The Boneward

The Boneward

When a limb of mine shows infection, just take me out of my misery. I ain't going to the Boneward. The screams I've heard coming from that place still haunt me at night.

— Taken from a letter

A couple of hundred years ago, Bonewards were a common sight in cities and towns of Delunar. They were rapidly established in response to the Festering Plague which first appeared in 381 AoM. Bonewards specialized in the only early known treatment for the plague: amputation of infected limbs. The highly infectious disease clawed around the poorest part of the population, infecting people through small wounds on the legs and arms. After the initial infection, the progression of the disease was slow and painful.
Due to the rapid spread of the disease, early Bonewards were overrun with patients. At the height of the plague, some would perform hundreds of amputations per day. The procedure is extremely painful and requires a high amount of sedatives. At the peak of the plague, those sedatives were thinly spread which forced many people to undergo the procedure sober, earning Bonewards their macabre repution.
Bonewards did not deliver a guaranteed cure. Without proper wound dressing, the chance of reinfection is high. A 2nd infection closer to or at the torso was untreatable. The procedure is also very risky to perform for a medical professional. One slip of the saw would result almost definitely in infection. Many Sawdoctors eventually died from the disease they were treating.
In the current age and day, Bonewards still exists but are not used as clinics anymore. They now educate Sawdoctors for other hospitals and clinics, and practice exclusively on corpses of executed prisoners. To this day, people prefer to avoid Bonewards. Its reputation is engrained in common folkstories and superstition.

Type

Clinic