Blink dog

The blink dog is a fictional intelligent dog, a magical beast from the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game that has a limited teleportation ability known as blinking.

By appearance, the blink dog resembles labrador more than any other animal. They have brown fur with yellow underbelly and short stiff tails. Sometimes they are referred as Tempus Wolves or Wink Hounds. Blink dogs have their own language, a mixture of barks, yaps, whines, and growls that can transmit complex information.

Blink dogs behave like most wild canines. They tend to live in packs of four to sixteen individuals, and are run by an alpha male and alpha female. They prefer temperate climes and feed on small animals as well as large such as deer or elk. Blink dogs do not have the territoriality as wolves, but they have less of a need to be territorial due to their teleportation abilities. Blinking also allows them to be spread over a large territory.

In general, blink dogs try to protect the pack and keep the young pups well fed. They are opposed by nature to evil in all its forms and intelligent enough to recognize it (and decide on how to oppose it). Blink dogs will not harm humans (except those who are considered evil) and avoid hunting near human habitations.

When chasing large prey, blink dogs try to work as a group, driving the target to exhaustion. When hunting smaller game, they will utilize their blink power to surprise their prey, snatching up their intended target with a quick snap of the jaws. If fighting a large animal or an intelligent enemy, blink dogs will use their teleportation ability to blink in and out of range. They will also try and blink in behind the target, in order to take it unawares.

In the Eberron campaign setting, the blink dog is the heraldic beast of the dragonmarked House Ghallanda.