Parsons State Insane Asylum

The Parsons State Insane Asylum is a location in the Commonwealth in 2287.

Background
Built by the Cabot family and formerly administered by their son Jack, the superintendent, the Parsons State Insane Asylum was home to and cared for Boston area residents deemed mentally ill or insane. Subterranean rooms were constructed in the facility's basement to house the most difficult cases, including Lorenzo Cabot. He was institutionalized for life at the asylum for the safety of him and his family, following an 1894 archaeological expedition in the Middle East to find the lost city of Ubar. The trip uncovered a mysterious artifact that bestowed him with supernatural powers, but also made him mentally unstable, resulting in Lorenzo's admittance to the institution.

In the years following the Great War, the Cabots hired a security team to protect Lorenzo and his secrets from exploitation by outsiders.

Exterior
The grounds are fairly mundane, notable only for a few mercenaries roaming around. A road leading in from the northeast passes by the administration entrance, the only way into the asylum. A wall surrounds the grounds, but some sections have crumbled over the years. Around the back of asylum is an outdoor area where patients could get some fresh air.

Interior
The interior of the asylum is not accessible until The Secret of Cabot House becomes available. The door to administration opens to an admissions area, with two initially locked doors. The open hallway to the northwest contains a few wrecked offices and ends in a staircase leading upstairs. At the end of the upstairs hallway is a supply room with a busted wall, allowing passage.

This leads to a staircase leading down to the main floor again, toward one of the initially locked doors. The hallway on the main floor leads into an office containing an elevator. Through the north-facing door is a pavilion with a fountain in the center. Scaffolding leads up to a hole in the wall giving access to a therapy room. Through the door is the rest of the insane asylum.

The room opens to an expansive room that hooks around to a kitchen area. The collapsed floor leads down to a common room connected to a few offices. Through another hold in the wall, one enters the spacing between some walls and can descend into the basement. The basement is lined with several small rooms containing only a bed, dresser and toilet, like for the more unstable patients. A hole in the floor at the end of the hallways leads to a few more solitary rooms; the hallway ends at a utility elevator that takes one to the basement.

The basement contains the control room to Lorenzo Cabot's personal prison cell, which is surrounded by generators and an Abremalin field. Inside is a bed, a chair, some tables, a curio and Lorenzo himself. An elevator in the control room leaves back up to the ground floor.

Inhabitants

 * Captain Maria
 * Lorenzo Cabot
 * Lefty

Notable loot

 * Charisma bobblehead - In the administration area, on the desk in the room with the elevator (Jack Cabot's office).
 * Cell key - In two file cabinets in the administration area: one in the large room near the exit, the other in a corner by Jack's office desk.
 * A Syringer rifle - In the last room on the left at the end of the block of cells in the basement (across from the cell with the collapsed floor through which you must fall to find where Lorenzo is held captive).
 * Mysterious serum - There is one vial of serum next to a raider in the very first room entered. Four syringes are in Lefty's inventory and three more are on a surgical tray on a table in the room containing Lorenzo's cell.
 * Three overdue books - The first book is inside an open filing cabinet which is on the west side of the very first room you reach after taking the elevator down. The second and third books are both in the control room. Against the east wall of the control room near the door, the player character will find one book inside another filing cabinet drawer, while the final book is in a loose drawer above and to the left of where the second book was. It can be grabbed by jumping up a bit.
 * Massachusetts Surgical Journal issue #1 - On a table in Lorenzo's cell (possibly hidden beneath a vase).
 * Lorenzo's suit - On Lorenzo Cabot's body, if one kills him during the Secret of Cabot House.
 * Lorenzo's Artifact gun - Reward for The Secret of Cabot House given by siding with Jack and then waiting one in-game week.
 * Two Vault-Tec lunchboxes - The first is on a bench in the same hallway as the first raiders encountered. The second is on a shelf in the room just before the control room.

Related quests

 * Special Delivery
 * The Secret of Cabot House

Appearances
The Parsons State Insane Asylum appears only in Fallout 4.

Behind the scenes

 * The Parsons State Insane Asylum is based on the former Danvers State Insane Asylum in Danvers, Massachusetts.


 * This can also be considered another H.P. Lovecraft reference, as Danvers State Insane Asylum is mentioned by name in at least two of his works. Furthermore, H.P. Lovecraft's Arkham Sanitarium was believed to be inspired by Danvers State, which in turn was the inspiration for Batman's Arkham Asylum. Danvers State has appeared in at least one other video game, it was a level in 2004's Painkiller.
 * The patient's records found on Jack's office terminal show that the asylum once held a vigilante named "Nightwar," a woman who only wore black leather and a ten-year-old murderer who was always laughing. This might be a reference to the characters of Batman, Catwoman, and the Joker. The latter may also refer to the Pint-Sized Slasher.
 * The "Abremalin field" imprisoning Lorenzo appears to be a reference to a historical occult work, The Book of Abramelin.