Quest:Calling Dr. Grout

Prince Sebastian LaCroix gives this quest following the completion of Elizabethan Rendezvous.

Quest log: The prince wishes you to contact Alistair Grout, the Malkavian Primogen. You should try looking for him at his mansion on the outskirts of town.

Once the quest is assigned, to begin, speak to the Cab Driver (or, if Nosferatu, use the LA sewer map) to travel to the new location added to the map: Grout's Mansion.

As you arrive at Grout's Mansion, you'll have a strange encounter with Nines Rodriguez.

Quest log: You encountered Nines at Grout's mansion, and he seemed a bit out of sorts.

Enter the Mansion.

Quest log: You just entered Grout's mansion and something about it doesn't feel quite right.

The mansion is a mazelike structure full of twisting passageways, which doubled as a turn-of-the-century asylum for Alistair Grout.

Note that all the patients who attack you are humans, so they can be fed on.

The entrance hall is flanked by grandfather clocks. There's a passage to the left, and two passages to the right. The far end contains an alcove with a large painting of Grout's wife, and a reel-to-reel tape recorder. Although Grout's dictations are not necessary for the quest, they provide additional context:

Grout Dictation 1: It is quite peculiar the happenings I've been made to witness from my supernatural longevity. I'm thinking of one unfortunate phenomenon in particular of unique interest to my station, both as a professional and as a sufferer of this vampiric condition. It seems the stream of time has begun to erode the moorings of my chosen course of study, for the methodologies that gave birth to psychology are slowly disappearing. I find myself in an era that overlooks the physical component of psychological pathology time and again in favor of the sophistic practices of Freud. Phrenology, dactopintalism, and the rest of the old guard is fallen by the wayside, its champions all silenced in death, with my unique exception. Would that I could make my voice heard again, although it may be suspicious should I return to popular medical discourse fifty years after my apparent death. No, better that I continue my studies into the psychoses in secret. One day, may I hold up my own cure as validation of the methods. I am confident no cure for my condition or that of my beloved wife lies within our figurative minds, waiting to be unlocked by the correct combination of memories recovered from our childhoods. And I'm most certain that it has nothing to do with the relationship between myself, my parents, and my genitals. Sorry, Sigmund, but I choose to stay my course. In time, too, may your star fade and disappear.

The door at the end of the left passage is locked, so we'll have to take the passage to the right, to the Library. You'll need to crouch under the furniture blocking the hallway to proceed.

Grout's Library

Upon entering the Library for the first time, you'll view a brief cutscene of the patient at the far end, tugging on the central candle of the candle puzzle (see The First Library Riddle below). He won't flag as aggressive unless you attack him first.

To your left as you enter is a second tape recorder:

Grout Dictation 2: Another unfortunate casualty to tide of time: insane asylums. I lament their loss, not only as brokerage-houses for the breadth and depth of human psychoses, but also I shall mourn the disappearance of that peculiar environment present only in an insane asylum. That palpable atmosphere of blistered brains and churning bowels, the odiferous mélange of freely flowing bodily humors, that gently rolling cacophony of distant sobs and screams, the muttered cursing at perceived enemies and the blissful gurgling of the lobotomized, like a newborn babe discovering the sky. I shall still find test subjects as surely as I find bloody sustenance in the night, but this climate, I fear, may never be replicated.

Proceed to the far end of the room.

The First Library Riddle

Three candles are on the wall. A patient is giggling to himself and pulling the central candle. To the left of the third candle is a small bureau, with either a skill book (Scarlet Torkelson: Circus Performer) or an artifact in the Plus patch (the Weekapaug Thistle). To the right of the third candle is a table with a note:

Perception at once shapes the Mind and rules over Time. Time, however, erodes human Perception and then in turn warps the Mind. The Mind is capricious, having various effects on Perception, Time, and the Mind itself... with harmony progress is made.

The three candle holders, from left to right, are Perception, Time, and Mind.

Pulling Perception will toggle the candles both Time and Mind at the same time.
Pulling Time will toggle one candle at a time, alternating between Perception and Mind.
Pulling Mind will randomly affect all three candles.

The proper solution is to defeat the patient, pull Perception once (so Time is turned on), and then pull Time to toggle the other lights until the puzzle is solved (or leave the patient alive and let him pull the candle for you).

The fastest "solution" is just to pull the Mind candle quickly and repeatedly until Mind's random effects have turned on all three candles, the door unlocked, and the puzzle is solved.

Solving the puzzle unlocks the door to the Red Room, and grants 1 XP. Backtrack from the library to the main hall, and take the left-hand hallway to the Red Room.

