Dread Possibility: The Syborne Institute for Modern Medicine

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Rock of the Fraternity
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Dread Possibility: The Syborne Institute for Modern Medicine

Post by Rock of the Fraternity »

Newly constructed near the Mordent University, the Syborne Institute for Modern Medicine is exactly what it says on the tin; a modern (by the standards of the Demiplane of Dread) hospital, which doubles as a teaching institute for students at the University who want to earn college credit and amass hands-on experience at the same time.

By day, the Syborne Institute does a brisk business; patients are wheeled in, diagnoses are made, rooms need to be readied for long-term arrivals, operating rooms and medical instruments need to thoroughly scrubbed and boiled as appropriate, medical procedures need to be conducted and post-op therapy needs to be given. It is said that Doctor Syborne, late of Nova Vaasa and graduate of the Kantora College, has revolutionalized medical practices in Mordent with his tireless work and his strict rules regarding the treatment of patients, which apply to doctors and nursing staff alike. The Syborne Institute is run with all the energy and discipline of an army unit, and some joke that the good Doctor is waging a campaign against death and disease, rather than simply treating symptoms.

In the evenings, after the last visitors have been shooed out of the building, the nursing staff puts the patients down for their well-deserved rest, but there are always nurses and doctors on standby in case a patient takes a sudden turn for the worse during the hours of darkness.
This does happen from time to time; no matter how rigorously organized the place is, flesh fails and death sneaks in where it may. Observors have noted that the good Doctor Syborne sheds tears for every life lost under his roof, but other than that only seems to be galvanized by every loss to work harder and learn more, so he might improve the human condition.

Improving the human condition is, indeed, at the heart of Doctor Lazlo Syborne's (CE male human half flesh-golem Cleric (World-breaker aspect of Mytteri) 5 / Alchemist 3) every waking moment. To this end, he founded the Syborne Institute in Mordent after his peers and superiors at the Kantora College drove him out for heretical and blasphemous violations of the natural order. He has been fortunate to receive financial backing from interested parties in Lamordia, with whom he has been in correspondence for years, exchanging notes - all in the name of advancing medical science and improving the human race.
For the good Doctor knows that the human race is flawed. Indeed, all the world is flawed, and it needs perfect men to make it better. He is obsessed with discovering everything there is to know about the human body, and how he may free it of every weakness it possesses. To that end, Doctor Syborne had the laboratory built beneath his Institute - or rather, he had the Institute built on top of his laboratory. Deep underground, the real work is done; patients who the Doctor is certain are due for a meeting with the Grim Reaper and strangers without family or important connections in Mordent are wheeled into the subterranean chamber of horrors in the dead of night. When they are wheeled out again, the good Doctor uses every trick in his arsenal to make sure no one can tell what he did. At least, not without dissecting his victims.
The good Doctor's ... lively experiments have turned his laboratory into a level three Sinkhole of Evil with the taint of Cruelty and Pride. The hospital above is usually free of this influence, but when Doctor Syborne's experiments are in full swing, a level one effect permeates the hospital above. On such occasions, patients complain of seeing apparitions stalking the halls and hearing the moan of unearthly voices. The nursing staff, who are all handpicked by the good Doctor, and more importantly paid by him, deny any such occurrences if anyone asks.

As bad as what Doctor Syborne routinely does to people who came to him for help is, at least he would rarely take more than one victim down into his laboratory per month when he was still in Kantora; the rest of the time, he would devote to analyzing his data and planning his next foray into medical experimentation. That has changed with his move to Mordentshire and his accepting of students. To his delight, he has discovered a crop of eager young men, ready to push the boundaries of science and ethics alike.
As the Doctor's private students increase in skill and ambition, the number of patients wheeled towards a hideous fate in the subterranean laboratory is increasing every month ... and in a few years the Doctor's pupils will graduate and look abroad for places to open their own practice ... and continue their research into ways to perfect humanity by cutting out all of its flaws.

An unintended side effect of the good Doctor Syborne's experiments, one of which he is unaware, is that it has resulted in the creation of a variety of geists. The apparitions fear him and his students mightily and hide in the walls of his laboratory whenever the experimental medics are in attendance, but they will come out for anyone else and try to relate their story. They could be very valuable to an investigator looking into the more suspicious deaths that occur at the Syborne Institute - provided said investigator can endure their visceral projections of their deaths without going mad on the spot!
For some reason, lord Godefroy has yet to try and call these creatures to serve him at his manor house.
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Re: Dread Possibility: The Syborne Institute for Modern Medi

Post by Rock of the Fraternity »

I see this has been read, but nobody comments... ^^;
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brilliantlight
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Re: Dread Possibility: The Syborne Institute for Modern Medi

Post by brilliantlight »

I guess it could be a pocket domain. The doctor doesn't notice it yet as he is uninterested in anything outside his obsession. That would be the reason Godfrey doesn't take over his geists. They technically not part of his domain and he has no power over them. Indeed he can't even detect them.
Last edited by brilliantlight on Thu Nov 16, 2017 8:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Dread Possibility: The Syborne Institute for Modern Medi

Post by Alastor »

This looks like a good site for an adventure, particularly since its disguise as a normal hospital gives the PCs a reason to go there without necessarily suspecting anything sinister occurring behind the scenes.

Do any of Doctor Syborne's special patients survive - and if so, as what?
Above the conquered folk,
the draconic citadel
awaits rebellion.

Not the daimon, just a namesake.
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Re: Dread Possibility: The Syborne Institute for Modern Medi

Post by Rock of the Fraternity »

Most just die, but he might have constructed a dread flesh golem or two over the years.
If you look at his character description, Half flesh-golem Cleric / Alchemist, you can see the results of his attempts at self-improvement...
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