Those who hunt by night will tell you that the wildest, most vicious of all animals is the tiny shrew. The shrew feeds only by the dark of night. He must eat his own body weight every few hours or stave to death. The ravenous shrew eats everything, bones, flesh, marrow... everything. Intro from Attack of the Killer Shrews 1959
Everyone knows about shrews. They are the tiny creatures that inhabit the forest floor and eat almost non stop when they are not sleeping. Nearly every child who leaves in rural areas has captured a tiny shrew for a pet. They seem harmless if not erratic.
However, on a small island the lowly shrew has been changed into a more sinister guard beast, with the help of a little bio-magic and creativity from a recluse magician by the name of Greiges who is the sole human inhabitant of the tiny island. Greiges became infatuated with his tiny ravenous cohabitants after retreating to the tiny island after being shunned by his peers in his home city. He spent many long hours simply observing the tiny creatures. how they ate, where they slept, how they interacted with each other. Slowly in the back of his mind he began to formulate a plan. he knew he need a way to protect his homestead from invaders and passers by, but he did not wish for human company on his island to assist him. Naturally he turned his attention to his shrew companions.
As they were his shrews were less than stellar candidates for guard and protection duties, their small size was the biggest hinderance. Who would be afraid of a mouse like creature only a few inches long? No one. However, several of there other qualities were very desirable. The little creatures were born with a full set of needle sharp permanent teeth, a need to eat large amount often, they never slept away the winter as most small animals do, they are resourceful enough not to even waste bone fragments, and best of all they possess a naturally occurring toxin that acted on the blood of there victims that acts as a slow poison to immobilize victims so and allowed for a non decomposing food source to be eaten at leisure.
To Greiges the solution seemed quite evident. Increase the size of the little creatures. And that was just what he did. The next few weeks were spent experimenting with various spells to increase the size of the shrews many failed some meet with moderate success. then one evening Greiges meet with more success than he could ever hope for. A spell that work to increase the size of the shrews without harming or fundamentally altering there innate behaviors. He was able to increase the shrew from the length of his finger to roughly the size of a grown wolf or other large dog. And what was even better his first fully successful test subject was a female who was ready to give birth. The young shrews all inherited their mother's new radical different size and they grew and thrived and reproduced their own larger shrew offspring.
The new race of giant shrews ate an enormous amount of food. Greiges used his gifts at multiplying nature once again to attract migrant animal life to his island to sustain his new army of shrews. They were even treated by the bumblings of the occasional lost traveler who happened onto the little island.
So sprung the first generation of Greiges's Killer Shrews.
It is said to this day that the island is still inhabited by Greiges and his army of killer shrews. however none knows for sure. Any adventure or wanderer who has happened upon the island has never been seen hide nor hair of again.
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- One Hundered Twenty Three Islands! by Murometz Bound
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- One Hundered Twenty Three Islands! Murometz linked by Murometz
I cant help but like this! Giant killer shrews runnning amok!! Fun!! A nice little surprise for the PCs, this can be inserted anywhere with relative ease.
Love the opening quote/reference too!
C'mon guys. We can get 29 comments bashing a 50 foot tall demon with tusks but no comments for venomous killer shrews? The weird thing here is that most shrews are poisonous, and do consume their own body mass in food every couple of hours.
And the vote is... 'Hey Joe, come 'ere and look at this ugly dog...'
Who would be afraid of a mouse like creature only a few inches long?
Plenty of people! Hell, cockroaches are my phobia, and they're smaller than shrews! :P
Anywho. Good stuff! Personally, I would have had the shrews stay the same size, but reproduce much faster. Additionally, I would make the shrews stomachs a 'bag of holding' of sorts, so the shrews NEVER stop eating.
MILLIONS OF RAVENOUS SHREWS CHEWING AWAY ALL LIFE ON THE ISLAND! AIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!
hehehe... anyway - a nice, fun read.
Heh, reminds me of Princess Bride's R.O.U.S.'s. The wizardry thing is a nice touch.
yes, it does! hehehe
Eeek! It's the Island of the Killer Shrews!
How does Greiges stop them from devouring him as well? Ring of Shrew Control? Cloak of Shrew Disguise? Hired Petruchio, the well-known tamer of shrews, to train them?
Ok, shrews are neat, but giant killer shrews of doom are sexyfineneat. Ohyea! :D
Argh - gaint, ravanous, killer screws - run for your lives
Brings back fond memories of all those '50s B movies
Just love it
3/5 for a basically sound concept
+1 for being easy to fit into almost any setting (if your world doesn't have magic, just make Greiges a bio-enngineer / geneticist / whatever)
+½ for the entertainment value
Final rating 4½ / 5
We are Shrew! See us and Dispair!