Night of the Living Toys

You should always put your toys away before bedtime.

This myth, enthusiastically retold by parents across the land, tells of a set of wooden dolls that were crafted by a toymaker in a distant city. The wood that these toys had been carved from just happened to come from part of the forest that was meant to be protected by the deity Sylvanus.

Unwilling to make an outright show of force, the deity instead cursed the wood that was taken, that it would bring misery and loss to any that sought to profit from the remains of the trees taken.

The first night that these dolls were sold, and taken to bed by their proud owners, the toys became aware. Each night, they would grow in strength, drawing on the dreams of their owners. This was not enough for the Toys however, and soon they began to co-operate with each other, kidnapping their owners in the middle of the night, hoping to have enough children collected together such that some of them could be kept asleep in shifts all day long.

All might have gone to plan were it not for the doll of one little girl, a Nobleman's daughter named Gertrude. Gertrude always locked her toys in a trunk in her playroom overnight, and upon waking each night her doll would attempt, in vain to escape his locked prison. When his efforts were eventually noticed by Gertrude's chamber maid, it was captured and taken to the city authority, as proof of what had caused the disappearances across the city.

The captured doll was burned, and the ashes divided into several receptacles. The other children were never found, but every now and then a child may go missing from their bed mysteriously in the night, and the Sylvanian Wood Dolls, or Kinder-snatches would be held to blame.

On second thoughts, don't just put them away before you go to sleep, lock them up too.