Astarbar's Mansion

Astarbar's Mansion is the main base for the current adventuring party.

Features
The mansion itself consists of two storeys - with a dining room, storage area, kitchen and living room on the first floor, and repurposed bedrooms on the second. The mansion is filled with all sorts of fantastic creatures left behind by Astarbar, a deranged sorcerer who often experimented with wildlife. These creatures include a Doppelganger, with the ability to turn invisible or turn into a copy of any humanoid it encounters; a giant Rhinoceros that patrols the mansion grounds; a giant butterfly that lives within the living room on the first floor; three giant mice that live on the second floor; a skittish, red devil that lives in the attic and a multitude of smaller animals like crows and flies that act as messengers for the mansion's inhabitants.

The mansion also possesses an attic, which is presently host to Astarbar's study - a small room filled with all sorts of magical vials and items. It is currently home to the skittish devil and Udema, who spent hours in the room prior to meeting the party.

Prior History
Astarbar's Mansion was originally the location of a quest that the human bard Udema Tristhollow accepted while at an inn somewhere within the Cormanthor Forest. Led by Spectre Rivana Greyhawk, Udema managed to confront the deranged sorcerer Astarbar, whose demons had wiped out Rivana's party during an unfortunate misadventure in the mansion a few years prior. Astarbar, with his knowledge of the ethereal realm and the creation of portals to and fro the region, proved too much for Udema in terms of pure sorcery and physical skill. However, with slight cunning (and perhaps, stupidity), Udema first lured Astarbar to the mortal plane and jumped into the portal to the ethereal plane. Then, he sealed both the door to Astarbar's study and the portal to the ethereal plane by using Astarbar's wand to destroy the glyphs holding the portal open, leaving Astarbar trapped in the study and Udema trapped within the etheral plane.

Udema found himself playing songs for the spirits' entertainment for the next 50 years, unaware of happenings in the mortal plane. During this time, Astarbar died of starvation within his study, and his body was looted and desecrated by plunderers who looted the mansion, leaving the mansion with no trace of its former owner. Udema, on the other hand, had his physical appearance corrode and slowly take on the form of an undead, with his flesh rotting beyond recognition from long exposure in the ethereal plane.

After 50 years, Udema finally stepped out of the ethereal plane - the spirit of Rivana finally amassing enough power to reactivate the glyphs present in the room. Udema stepped out, and Rivana, having spent all her amassed energy opening the gate, fades in Udema's arms, her spirit disintegrating and dispersing itself into distant geographies beyond the mansion.

Udema has then lived in the mansion thereafter, inheriting all the animal (and inhuman) inhabitants as his servants.

Current Usage
When Kairon, Luna and Helios emerged from their skirmish in the ethereal plane, they found themselves in Astarbar's study, where they encountered the undead Udema for the first time. After some bantering, Udema allows the party to take refuge in the mansion. From then on, the party has operated from the mansion whenever possible, and uses it as their main frontier base for adventure and exploration.

While alone in the mansion, Helios discovered a magical snowglobe that held a world within it - Helios spent a few days trapped within it, coming to clashes with Skaglar the Vague, Harold the Brief, Diyana the Different, Jonas the Insane and Tess the Questioning. Though initially amnesiac, Helios managed to destroy the Ice Witch placed within the snowglobe by Astarbar by using her own alchemists' fire against her, and successfully escaped the snowglobe. He opted, however, not to release the others trapped within, choosing instead to leave the snowglobe on the shelf where he found it. Soft voices and the clanging of beer mugs can be heard in the vicinity of the snowglobe till this day, much to Helios' chagrin.