Downtown LA Chantry

The Downtown LA Chantry was a location in Downtown LA built in the Italianate style, used as a Chantry by Regent Maximillian Strauss and his Tremere in late 2004.

See this article on the VTM Bloodlines Wiki:

Tremere Chantry

Strauss' Chambers

The room used by Strauss as a meeting room contains plush couches, a roaring fireplace, and two bookshelves. The wall above the fireplace contains a reproduction of Peter Paul Rubens' Cain Slaying Abel. Curiously, flanking the entrance to the room are paintings of Charles Auguste Mengin's Sappho, and John Collier's Lilith.

Chantry Library

The Chantry Library contains comfortable seating, tables, and a number of bookshelves. It's lit by candlelight.

Chantry Haven

The second floor is dedicated to a haven for Tremere initiates. It's a well-appointed room with one wall of windows, a slightly raised bar area, a bed, a desk with a computer. The paintings of Sappho and Lilith also hang on the walls here. A separate room contains a spacious bathroom.

Quests

• The Regent's Riddle
• A Plague For The Angels
• Gargoyle Removal Service
• Ming Must Die!
• Royal Flush

Background Information

• In The Regent's Riddle, you are given a riddle from Strauss, containing the phrase: "come find me where burns the mystical sun." This is in reference to the glowing purple upper window of the front of the chantry. It's unknown if everyone can see it, but no one else ever remarks upon it. It's well within Strauss' power to only make it visible to other vampires, or even to key it to an individual -- for example, whoever picks up and reads the invitation card left in the PC's haven.
• The presence of the Lilith painting (and to a lesser extent, Sappho) have led some fans to suggest that Strauss is secretly a Bahari.
• The interior of the building is a seeming maze of passages where, using magic, all paths lead to Strauss. While this may be intended to direct the PC away from some areas of the chantry, the path leads the PC past innumerable doors, so it's more likely intended to lead them towards Strauss than away from any location in particular.
  • To leave the Chantry, alternate right and left turns as you leave Strauss' chambers.
  • In total, four "locations" can be visited: the entrance, a small library, Strauss' chambers, and the haven upstairs, available to Tremere PCs.
• To unlock the Haven:
  1. Must be Tremere
  2. Must be polite to Strauss
  3. When offered a choice between an occult item and a cash reward, always pick the occult item
  4. Complete Gargoyle Removal Service by destroying the Gargoyle, and do not reveal Strauss' secret to Isaac Abrams
  5. When Strauss offers the opportunity to join the Pyramid, don't stop to think about it, say yes
• Although smaller than the Skyeline Apartments haven, the Chantry haven is definitely the fanciest of the four available havens.
• The mailbox to the haven at the bottom of the stairs in the entrance duplicates the 508: Nivbed mailbox from the Pawnshop Lodgings.
• When looking at the Downtown LA map from overhead, the Chantry building (in fact, several of the buildings on that block) don't appear to be deep enough to function as normal buildings. The Chantry is only about 10 feet deep. This is less an effect of Strauss' warping of space and more a design decision resulting from twisting streets around to make the Downtown map feel bigger than it is, similar to how Disney theme parks are built.
• The Chantry's exterior may be based on the Sanctum Sanctorum of Dr. Strange from Marvel comics, with the purple glowing "sun" in place of the Seal of Vishanti.

References

• VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines