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.

Publication history
The blink dogs first appeared in the original Greyhawk supplement (1975).

The blink dog appeared in the D&D Basic Set (1977), D&D Expert Set (1981, 1983), and Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia (1991).

The blink dog appeared in first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in the original Monster Manual (1977). This version was also turned into a character class by Lewis Pulsipher in a 1980 article for White Dwarf magazine. This was unique at that time and in concept of playing an entire pack of blink dogs, not just one creature.

The blink dog appeared in second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in Monstrous Compendium Volume One (1989), reprinted in the Monstrous Manual (1993).

The blink dog appeared in the third edition Monster Manual (2000), and the version 3.5 Monster Manual (2003).

Description
By appearance, the blink dog resembles a 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 same 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. The blink dog is the natural enemy of the displacer beast.

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.

Other versions
Blink Dogs appear, in name only, in the fiction novel The Guardian of Hope by Tamara Rivers. The creature is described: "A blink dog is a canine that is able to teleport rapidly, literally in the 'blink of an eye'".

In the German roguelike game ADOM, blink dogs are monsters that can be killed, and eaten if needed, or used as companions. They are valued by optimizers as a low-level creature that can summon more of its kind, providing the opportunity for farming.

Blink dogs appear in the roguelike game Angband as monsters that can both teleport themselves and teleport the player to them.

Other mentions
In The Geeks Guide to World Domination, Blink Dogs are mentioned as one of fantasy's signature creatures.