Vergesson Sanatorium

During the war between the Dwendalian Empire and the Julous Dominion, a vast prison known as the Archevault was made as a jail for prisoners of war. After the war, the Archevault was repurposed by the Cerberus Assembly as the largest imperial sanatorium and hospital. Named after Lord Symon Vergesson, the late assembly member who founded it, the massive mansion is surrounded by vast gardens and filled with beautiful artwork designed to please the primarily wealthy patients.
The sanatorium’s patients are treated for physical and mental ailments severe enough to require alchemical, magical, or experimental therapy. Helmed by Gertrude Wagner, the Sanatorium Director, the faculty is monitored by the Crown. The facility offers treatment to those who require assistance and can pay handsomely, but beneath the pleasant mansion lies a torturous oubliette for political prisoners.

A Dark Utility

While the reputation of the Vergesson Sanatorium is sterling, it hides dark secrets. The original purpose of the Archevault was never fully discarded, and a number of vocal critics of the Crown have disappeared from the streets of Rexxentrum. Deep beneath the floors of the estate lie hidden chambers and cells that house enemies of the king, foreign spies, and traitors to the Crown privately sentenced by Prime Arbiter Sydnock Truscan. There, they are subjected to experiments conducted in secret under the supervision of Master Trent Ikithon of the Cerberus Assembly. A tower on the northern outskirts of the grounds acts as Trent’s summer home, where he houses and trains the prospective members of his Volstruckers, an elite group of spies and assassins who use magic to do the assembly’s dirty work.

Purpose / Function

The sanatorium has many uses: as a place of recovery, or as a place of caretaking for individuals who cannot take care of themselves, particularly those of skillsets that make them challenging to treat in more public regions. It is also a place of learning for those with learning challenges, and a place where the Cerberus Assembly can maintain some of their research without worrying about political challenges. Some of Caleb Widogast's training as a Volstrucker took place there.
Patients who have not been admitted are free to leave. Some patients are there by choice and have given consent to be held there for a period. Other patients are kept because they are a danger to themselves or others, and are not free to leave.

Architecture

The sanatorium is located in the Pearlbow Wilderness, near a mountain range that climbs into the sky, about a day and a half's journey from Rexxentrum. It consists of a number of tall buildings of gothic architecture, some three and four stories, some towers. A very tall wrought iron fence surrounds the entire locale, and there are guards posted. The site is somewhat serene but still imposing. The main gate is iron and about ten feet high and eight feet wide. It rises up in a curve at the top where it opens, and has Crownsguard posted, wearing darker uniforms meant to blend in better with the forest and carrying spears. The courtyard consists of beautiful grass, with two fountains, trees, and small gardens.
There are five large main structures, two of which are connected by hallways. The others are separate with little stone paths that lead between them. Towers stand at the corners of the interior. The main central building is a very wide three-story mansion-like structure, with a roof that comes into large peaks that have carved iron symbols at the top. It has in some ways a European church-type architecture to it, but does not have any religious symbolism or connotation to it. It is where most of the patients are kept.
There are two smaller mansion-like abodes on the premises, a general use stone building and tower to the northwest, and an elaborate, extravagant tower on the northeast side that is Trent Ikithon's abode. The northwest tower is used by the people who work at the sanatorium, where equipment is kept, where research is conducted and certain events and classes are occasionally held. The northeast tower is wide and about eighty feet tall, pincering towards the top and thicker at the base, not crenellated on the edges. It has some design flair to it, mixing the architecture of the central mansion building. The entrance is through a side doorway into one of two chambers that the bottom floor is separated into, the first one being a lounge or waiting area. A spiral stairway leads downward to a locked door, Trent Ikithon's arcane laboratory.

The Laboratory

The arcane laboratory holds multiple bookshelves and tables with glass vials and alchemical supplies that are affixed to each other with copper coils and long liquid-carrying tubes that release into heavy vials and liquid containers. There are materials locked away and kept under glass along a number of distant shelves on the far wall. There is a single chandelier in the center of the room hanging from the 15-foot tall ceiling that dangles down and gives off a bright white light that gives a fairly consistent true-color look to the interior of the chamber.

Type

Hospital

Parent Location

Zemni Fields

Owning Organization

Cerberus Assembly