The Holiday Harpy has taken over the winter issue of Knowledge Arcana! Check out Holiday Harpy Carols to see what she and her trolls have in mind for this year’s celebrations.

George LeStrange pens for us a piece of original fiction called The Necklace. Though not about winter holidays in particular, it does involve a gift—and an unusually deadly gift at that.

This issue’s installment of Quick and Dirty DM offers advice for DMs on going by the book—or not. Author WizO_Paradox leads you through the process of making the game (and even published campaign worlds) all your own by creating house rules that reflect your particular campaign and players.

Continuing our snowy theme, we have the polar kraken, this issue’s Creature Feature. As if a regular kraken weren’t scary enough, this polar version has another trick or two up its tentacles. It sings a captivating song to lure prey out onto the ice, then smashes through to seize its lunch.

Ramza Tyr offers more advice about how to design and implement house rules with his 7 Tips for Creative Dungeon Mastering article. If you want to create a campaign that requires a change to the rules, these seven steps are invaluable.

Finally, Pete Wyeth presents the peak strider, a prestige class that operates in the icy mountain peaks of the dwarven homelands. If your dwarf gets restless just hanging around the clanhold and yearns for the bracing air of the mountains, this class is for you.