TEXT: ™
  ™
  customizing the reaping
  by rich redman
  The Game Mechanics, Inc
  P.O. Box 1125, Renton WA 98057-0707
  www.thegamemechanics.com
  ‘d20 System’ and the ‘d20 System’ logo are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., and are used according to the 
  terms of the d20 System License version 4.0. A copy of this License can be found at www.wizards.com/d20.  
  d20 Modern™ is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., and is used with permission. Wizards of the Coast® is 
  a registered trademark of Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., and is used with permission. Infi nite Serpents and Yuan-ti © 
  1978-2003 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Used with permission. The Urban Arcana logo is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of 
  Hasbro, Inc. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
  Customizing the Reaping ©2003 The Game Mechanics, Inc. All rights reserved. 
  For information on the designation of Open Game Content and Product Identity in this publication, refer to the Appendix. 
  THE GAME MECHANICS and The Game Mechanics logo are trademarks of The Game Mechanics, Inc. All rights reserved. 
  This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or 
  artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of The Game Mechanics, Inc.
  This product is a work of fi ction. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, places, or events is purely coincidental.
  Made in the U.S.A.
  Editing: Marc Schmalz
   Layout and Typese� ing: Marc Schmalz
  Customizing the Reaping is a free publication offered in promotion of Come for the Reaping, an adventure for the d20 
  Modern Roleplaying Game and the Urban Arcana campaign setting from The Game Mechanics, Inc.
  Behind high walls and guard posts, a converted sanatorium houses a secret research facility delving into “alternate 
  technologies.” Behind a respectable facade, agents of an ancient secret society work to decipher ancient texts they 
  barely understand, hoping to glean a few arcane secrets from their vast collection of mystic tomes. A few nights ago, 
  researchers with more ambition than skill tried summoning something from another 
  reality. They got more than they bargained for....
  Come for the Reaping is a challenging d20 System adventure of modern horror set 
  in the Urban Arcana campaign setting, designed for four 1st-level heroes. Heroes 
  must infi ltrate the mansion, overcome a small army of undead, rescue any survivors, 
  and defeat a fi end before the facility’s secret masters decide to “sanitize” the 
  mansion. It’s going to take brawn and brains for the heroes to survive in this zombie 
  horror movie come to terrible, shambling life!
  Come for the Reaping comes complete with:
   
  • zombie stat blocks
   
  • a brand new fi end for modern d20 System campaigns
   
  • initiative cards
   
  • pre-generated characters
   
  • maps of the converted mansion by Christopher West
   
  • tactical hints for GMs to give players who are new to modern role-playing games
   
  • suggestions for follow-up adventures. 
  Come for the Reaping is the fi rst modern d20 System adventure from The Game Mechanics.
  Requires the use of the d20 Modern™ Roleplaying Game and Urban Arcana campaign setting, published by Wizards 
  of the Coast, Inc.
  
