Following the Great War against Chaos, Tzar Alexis was horrified by the care the wounded soldiers had received and immediately commissioned the construction of a hospital against the eastern wall of the capital city. Too many men had died needlessly of their wounds, and Alexis had been determined that Kislev would boast the finest facility for the treatment of injuries in all the Old World. For a time, the imposing Lubjanko building served to house those wounded and traumatised by the horrors of war, but before long, it became a dumping ground for the sick, the deranged, and the crippled. Entire floors are now dedicated to the process of dying, where the mortally wounded are left to rot away the last miserable hours of their lives.[1a]
The Lubjanko is now a magnet for all manner of dispossessed unfortunates; orphans, homeless, the diseased, the crippled, and the mad. All come to rest within its walls, and its black stone façade and high, spike-topped walls serve as a grim reminder of the fate of those who have fallen between the cracks. Mothers quiet unruly children by threatening to cast them within its brooding, nightmare walls and injured soldiers pray to the Gods that they be spared the Lubjanko.[1a]
Night around the Lubjanko is a time to be feared. The howls of the lunatics and dying within its fortress walls fill the air with their cacophonous ravings. As such, it is a shunned place, the derelict buildings and empty streets around it deserted, and even criminals do not frequent the echoing prospekts around the death-house of the Lubjanko. Only those about some particularly dark business would dare the haunted shadows that gather about it, and even then, they hurry to complete their business rather than linger.[1a][1b]
During times of plague, kossars wearing black armbands and gauze facemasks will be stationed around burning braziers at the building's gateless entrance. Armed with long axes, they stop none from entering the building.[2a]
Ground Floor[]
Twin statues of Shallya flank the main doors, a kislevite translation for one of her prayers being carved overhead. Passed these doors the stone-flagged hall receives visitors, a set of wide stairs leading up to the left and a set of double doors marked with a painted white cross lead deeper inside. The white cross means that the lower levels are kept for those who will soon be dead from plague, as it is much less work to carry them to pyres if kept therein. The stairwell, meanwhile, leads upstairs, lit by the occasional lamp, doglegging several times before emerging onto a landing.[2a]
First Floor[]
Screams, hacking, coughs and weeping can often be heard behind a nearby door that leads into a long hall that spans the width of the building. The walls are lined with wooden cots upon which desperate unfortunates rest in various stages of madness or catatonia. What little space is not filled with beds is occupied by sorry specimens of humanity curled upon blankets as they wait to die or go mad with cold and hunger. Hundreds of people fill this hall, their demented wailings echoing from the high ceiling like a chorus of the damned. Black robed priests of Morr make their way up and down the aisles between the people dumped here, speaking words of comfort to those who will listen, or signalling ragged orderlies to bring a shroud to wrap another body in. A storeroom lies at the far end of the hall, sometimes used for keeping troublemakers apart from the others.[2a]
Trivia[]
The Lubjanko is a play on real world Moscow's Lubyanka Building, which acted as the headquarters of the FSB and affiliated prison.