FREQUENCY: Rare
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: 7
MOVE: 3"/26"
HIT DICE: 3
% IN LAIR: 25%
TREASURE TYPE: See below
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1 beak and 1 slam
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 3-12/1-6
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Nil
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Nil
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard
INTELLIGENCE: Average to high
ALIGNMENT: Neutral evil
SIZE: M (4' long, 9' wingspan)
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
    Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
LEVEL/X.P. VALUE: III/50 + 3/hp

    The giant shrike, like its smaller cousin,
is a demure-looking bird with a pleasant,
low-voiced song of bubbling, chuckling
noises. It has a white throat and underbelly,
a grey body with black marks on its wings,
and a raccoonlike "mask" stripe of black
about its eyes. It has small but sharp claws
and a small, hooked, notched and toothed
beak, and does not look dangerous at all. A
shrike can mimic the squeaky call of a baby
bird in distress to lure other birds and predators
near.

    When a shrike sights prey, its song
changes to a high, shrill whistle, and it
wings after its quarry. It will attack man-sized
or larger creatures of all sorts, and
seldom shows fear. A shrike's talons are too
feeble to tear its prey and slay it, so a shrike
rams and batters with its wings and body
(1-6 damage per blow), forcing its victim to
stop or land and attempt a defense, whereupon
it clubs and tears at the victim with its
hooked beak, doing 3-12 points of damage
per strike. A hunting shrike is persistent,
murderous, and loves to kill; it may slay
creatures it has no intention of eating,
though it can also store food for later. When
a kill is made, the body of the victim is
gathered up and laboriously flown to a lair
in a thorny tree or bush.

    Shrike lairs are usually in desolate places,
so the "butcherbird" can see enemies approaching.
Treasure from slain opponents may
be strewn there, but it is not valued or kept
track of by the shrike (i.e., it is random).

    Shrikes are solitary creatures and range
widely, often hunting many miles from their
lairs. Once every six winters, they seek out
a shrike of the opposite sex and mate in
secluded thickets, mading a tidy nest of
woven rootlets, feathers, and grasses. From
1-4 cream-colored eggs are laid. The male
then leaves the female, who sits on the eggs,
starving for a week or more until she can
bear it no longer and takes wing to hunt.
She never returns, and 70% of the eggs will
hatch within days of her departure.

    Baby shrikes are AC 9, MV 16", HD
1-1, 2 attacks for 1-4/1-2, and are aggressive
and cunning as their parents. They
fend for themselves, abandoning the nest in
long flights to seek a territory of their own,
and will not be content until they are in a
good hunting area not inhabited by another
shrike. There they grow rapidly to mature
size and powers. Shrike live up to 30 years.

    A minor variety called the sea shrike lives
in coastal areas, and often wings far out
over the waves to escape land-based pursuers
or to prey on livestock and men on the
decks of ships, sea birds, and the like. A
strong flyer, its wingspan is 2 feet or more
larger than that of its inland cousin, and sea
shrikes have been known to fly through
fierce storms unscathed. Sea shrikes can
plop down to rest on the water's surface,
sculling about (6" move in calm waters or
gentle swell) while thus floating, but cannot
swim or dive into water after undersea
creatures. They can take off from water
without difficulty, even when heavily laden
(i.e., with man-sized prey). Sea shrikes
prize sea turtles, horseshoe crabs, and other
aquatic creatures that come ashore to mate,
attacking them in a frenzy of bloodletting
(although giant crabs often drag down and
slay an attacking shrike with their pincer
claws). Several shrikes may gather at such a
feast, but they will ignore each other, hunting
on their own for food.
 

    by Ed Greenwood