Sleeper-type zombies wait motionless beneath the water, grabbing at legs and hull bottoms. Hunters stalk in shadows and packs. Septics erupt from tainted waters without warning. Every step through The Mass requires reading the water as carefully as any person.
The territory's population is much smaller than the surrounding regions, and the limited number of diving and salvage spots makes politeness a survival tactic. Communities are identified by the tattoos their members carry, marks of acceptance into a family or crew. The rivalry with Old York runs deep and mutual: Baywalkers see Yorkers as people who squandered good dry land, and Yorkers see Baywalkers as stubborn fools living in a puddle. Neither opinion has done anything to resolve the tension that has defined relations between the two territories since the waters settled.
Three settlements anchor The Mass. Baytowne serves as the primary hub, a sunken city of rooftop dwellings and floating communities where the Piscean marketplace and Harbor Guard keep order. Graylock Compound provides the largest dry landmass, its gray stone walls guarding the most defensible position in the territory. Highland Hall perches on the Rhode Islands as a neutral roadstead, its Fallow Hopes Wardens enforcing peace on the only safe route between The Mass and Old York.
Small enclaves of high ground breach the surface, providing footholds for tight-knit communities where everyone must be both self-sufficient and cooperative. Flat-bottom boats are required to traverse much of the territory, navigating through shallow areas where submerged threats lurk inches beneath marshy streets. The undead here have adapted to the environment in ways that unsettle even experienced wasteland survivors. Sleeper-type zombies wait motionless beneath the water, grabbing at legs and hull bottoms. Hunters stalk in shadows and packs. Septics erupt from tainted waters without warning. Every step through The Mass requires reading the water as carefully as any person.
The territory's population is much smaller than the surrounding regions, and the limited number of diving and salvage spots makes politeness a survival tactic. Communities are identified by the tattoos their members carry, marks of acceptance into a family or crew. The rivalry with Old York runs deep and mutual: Baywalkers see Yorkers as people who squandered good dry land, and Yorkers see Baywalkers as stubborn fools living in a puddle. Neither opinion has done anything to resolve the tension that has defined relations between the two territories since the waters settled.
Three settlements anchor The Mass. Baytowne serves as the primary hub, a sunken city of rooftop dwellings and floating communities where the Piscean marketplace and Harbor Guard keep order. Graylock Compound provides the largest dry landmass, its gray stone walls guarding the most defensible position in the territory. Highland Hall perches on the Rhode Islands as a neutral roadstead, its Fallow Hopes Wardens enforcing peace on the only safe route between The Mass and Old York.
Geography
The Mass stretches northeast of Old York across a drowned landscape of flooded ruins, islands, and swamps. The pre-fall commonwealth was spared the nuclear detonation that struck Old York, but the earthquakes that followed caused the surrounding terrain to sink while Old York's central island rose. Rising waters completed the transformation, submerging the region and creating the waterlogged territory that exists today.
Small enclaves of high ground breach the water's surface, providing footholds for Baywalker communities. The terrain ranges from boggy marshes harboring dangerous undead to rolling hills and western swamplands near Graylock Compound. The Rhode Islands in the south present cliff sides and bluffs along the southern approach, where Highland Hall occupies the highest point for miles. Old highways run partially submerged as causeways connecting scattered settlements, while the flooded city streets and neighborhoods that make up most of the territory require flat-bottom boats for navigation.
The waters themselves are the territory's defining feature and its greatest threat. Submerged ruins stretch in every direction, rich in pre-fall salvage but treacherous to access. Shallow areas conceal Sleeper-type undead waiting motionless just beneath the surface. The climate is cold and wet, and the currents shift unpredictably, creating navigation hazards that only experienced Baywalker pilots handle with confidence. Port Killian's waterways connect to the western approaches, Fen Bay opens to the south, and the Sea-bridge tunnels running beneath Baytowne provide underground routes used by Lascarian tribes.
Small enclaves of high ground breach the water's surface, providing footholds for Baywalker communities. The terrain ranges from boggy marshes harboring dangerous undead to rolling hills and western swamplands near Graylock Compound. The Rhode Islands in the south present cliff sides and bluffs along the southern approach, where Highland Hall occupies the highest point for miles. Old highways run partially submerged as causeways connecting scattered settlements, while the flooded city streets and neighborhoods that make up most of the territory require flat-bottom boats for navigation.
The waters themselves are the territory's defining feature and its greatest threat. Submerged ruins stretch in every direction, rich in pre-fall salvage but treacherous to access. Shallow areas conceal Sleeper-type undead waiting motionless just beneath the surface. The climate is cold and wet, and the currents shift unpredictably, creating navigation hazards that only experienced Baywalker pilots handle with confidence. Port Killian's waterways connect to the western approaches, Fen Bay opens to the south, and the Sea-bridge tunnels running beneath Baytowne provide underground routes used by Lascarian tribes.
