The Hospital of St. Berenthu

Formal healthcare in the City is only available at one location: the Hospital of St. Berenthu. (Elsewhere, one must rely on barber-surgeons to pull dead teeth, drain boils, amputate gangrenous limbs without anesthesia, and dole out basic first aid.) Those suffering from habitual illnesses are kept for several weeks in dormitories: they undergo periods of purging and fasting cleanses, generous leeching, and visits to underground chambers for therapy by way of “dream amplification.” Those suffering from obvious physical maladies are given morphine-laced wine for sweet sleep and go under the chirurgeon's knife.

Sensations:

A sprawling complex, half above ground and half below. Dream-like imagery of horned snakes, lambs with human faces, and peacock angels are carved on the cream-colored stone walls. The steps are crowded with lepers, the lame, and the blind: their groaning is that of a vast pipe organ. Poppies grown in flower boxes cannot overwhelm the magnolia-sweet smell of death.

Special City Actions:

• Rest and recuperate: As long as you are not destitute, you may spend your City Action resting at the Hospital. This heals all Wounds.

• Undergo leeching: You may heal an affliction at the cost of 20g per stage (per the rules in the p. 97).