Adele Astrolara

Adele Astrolara was a sorceress and astrologer who ran the Academy of Stargazers.

Description
Adele had a fair complexion with hazel eyes, a large mouth with sensuous lips, and long black hair which she usually kept held back with a silver brooch. She stood 6' (1.8 m) tall with a slim figure and could be described as a true beauty. She usually dressed in green robes decorated with golden stars and other astrological symbols.

Personality
Adele carefully enunciated every word and spoke with clipped precision. She was a very strict disciplinarian when it came to her students. A common worker once described her as a "woman of ice who always had her nose stuck up in the air as if she was smellin' somethin' bad."

History
Adele was a rising "star", as it were, in the field of astrology in Zazesspur. Circumstances forced her to move to Waterdeep and later to the Mere of Dead Men along with her Academy of Stargazers which she founded in the mid–14 century DR to teach women magic, astronomy and astrology.

While living in Zazespur, Adele was overcome by and creature known as a penanggalan and joined undeath as one herself. Her appetites began to attract too much attention so she fled to Waterdeep and formed the Academy of Stargazers as a front to attract young to middle-aged women to her. Once again her appetites caught up to her though when one of her students, the daughter of a powerful noble, mysteriously disappeared.
 * Secret history

Adele had done some research into Castle Naerytar in the Mere of Dead Men and had also heard of the work that Sir Justin Melenikus had been doing to clear the swamp of monsters and protect the High Road to Leilon. She thought the mere would provide her with some privacy and the opportunity to prey upon travelers of the High Road herself, so she moved the entire Academy to the castle after routing a tribe of bullywugs who inhabited it.

Adele used an artifact known as the Farseer of Illusk and a magically created dome within the castle to not only teach her students about the stars, but also to spy on the surrounding area and seek out victims to feed on.

In her form as a penanggalon Adele separated her head from her body, which she left locked in her private chambers, and flied through the swamp draining victims, much like a vampire. Her detached head appeared twice its normal size with a huge fangs and a luminescent, tail-like appendage trailing behind her. Her eyes took on a fiery-red color and her voice gurgled with promises of undeath.

Appearances

 * Magazines:
 * Dungeon magazine 72