Krampushka

“Be nice, child, or the Krampushka may make you her gift instead.”

An old saying the elderly teach to naughty children into scaring them from misbehaving.The Krampushka is a spider-like creature that lives underground most of the year, only interacting with the humans a few times to collect material for new toys. In those instances, she would scatter her spider familiars all around the village to

investigate children’s good and bad deeds while also collecting information to the children’s wishes.

On the night of heavy snow, the Krampushka would leave her lair, surrounded by cocoon-wrapped gifts tied onto her back. She would then visit each house and leave a gift behind. If spotted, she would use powder discharges from her fur to make the witness slumber and erase their memory of the sighting.

At the end of the night, the Krampushka would go to the house of the naughtiest child of the village and capture them in her web, judging them unfit to be raised by its loving parents. She would take

responsibility of them instead and bring them home with all her other children where finally the young child’s naughtiness would be no more.