The Caretakers (GAP)

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: "You should not, cannot. . . will not harm the conduit. The grand eternal Scheme of Things must persist..."
: — A caretaker spirit inhabiting the body of a planewalker named Huinn, speaking to his companion, a wizard about to cast conduit pierce
The conduit network and the whole spiritual highway system doesn't work perfectly (what does?). Things go wrong. Though some graybeards have spread the chant that the conduits themselves are alive and sentient, it's a pretty indisputable fact that intelligent creatures watch over them and make sure that they function properly. These caretakers make up a special group of astral searchers. Created by violence or strong emotion exhibited on the Astral, these noncorporeal entities attempt to take control of a basher's material form so they can have a life of their own. They are literally creatures composed of the random thoughts that drift through the Astral Plane, woken to a semblance of life by happenstance. However, a few of these strange beings (before they've found a body to inhabit) evolve into intelligent guardians that watch over the conduits and their spiritual "cargo."
If these astral guardians inhabit the body of another, it is because they need a physical form to accomplish some task in relation to their special duty. Their theft of a material body is never a permanent thing.
Astral guardians always appear at the formation of a new conduit, conduit movement, or any other major conduit event. There's only a 2% chance that one or more will be around a conduit any other time. An outside source interfering with a conduit (such as through the conduit pierce spell described in the chapter called "The Githyanki") has a lO% chance of drawing the unwanted attention of a conduit caretaker. In such an encounter, the guardian is likely to observe the activities of the offender before rushing in to stop him. Sometimes, however, a rash spirit will do what it can to prevent any tampering with a conduit.
Because of the presence of these caretakers, some give the chant that these spirits are guardians or guides for the dead spirits that travel through the conduits from the Prime to their appropriate Outer Plane. More than likely, this isn't true. While plenty of primes developed legends about spectral entities which usher the dead to their final rest (one of the more colorful descriptions includes a skeletal face, a hooded robe, and a scythe), these astral guardians watch over the conduits, not their contents. Fact is, the caretakers don't seem to give one whit about the folks (dead or otherwise) that travel through the conduits.