Prizogants (pronounced PRY-zoh-gants) are a type of ancient construct only found around anchor sites, which they have repaired and maintained for countless years.
Appearance
Prizogants have the rough appearance of bronze-plated crabs. Most are four to five feet across and two to three feet tall with eight articulated limbs, of which the front-most pair end in grasping claws. All of these details vary somewhat, however, as there are seemingly multiple varieties of prizogants, some of which are of different sizes and configurations.
As the constructs repair themselves in addition to the anchor sites, some have a patchwork appearance, their outer armor mended with any suitable material they could find, whether metal or another substance.
Under their exoskeleton, the prizogants operate via an extraordinarily complex system of seemingly self-powered clockwork mechanisms. Many scholars have attempted to study their workings by removing their shells, as difficult of a feat as that is, yet doing so invariably causes the constructs to become non-functional and the delicately balanced gears to fall to pieces.
Behavior
Prizogants labor ceaselessly to maintain their associated anchor sites, preventing them from falling into ruin and thus becoming inoperable for teleportation. The constructs were evidently brought into being by the same unknown ancient culture who built the anchor sites. Though they never venture more than roughly a mile away from their associated anchor site, within this range the Prizogants seem to have a level of omniscience as to who is present and the resources available, and they will depart their wards at times to acquire any necessary material for their work. When there is nothing to be done, the constructs return to the insets in the walls of the interior chamber of the anchor sites, climbing over each other to efficiently stack themselves until they are needed once more.
It is generally understood that interfering with their work is inadvisable - they are quite capable in combat, for one, but more concerningly without their maintenance the anchors become unstable and eventually inoperable. Anchor sites can also be taken offline if enough of their Prizogants are destroyed or else are damaged enough that they can't perform their tasks. Each site only has a limited number of Prizogants, and they are never replaced nor are they replaceable.