Sandy Coves Convalescent Home

Sandy Coves convalescent home is a still active skilled nursing facility located in Salem, now part of the Commonwealth in 2287.

Background
This small nursing home within Salem provided automated care for its elderly residents. The care may have been adequate here - perhaps more so, as residents didn't have to tend with the food shortages and civil strife - but the residents were considered more stock than charges.

In fact, it was due to the automated care itself that the people here would occasionally leave the premises; perhaps it was more due to the automation than any lack of empathy or morality that left residents unsupervised and alone. This is most evident in the effort the facility took to keep their charges on the premises. Instead of hiring more staff (something that might not have been an option), they constructed a fake bus stop right across the street from their main entrance.

As for their staff, the biggest complaint seemed to be that the robotic attendants kept forgetting to check the bus stop prop for residents who wandered off, or as the orderlies put it, "escaped" - something that sooner or later would garner the attention of the local police. One of the more regular "escapees" was a resident named Gladys, a retired soldier who would do this if only just to remind the staff that she was still dangerous. She even had a stash of frag grenades in her room.

On Saturday morning, October 23, 2077, the radiation from the nuclear detonations of the Great War swept through the facility, killing most where they were: tending the kitchen, relaxing and socializing, lying in bed, smoking out back, locked in the bathroom (one of the nurses may have been on drugs – specifically Jet) or, in Gladys' case, at the mock bus stop.

For the next two hundred years, the facility remained derelict and ignored, the automated attendants still "minding" their now skeletal wards. Still, one resident may have lived a life after the apocalypse. The building has become a sanctuary for house cats, and synths recently infiltrated the place for an unknown reason.

Layout
The entrance to the convalescent home faces northwest towards the coast, and the nearby sign is lit by a spotlight, so as to be visible at night. Standing on the opposite side of the road is a bus shelter, on the bench of which lies a walking cane and a suitcase containing random loot. At the entrance of the building is the main reception area, with a Mister Handy serving as the "front desk attendant." He will greet the Sole Survivor upon entering for the first time, and if they manage to convince the attendant that they are checking in, by passing an Easy Speech check, he will allocate them the room formerly occupied by Gladys and give the Sole Survivor her key.

A book return terminal stands on the eastern wall next to a Novice locked door leading to a toilet containing minor loot. The main corridor leads north and slightly west with a flight of stairs leading to the second floor. On the reception desk is a Novice locked terminal that will open a cabinet with a syringer rifle, a Massachusetts Surgical Journal and an assortment of chems and stimpaks.

Next to the cabinet are the residents' safes, which contain an assortment of medical items. The safes are locked and can not be picked, though keys for the individual safes are hidden in each resident's room. A detailed list of hiding places for each individual key is available on the aforementioned terminal, which reads as follows:
 * Catherine, 205: By her cat bowls (Catherine's key)
 * Edward, 106: Next to his typewriter (Edward's safe key)
 * Ethel, 203: Under her paint brush (Ethel's safe key)
 * Margaret, 104: Under a bag of fertilizer (Margaret's safe key)
 * Mortimer, 101: Next to favorite boat model (Mortimer's safe key)
 * Randall, 201: Under his pillow (Randall's safe key)

Also on the terminal is a specific note about Gladys's activities and entering her room, either using her key or picking the Novice locked door, will reveal that she seems to have gained her skills while serving in the military. Her room contains, among other items, a combat knife, Army fatigues and helmet, a military cap, trifolded and free-standing American flags and a number of military propaganda posters.

After venturing inside and back to reception, a group of synths will enter. The front desk attendant robot will attempt to welcome them, at which point the synths will become hostile and open fire on the robot. The robot attendants will then try to defend the facility but will likely be overwhelmed unless protected by the player character. The front desk attendant robot, in particular, will almost always be destroyed. Additionally, the synths will target and kill the 'enemy presence' in the home which are the two cats unless stopped by the player character.

Inhabitants

 * Front desk attendant
 * Sandy Coves attendant
 * Former inhabitants

Notable loot

 * Massachusetts Surgical Journal issue #3 - Behind a locked security door, behind and to the left of the front desk.
 * A syringer rifle and a pax syringe - In the same location as above.
 * Four overdue books:
 * One can be found in Margaret's room (room with potted plants) on top of the toilet.
 * Three can be found in Edward's room (room with a typewriter) on the dresser, by the skeleton on the bed and by the foot of the bed.
 * Two Vault-Tec lunchboxes:
 * One can be found in the dining area on the floor next to a skeleton on the west side of the middle table.
 * One can be found in the smaller upstairs lounge area (room with television, two couches, and bowling pins) in a small box between the entrances to the room.
 * Gladys's room key - If the player character passes the front desk attendant's speech check, this is given to them, otherwise it can be taken from the remains of the attendant if killed by the synths.

Related quests

 * Variable Removal

Companion reactions

 * Cait: "What the hell's wrong with these robots? Don't they realize they're takin' care of corpses?"
 * Danse: "These robots are completely ignoring that their charges have passed away. There must be a fault in their programming."
 * Nick Valentine: "At least it looks like they died peacefully."
 * Hancock: "Dying in your bed. That's no way to go."
 * Deacon: "Well, at least they died in bed."
 * X6-88: "More relics of the pre-war world."
 * MacCready: "Wonder if these folks died of old age or baked when the rads hit?"
 * Piper: "You think these folks died in the blasts?"
 * Preston Garvey: "They probably never even knew what happened."
 * Curie: "The initial casualties of the bombs must be staggering."
 * Codsworth: "Poor things. I'm sure all they wanted was to go peacefully in their sleep."
 * Strong: "Nothing live here for long time."

Appearances
The Sandy Coves Convalescent Home appears only in Fallout 4.

Bugs

 * The orientation of the interior does not align with the exterior. You enter the building facing southeast, but you face north when inside.
 * One of the windows on the second floor just above the entrance is not toned like all the other windows in the cell. You can see low-level quality world through this window.