Hello and welcome to another spooktacular Ocular October!

The ninth annual! A beholder is famous for its ten eye stalks…perhaps this is a sign? Should I deviate completely from beholder-related content after 10 of these? I already deviated a bit with my last set of seasonal stat blocks and supernatural-suffused sentences…I’ll slide a bit more this time!

As I said last Halloween, I’m…expanding this blog beyond Beholders! (cue dramatic music)

Much like last year, I am tackling a subject already featured in one of my campaigns, and one that is only somewhat related to beholders. But this time, we’re going to the Feywild!

It is often said that the Feywild and Shadowfell are two opposite “reflections” of the Prime Material Plane, with the Feywild representing the forces of life, emotion, and change, and the Shadowfell representing death, memory, and stagnation. But the multiverse contains many strange things, and some Fey who align themselves to the elements of the Shadowfell can become obsessed with its dark promise…most often through the machinations of the Winter Court.

One such entity is known as the Lady of Mirrors…a mysterious Archfey who went mad after she and her realm were banished from the Winter Court by the Queen of Air and Darkness herself. Since then, she has turned her realm of Shadowglass into a dark reflection of its original beauty; its wilds scarred by her impotent rage, its halls dusty and ill-kept besides the cold glitter of her many mirrors, her living servants turned into the monstrous Mirror Men that obey her every command, led by the thing-that-was-once-her-husband, Lord Mirror.

But even the winds of winter change eventually…the Lady of Mirrors has been invited back to the Winter Court’s good graces. She merely has to perform a service first. But there is always a catch where the dark fey are involved…is this new command of her Queen intended to elevate her, or humiliate her further in the eyes of the Court? Is the one being tricked the mortals now subject to her wrath and deception, or the Lady’s own house?

We’ll find out, all this month of Ocular October! Enjoy the first installment below (as usual, I have changed some details around and expanded the lore and stats from my home campaign to make it palatable to the public).