And To All A Good Night is a supernatural-horror web novella published in 2018 by Lightysnake, and an entry in The Kindness of Devils. It can be read here
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Shortly after the events of Under The Cold Moon, The supernatural world stands exposed to the mortal one, with panic and confusion setting in. Hardestadt and Erin receive word of a kidnapping that leads to broader repercussions for the world, resulting in a rush to save Christmas itself.
The work contains examples of the following tropes:
- Admiring the Abomination: Both Hardestadt and Azmodan are initially impressed with Krampus's scheme. It's like the Grand Dance in Hell all over again.
- Affably Evil:
- Played for Laughs in a brief moment with the Yule Lads, who are surprisingly adamant about being in the spirit of Christmas cheer and friendship for thuggish, child-eating ogres. Heck, once Azmodan succeeds in tricking them into thinking he's a fellow child-eater, the Yule Lads welcome him, Emma and Hardestadt with open arms.
- Krampus is extremely pleasant, genteel and courteous, with none of it being fake.
- An Asskicking Christmas: Saving Christmas by beating up monsters.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: The final chapter is an epilogue cutting to Eliza Cortly and Hansel Brighterson of The Never Mythos when Grete Ravenhallow visits them.
- The Bad Guy Wins: It's not a complete victory, and it's hard to be mad about it since Krampus is just so smooth, but he walks away from the events of the story unharmed, moving on to his next plot, and, though he doesn't replace Christmas with his own holiday, his name has become even more renown.
- The Bet: Hardestadt makes a bet with Erin where she will have to be tied up if the main culprit of the story were to be the Krampus. He wins.
- Big Bad: The Gryla, the Icelandic mother of the ogreish Yule Lads scheming to destroy the holiday so she can devour bad children. She's in the pocket of Krampus, as it turns out.
- Big Good: Santa Claus, of course, is a powerful force for good in the world and is the savior of Christmas.
- Breather Episode: This story takes place immediately after Under The Cold Moon, which—in addition to being a huge Wham Episode where Stadt is revealed to have a daughter, Erin and Stadt get engaged, and the supernatural world is revealed to the world at large—was a dark story filled with cannibalistic, mass-murdering werewolves and eldritch abominations threatening to end the world. In contrast, And To All A Good Night is Lighter and Softer and deals with saving Christmas.
- Brick Joke: Erin is so exasperated with Hardestadt never shutting up about Krampus every year that she says he can 'tie her up for a week' if Krampus is involved. She gets a text later saying 'it's Krampus' with a handcuff emoji when Krampus reveals himself.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Krampus is amused at Emma's moral outrage at his actions. What, did she think he was a hero?
- Cassandra Truth: Hardestadt thinks Krampus is behind all the evil events. As he says this almost every year, nobody buys it. Turns out his claims of Krampus biding his time are absolutely correct.
- The Chessmaster: Krampus's plan nearly goes off without a hitch and he comes within a hair of destroying Christmas itself.
- Child Eater: The Gryla and her sons, the Yule Lads, are ogres that eat naughty children. Her sons, at least, are surprisingly affable.
- Christmas Special: For The Kindness of Devils. The epilogue is one for The Never Mythos, as well.
- The Cloud Cuckoo Lander Was Right: Well, Hardestadt isn't normally a Cloud Cuckoo Lander, but, ever since Erin showed him a particular movie, whenever trouble comes up at Christmas, he believes Krampus is behind it. This time, he's dead right.
- Cool Old Guy: Santa is jolly, awesome and cool as ever.
- Disc-One Final Boss: The Gryla is set up as the story's main villain, and is defeated in Chapter 2, but then it's revealed that the Krampus was the one behind her, and was using her as a distraction for Hardestadt.
- Dumb Muscle: The Yule Lads are not the sharpest bulbs in the shed. Azmodan is able to play them like a fiddle with minimal effort.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: The Yule Lads are child-eating ogres, but they sure do love their mama, the Gryla. Granted, their mother's not the nicest lady herself not that you'd ever want to tell the Yule Lads that. At one point the heroes get them fighting each other by getting them arguing over who's their mother's favorite.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The Gryla loves her boys, even if she's a child eating ogress.
- Evil Matriarch: The Gryla, an ogress with a massive number of sons she sends out to collect naughty children for her to cook.
- Genius Bruiser: Krampus is strong as all hell and one hell of a plotter.
- Good Needs Evil: One of the reasons why Santa prevents Hardestadt from killing the Krampus.
- Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: It's Christmas and the plans revolve around that.
- Karma Houdini:
- The Gryla and her sons get locked up and monitored, but otherwise suffer little punishment.
- Krampus simply has to help put Christmas back on track and cheerfully remarks he's going to try something like this again sooner or later. Azmodan points out you can't really hold them to human standards here.
- Kick the Dog: Quite literally with the Cu Sith puppy, whom the Yule lads enslave and kick around.
- The Krampus: Hardestadt swears up and down that the Krampus is the one behind the evil events. It turns out to be the Gryla and her sons, the Yule Lads...but then it turns out Krampus is The Man Behind the Man.
- Lighter and Softer: None of the horrifying violence, apocalyptic drama or cruel villains that mainstay in Kindness of Devils here. It's just a fluffy, heartwarming, comedic Christmas special, even with the appearance of Eliza and Hansel at the end.
- The Man Behind the Man: Krampus is the one pulling the strings.
- Obliviously Evil: The Yule Lads don't seem to think there's anything wrong with kidnapping children so their mama can cook them and they can eat them. They are naughty children, after all!
- Old Flame: It's revealed Eliza Cortly and Hardestadt used to be lovers from Eliza's memory, and she's nervous about seeing him again eventually, though she clearly has feelings for him still.
- Our Ogres Are Hungrier: The Gryla and her sons, the Yule Lads really, really want to go back to eating naughty kids.
- Precision F-Strike: Not that anyone in this series shies from swearing, but especially notable? "Yeah! It's fucking Krampus!"
- Properly Paranoid: Hardestadt swears that every single problem in the story was caused by the Krampus, to which everyone around him denies it. He ends up being right at the end, much to his pleasure.
- Refuge in Audacity: Azmodan manages to get in with the Yule Lads by cheerfully walking up to talk to them. They're too dumb to really catch on to anything wrong.
- Saving Christmas: This time, Hardestadt and the team have to save Christmas.
- Shout-Out:
- Erin references Firefly a couple of times with the line "Remember that sex we were planning to have ever again?".
- Emma accidently refers to a Straggele as a Scraggle, as a reference to the author Lightysnake's friend and coauthor.
- Team Pet: The Cu Sith puppy ends up adopted by Hardestadt and Erin, and given the name Nyx.
- Villain Song: The Yule Lads get their own musical number about eating bad children. Emma is impressed it rhymes so well in English.
- Worthy Opponent: Hardestadt feels this way about Krampus.
- Would Hurt a Child: The Yule Lads and their mother Gryla want to get back to eating naughty kids come Yule.
