The Shrake is a magical creature made entirely out of spite. That’s not exactly what the book says, but it’s 100% accurate. Wizards brought this big fish into being because Muggle fisherman wronged them.
It was not because of some centuries-long, epic feud between wizard and non-wizard. A bunch of Muggle fisherman once made fun of a group of wizards at sea, and the wizards’ reaction was to create an entire species to ruin the livelihood of those fisherman.
…and presumably every fisherman who travelled those same waters.
…not to mention disrupting the economy of any coastal village the fishermen traded with.
…the local ecosystem was probably impacted too. All because a boat-full of wizards couldn’t take a joke.
Shrake
The size of the Shrake wasn’t obvious from the description. It needs to be bulky enough to do serious damage to fishing nets, but if we get too large then the Ministry of Magic would have likely stepped in to relocate the gargantuan spiked sea beasts that every Muggle fisherman could easily see.
The use of this monster in a D&D game is fairly straightforward. These creatures are deliberately predisposed to wrecking seafaring property. Muggle towns will pay for someone to discover what is tearing their nets. They don’t need to know what is doing the tearing, they just need to pay well.
Alternatively, these sea pests can show up whenever ships are sailing their waters, or an adventure leads the heroes underwater. I have to imagine that the wizards created the Shrake with a bad attitude, otherwise they wouldn’t seek out fishing gear to demolish.
Thank you For Reading
All Fantastic Beasts, turned into D&D monsters, are found here.
Gamer Peak 