Magical Skulls - Fido

The woods were quiet as Nimble sat with his back to the fire.  The usual host of crickets and night birds chirped and hooted, but nothing larger seemed to be moving anywhere near the camp.  Opposite Nimble a faintly luminous form also sat unmoving, looking out into the dark.  Rathgar lay still upon his bedroll, dead to the world, yet his hand still gripped the blade that rested at his side.  Feris rolled over when the fire popped, cracking one eye and mumbed out "Go to sleep Nimble.  Fido's watching the camp." and then pulled his blanket back up and was again asleep.  


Nimble sighed and looked over his shoulder at the glowing dog-thing with the rune carved skull clearly visible inside it's head.  "You guys will do anything to get out of keeping watch..."

Fido is a canine skull that has been enchanted to act as a magical guardian for a camp.  When a party wishes to use this item they must first put out a bowl of water and a small hunk of meat.  The owner then commands "Fido, Guard!" and a guardian spirit, in the form of a canine will appear, with the skull floating inside of it's head.  The visual form of the spirit will correspond with that of the skull, but the spirit itself will be the same whether the skull was from a Mastiff or a Pomeranian.  The guardian spirit will be active for 6 hours per day and can only be summoned once a day.  Failure to put out the food and water will result in a wasted summoning.  The guardian spirit uses the same stats as either a wolf or dire wolf (50/50 chance when found) with the following exceptions:
armor class is improved by 1, moral is 12, they can naturally see invisible creatures, and they count as enchanted animals. 

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Today is the first in a week long (at least) series of posts inspired by a Paladin in Citadel's post about magical skulls in Dungeons and Dragons.