Publisher's blurb: Across the land, scores of children are swept away during the week before the Winter Solstice, never to be heard from again. Legend has it that an ancient demon is the twisted force behind these mysterious abductions. A creature still worshipped in the darkest corners of the world, known to some as... Krampus. The week before the solstice has come to be known as Krampuslauf. A time of judgement where, legend tells, winter's demon is allowed the freedom to roam alongside its minions. Villagers who have sinned against their neighbors leave offerings of peppermint schnapps on the doorstep, in hopes of detering the malevolent spirits from bringing harm. While good children are rewarded by Sinterklass with gifts of candies and toys, the most unruly children are left naught but a velveteen sack of coal, a bundle of gold tinted ruten, and a warning. Those children who fail to take heed? Come the next year they vanish, never to be heard from again... Until now.