Red Room

As you enter, on the right wall are two doors, which are both locked. The far wall has a single door, which is locked (above which is a balcony with its own door, which cannot be reached at this time). The left wall contains a staircase which terminates at the ceiling.

Farther along the left wall is a candle holder, like those in the Library. Pull on it to open a trap door at the top of the staircase.

Go up the staircase.

Tower Walk

At the top of the staircase, down a short passage, you'll find the third tape recorder.

Grout Dictation 3: Often I reflect with great regret on the missed opportunity that was my infector. Had I been conscious after the attack, I could have stopped the orderlies from locking her in the roaming pen. What I would give for just one interview, a few simple questions of the plague-ridden woman who met her end that dawn. Of course there is no guarantee she would have been any more helpful than my current crop of test subjects; mewling wretches! Few could be called 'enthusiastic'. Given the nature of the tests, I cannot expect the same fervor from all, but a modicum of cooperation would be appreciated. Animals! The one called 'John' went so far as to gnaw off his arm and escape into the floorboards like some feral rodent. I still hear him scurrying about at night; he must be making an atrocious mess in there.

A short staircase leads from here to another room with a tape recorder:

Grout Dictation 4: My studies proceed at a languid pace. I'm mired in a foul ennui as my wife's illness advances. My subjects grow restless without proper supervision... but I cannot pull myself back from this black depression. How many nights I've wasted now, gazing from the tower walk, pondering the frailty of existence.

From here, climb the spiral staircase clockwise until it exits at the aforementioned Tower Walk, a short passage on the outside of the Mansion from which you can view LA traffic. At the other end of the Walk is a second spiral staircase, descending counter-clockwise.

There will be a couple more rooms and sets of short stairs before you exit into the Green Room

Green Room

You enter the room behind an overturned table. The right side of the room features two doorways which lead back to the Red Room. The left side of the room features a single locked door. The far side of the room has an open door, leading to the Mirror Room.

Mirror Room

A room with one large central fireplace, flanked by what seem to be two mirrors. Two patients are in the room, and reflected in the mirrors. However, you are not reflected. If you kill the patients on your side, their reflections are not affected.

On a table is the fifth tape recorder:

Grout Dictation 5: After decades of solitary study into this affliction, I have learned that it is by no means mine alone. Indeed, the city is home to an entire society of similarly-afflicted individuals with whom I've only recently made contact. They are an understandably standoffish sort, by and large, but I have been able to confirm with them that the condition is indeed vampirism, which apparently comes in a multitude of strains, each with a spectacular set of symptoms such as invisibility and even a sort of lycanthropy. Through numerous official interactions with the governing body of this secret society, I have concluded that their fundamental understanding of the vampiric condition is woefully lacking, and mired in suspicion and pseudo-religious dogma that would make a Turk balk for its strictures. Indeed, they seemed impressed with my studies and the eloquence with which I was able to present them. Apparently the typical suffer of my particular strain of vampirism is far from the vanguard of the King's English. So impressed were they that they even offered me an office in their government: a rather high office, by the sound of things. I believe I shall accept. If nothing else, it should provide a lofty vantage point from which to observe the breadth and epidemiology of the afflictions so that I may move more expeditiously toward a cure.

Three circles on the fireplace mantelpiece may be interacted with, and open the fireplace, revealing the truth: the mirrors are, in fact, windows to an identical (albeit reflected) room. The reflected room has no tape recorder.

Following the passage beyond leads up a set of stairs, and then to a doorway opening to the second level of the Library.

Grout's Library: Redux

You enter on the second-level balcony overlooking the first level of the Library. To your right is a metal hatch; opening this provides access to a ladder down to the first floor. While you can jump over the railing, doing so will not allow you to climb back up as easily as the ladder, if needed.

As before, the far side of the Library features a wall with three candles. To the left of the first candle is a sixth tape recorder:

Grout Dictation 6: I have accepted the role of 'Primogen' for Clan 'Malkavian', the dreadfully winsome label applied to the particular strain of vampirism I suffer. So named for some supposed vampire father-figure of old; more poppycock grown from a backwoods culture that seems interminably drawn to childrens' tales and the fiction of Victorian romance, when it should concern itself with the science behind their suffering. No matter, for I have taken this office for no greater reason than to advance my research. I must make mention, however, that even among my would-be peers in this governing body of vampires, the level of paranoia and superstition is frightening! Their intelligence is not the question, no, indeed: as they courted me for this appointment, I had to suspect that their overtures were hand-tailored to what must be my obvious infatuation with reason, for the Devil would do well to have such honey-tongued tempters. Even so, I could not help but notice the dressing of language these vampire leaders chose for their siren song. Whether it is born of habit, from addressing their unwashed ill-educated subjects, or from their own deep-seated beliefs, their linguistic flourishes belie a faith in superstition over the providence of empirical reason that must be an all-pervasive theme in this society of darkest night. Damn it all, now I'm doing it, too!