  Writers rarely create adventures in a vacuum—
  most write with a specific campaign setting in mind. 
  Come for the Reaping is no different. If you’d like 
  to play the adventure using the same campaign 
  setting material I used when writing and playtesting 
  it, read on! Players should read no further.
  Building a Campaign
  When I started work on Come for the Reaping, my 
  intent was to create an environment in which our 
  designers and our local freelancers could play the 
  d20 Modern Roleplaying Game, become familiar 
  with the rules, and generally experiment. Looking 
  through the campaign models in the core rulebook, 
  I decided that the Urban Arcana campaign setting 
  was the best fit. It had monsters, so I could mine 
  the usual fantasy monster books for opponents 
  (opponents that, because of my Dungeons & 
  Dragons writing and gaming experience, were 
  already familiar to me). It had lots of opportunities 
  for heroes to learn or acquire magic. That 
  seemed perfect. Plus, it had the yuan-ti and the 
  Infinite Serpents, which really appealed to me as 
  campaign masterminds.
  Then I had to write the first adventure. Everyone 
  who has ever written or played a first adventure 
  knows that the first obstacle you have to overcome 
  is how to get the heroes together. We’ve all played 
  in the “so you’re all drinking in the same tavern 
  when…” adventure. I wanted something different. 
  I also wanted something that would allow me to 
  bring in new players, or new heroes, over the 
  course of the campaign. The second adventure-
  writing obstacle is answering the question, “How do 
  the heroes find out about the adventure?” I realized 
  I could kill two birds with one stone, thanks to an 
  unhealthy childhood obsession with television.
  The Se�ing
  This adventure is set in a campaign that would 
  be similar to Charlie’s Angels, if the Angels fought 
  undead and fiends from other dimensions. Since I 
  already had “angel” on the brain, I decided to draw 
  from the TV show, Angel, and set my campaign 
  in southern California. The location is rife with 
  stories, and most people are familiar with the 
  look of L.A. from TV and movies. From Raymond 
  Chandler to Chinatown, from Hollywood cemeteries 
  to Hollywood back lots, from the Charles Manson 
  killings to Beverly Hills, the location drips 
  atmosphere, weirdness, and history.
  Plus, my gamers and I all live in Seattle and 
  in the middle of a Seattle winter, L.A. weather is 
  irresistible.
  This solved the problem of how the heroes 
  met. I told them that they had all had a strange 
  experience, something supernatural, and that it 
  customizing the reaping
  had cost them friends and jobs because of their 
  insistence that the experience was real. I left the 
  details up to them. I then told them that they had 
  all received a letter, and I emphasized that it was 
  a real letter, on heavy, embossed stationery, and 
  written with a fountain pen. The letter said that the 
  writer knew of their experience, believed them, 
  and wished to discuss it further. He (more on him, 
  below) invited each hero to his office to discuss the 
  matter.
  The Boss
  The letter was signed “Stennes Drygedenov.” I 
  let heroes research Stennes’ background before 
  the meeting if they wanted. The information they 
  gathered said that Stennes Drygedenov escaped 
  from Romania with his parents in the 1930s. 
  Stennes was born with xeroderma pigmentosa 
  (“XP”) and is acutely vulnerable to cancers of the 
  skin and eyes. He cannot afford exposure to UV 
  radiation, and since all exposures are cumulative, 
  it is remarkable he has lived so long. In fact, he 
  seems to be the oldest survivor of the condition. 
  No one has seen him in person in decades. They 
  learned he was married and that his wife died 
  of lung cancer twenty years ago. They also saw 
  news stories about his son, a medical missionary 
  in central Africa. Stennes is well known in Los 
  Angeles for the Drygedenov Academic Trust that 
  provides scholarships for gifted students and for his 
  charitable contributions to medical research.
  The heroes never see Stennes because he 
  “meets” with them in his penthouse office in 
  downtown Los Angeles and communicates with 
  them through an intercom on a desk. The office 
  has all the amenities, including coffee maker and 
  espresso machine, and is very comfortable. It is 
  furnished entirely in white. There are obvious video 
  cameras hanging from the ceiling. His foundation 
  owns the entire building.
  Stennes hired the heroes to investigate strange 
  occurrences. He told them straight out that there 
  was more going on in the world than people were 
  ready to understand, and that traditional protective 
  agencies such as the police treated monster 
  reports as coming from crackpots. Someone had 
  to protect people, and he wanted the heroes to join 
  the ranks of those who protected humanity from 
  real monsters.
  While Stennes is happy to provide legal and 
  medical assistance to the heroes, he prefers them 
  to rely on their own resources during missions. 
  I use the standard requisition rules in Chapter 
  Four: Equipment of the d20 Modern Roleplaying 
  Game if heroes ask him for additional equipment, 
  but Stennes will not supply them with military 
  hardware.
  
