The Grand Sanatorium
"It will be a splendid building once completed: more like a palace of marble than any sanatorium I have seen... My understanding is that the colonists whose decay is too advanced to permit speech or movement – but who still "live" – are to be relocated within (I had almost written "interred"). Some mysteries remain, however..."[1]
The Grand Sanatorium is a large building south of the Tomb-Colony of Venderbight.[2] It is under constant construction, it seems, and requires an extraordinary amount of imported marble. The source of all the money to afford such extravagance is unknown, but the expense is justifiable, since this is where the most fragile of tomb-colonists spend their last days.[1][3]
Why the Sanatorium is so hard to find, then, or why the entrance is guarded by armed men and a Spider-Council, is anyone's guess.[2][4]
A Clinic for the Almost-Dead
The Sanatorium is a massive construction of steel and marble, windowless and without any decorative features on the outside.[2][4] Its layout is sprawling and confusing, making it easy to get lost in.[5] It has several wings - the Immobiles Wings (of which there are at least seven);[5] a minimum of four formidable wings built for especially skilled former fighters;[6] the "screecher wards;"[7] seventeen or more holding halls,[8] et cetera. One wing is estimated to hold around fifty patients.[5] The halls are undecorated,[8] but marble ornaments are carved into the walls.[9]
The senior medical staff are referred to as "Permanent Surgeons."[10] The rest of the staff consists of wardens sourced from the Tomb-Colony of Venderbight; this includes bandaged individuals, but also living humans whose scandals prohibit them from ever returning to London.[11] The Tomb-Colonists employed are skilled fighters themselves, and are equipped with rifles to protect the Sanatorium, its staff, and its secrets.[10][12] They are supported by a chained-up Spider-Council, sourced from the menagerie-keeper Mr Inch.[4]
Bedlam
Tomb-Colonists all across Venderbight fear having to go to the Sanatorium, and not because it means the end of their life. In fact, they would (and will) rather end their own lives than be committed.[13][14] Even the First Curator is afraid of this place...[15]
The Sanatorium is "something between an insane asylum and a crypt."[10] Its corridors are filled with the cries of its patients, many of them confined to their beds by force.[10][16] Its "nurses" are equipped with mallets to pummel any resisting patient into submission.[17] Some of the inmates are indeed too far gone, their body slowly giving in to injuries even though they cannot die.[18] Others, however, are in good physical and mental condition and have been sent here as a way to get rid of them permanently.[6][7]
One of the senior staff members, Doctor Carrywell, is the leader of an intelligence-gathering operation at the Sanatorium[11] in which she extracts sensitive information from her patients on their deathbeds. Some dying tomb-colonists volunteer this information to anyone who is willing to listen,[5] but others must be forced.[6]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The construction of the 'Grand Sanatoria', Fallen London
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Ambition: Nemesis - the Flowstone Forest, Fallen London
- ↑ Ask about the Grand Sanatorium, Sunless Sea "“We don't die here below. Not unless we go to zee. So we needed something else: somewhere to end...”"
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Ambition: Nemesis - The Grand Sanatorium, Fallen London
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Ambition: Nemesis – the First Interpretation, Fallen London
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Ambition: Nemesis – the Second Interpretation, Fallen London
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Ambition: Nemesis – confronting Carrywell, Fallen London "I'll have you shot and admitted to the most secure of the screecher wards."
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Ambition: Nemesis – the Third Interpretation, Fallen London
- ↑ Ambition: Nemesis – the Third Interpretation, Fallen London "The bullet goes wide and beheads a decorative marble swan."
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Ambition: Nemesis – exploring the Grand Sanatorium, Fallen London
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Ambition: Nemesis – what is Carrywell up to?, Fallen London
- ↑ Ambition: Nemesis – confronting Carrywell, Fallen London
- ↑ An illuminate frenzy, Fallen London
- ↑ Explore Venderbight, Sunless Sea
- ↑ Give it your Eyeless Skull, Sunless Sea ""Thank you," the Curator whispers. "Perhaps you have saved me from the Sanatorium. [...]""
- ↑ Ambition: Nemesis – the First Interpretation, Fallen London "There must be a hundred inmates here, bandages wrapped tightly around arms and legs. Most are still, as you'd expect, but a few thrash fruitlessly against their confinement."
- ↑ Ambition: Nemesis – the Second Interpretation, Fallen London "Behind you, the steel door slides shut noiselessly. All you have is a wooden mallet and steel bell issued by the guards. [...] You pummel her back into her bed [...]"
- ↑ Ambition: Nemesis – the First Interpretation, Fallen London "Whoever she was, there's not much left of her now."