The Second Library Riddle

On a table between the first and second candles is another instructional note:

...Chaos, like the Mind, can be understood only through the scientific process. Order, however, is only as good as the Perception thereof. Time is the Key that links the two and bears witness their ebb and flow...

The three candle holders on the upper level, from left to right, are Chaos, Key, and Order. Each candle is associated with one of the candles on the lower level. They behave the same, although their left-to-right order is reversed.

Chaos, like Mind on the lower level, has random effects on all three candles.
Key, like Time on the lower level, toggles one candle at a time, alternating between Chaos and Order.
Order, like Perception on the lower level, toggles both Chaos and Key simultaneously.

The proper solution is to pull Order once, and then pull Key three times. Since this level doesn't have a ghoul pulling one of the candles as you enter, the starting conditions should always be the same, so this solution may be faster than the alternate solution of repeatedly pulling Chaos until the puzzle is solved.

Alternately, a bookshelf to the left of the candlesticks has a book that can be pulled; it has the same effect as solving the candlestick puzzle. There are a group of three bookcases. The third (furthest right) has a gap on the fifth shelf up from the bottom. The first bookcase (furthest left) is identical, except it has a book protruding from the gap. This is the trick book. You may not be able to use it unless your Perception is high enough.

Whether the candlestick puzzle is solved, or the secret book is pulled, a bookshelf on the lower level of the Library will swing open, leading to the Shock Therapy room.

A metal door can be unlocked in the floor of this level, opening the top of a ladder to climb between levels. While you can hop over the railing instead, you won't be able to return to the top level except by circumnavigating the mansion as before.

Descend to the lower level and enter the passage to the Shock Therapy room.

Shock Therapy

A round room with a central electrical generator shoots spokes of electricity to the outer edges. The room is divided into seven triangular platforms, each of which has a switch set into the down ("Closed") position. Electricity surges to the central point of each triangle. The goal is to deactivate sufficient electricity to leave the far side of the room.

The platform you enter from will be platform A, and progress clockwise through the alphabet; the platform to your immediate left will be B, and platform G is to your immediate right.

Moving the switch on platform A to the up ("Open") position turns off the electricity blocking your platform. You may then crouch-walk through the middle of the room to the other open platforms, platforms C and F. The exit is at platform D.

In sequence:

Switch A opens Platform A
You can collect the Tarulfang at Platform C
Switch C opens Platform B
Switch B opens Platform E (Switch E has no effect)
Switch F opens Platform G
Switch G opens Platform D

This leaves all platforms open. Switch D is closed. Opening it has no effect.

Leaving the room from Platform D, there's a large switch in the floor, which will unlock the door at the far end of the Red Room. Following the passage will exit into the Library hallway with the furniture; proceed from there through the main hall to the Red Room.

Going through the previously-locked door will take you to a new map, Grout's Inner Sanctum.

Area 2: Grout's Inner Sanctum

You will enter a room with three exits, and a seventh tape recorder to the right on the far wall:

Grout Dictation 7: As I expand my dealings with the vampire government, I have encountered a disturbing new symptom of this affliction. Frequently, in conversation, I will hear voices emanating from other vampires. Voices that are not their own, but which seem to have insight into their lives beyond what I could gather from simple conversation. These voices seem to echo from deep within my fellow vampires, and I cannot be certain if this symptom belongs to my strain of the illness, or theirs; for the voices are various and inconsistent. I dare not mention this symptom to my vampiric peers, for they have proven themselves true predators to whom I could be loath to reveal any sign of weakness. Indeed, these voices have counseled me against confessing their presence, and until I can confirm their source, I will listen. The information the voices have given me ranges from curious to frightening. The latter case is especially true of one powerful vampire whose name I shall not commit to recording, in the interests of self-preservation.

Crouch to bypass the fallen furniture blocking the doorway, and enter the examination room on the right.

At the far end of the examination room is the Laboratory Refrigerator Key.

Leave the room, and take the next door to your right to the laboratory. You'll find one operating table and two operating chairs, as well as various pieces of equipment. Two doors on the far wall will be boarded up. On the floor to the left wall is a Morphine Bottle, while the right wall has a walk-in refrigerator, which can be opened with the key you acquired in the previous room.

Inside the walk-in refrigerator are two Blood Packs and two packs of Elder Vitae.

Exit the room and take the next door to your right, down a flight of stairs, to the cells.

Cells

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