  This solved both my “how do the heroes meet” 
  issue and my “how do the heroes find out about 
  the adventure” issue. The format allowed Stennes 
  to introduce new heroes if new players joined. I 
  envisioned Stennes as someone who had helped 
  a lot of people, had many contacts throughout 
  Los Angeles who knew of his interest in strange 
  occurrences, was often asked to help, and who 
  would always know of something that heroes could 
  investigate. All I had to do was resolve who, or 
  what, Stennes was. I had time, and I still do have 
  time, since heroes won’t find out Stennes’ true 
  nature (whatever it is) until late in the campaign.
  Who Is This Guy?
  Originally, I thought Stennes was a vampire 
  who used the heroes to thwart the plots of other 
  monstrous masterminds while he was advancing 
  his own plots. An evil person advancing evil goals 
  by doing good was certainly intriguing. I saw two 
  flaws in the idea before my first playtest session. 
  The first is that it creates a lot more issues for the 
  GM than it solves, issues like how Stennes finds 
  out about the plots of other monsters and what 
  his master plan actually is. The second is that of 
  trust. The heroes had to trust Stennes enough to 
  work for him. That was a big stretch considering 
  his unusual history, his unconventional ways of 
  meeting with the heroes, and the bizarre nature 
  of his requests. If I could gain that trust, I didn’t 
  want to betray it later by revealing him as a villain. 
  If you’re willing to deal with those issues, it helps 
  a great deal adapting the adventure, and the 
  campaign, to the Shadow Chasers campaign 
  model. I would advise emphasizing levels of 
  Charismatic, with smatterings of Fast. Depending 
  on what level you need him to be, he might also 
  have levels of Negotiator.
  I settled on the idea that Stennes is really a 
  gold dragon who has lived on this world a very, 
  very long time. He can masquerade as a human 
  when he wishes, but he prefers his natural shape. 
  He doesn’t think the world is ready to accept 
  dragons, just as he thinks the world is unready 
  for the horrors that lurk in its alleys, abandoned 
  mines, and darkest jungles. He prefers to work 
  through others, and the heroes are his latest set of 
  employees. An ancient gold dragon is tough, smart, 
  and talented enough that it probably doesn’t need 
  any class levels.
  Alternatives
  Despite my warning in the introduction, many 
  players will read this far. A GM, therefore, needs 
  alternate choices to keep his players guessing. 
  Some alternatives are more appropriate for 
  different campaign models (see Chapter Nine: 
  Campaign Models in the d20 Modern Roleplaying 
  Game). Alternate choices for Stennes’ background 
  include:
  Fiend: Many modern interpretations of 
  Hell portray it as a rule-bound place filled with 
  scheming fiends vying for political power and 
  the favor of the Prince of Darkness. If Stennes 
  is a fiend, perhaps he underwent a miraculous 
  conversion while tormenting mortals on Earth. 
  If his allegiance changed, his underlying nature 
  might not have, giving you someone trying to do 
  good through violence, intimidation, seduction, 
  and betrayal. Then again, perhaps all his good 
  works are simply a masquerade for a plot born 
  in Hell, a plot that must succeed or he will face 
  the torments usually reserved for the damned. 
  Or you could play on a war between those fiends 
  allied with chaos and those allied with law, making 
  Stennes a force working for one side or the other. 
  As a fiend, he should have a high Intelligence and 
  a high Charisma, with levels of Charismatic and 
  Negotiator on top of any supernatural or spell-like 
  abilities. A fiendish Stennes works very well in 
  either and Urban Arcana or a Shadow Chasers 
  setting. Watch out for betraying your heroes’ trust 
  late in the campaign, however. It can be very 
  upsetting to players.
  Illithid: Insidious, diabolical, and powerful, 
  illithids possess the mental powers and arcane 
  knowledge to pass themselves off as human. 
  Stennes could easily be an illithid, but you face 
  the same challenges as with a vampiric or fiendish 
  Stennes: What is his plot, how does he know 
  what other monsters are up to, and the ultimate 
  betrayal of the heroes. Generally speaking, illithids 
  consider humans inferior, best suited as cattle they 
  slaughter for brains. If Stennes is working against 
  other illithids for good purposes, emphasize levels 
  of Mage, taking base class levels as necessary to 
  qualify for Mage. This alternative works best in an 
  Urban Arcana setting, but can work well in Shadow 
  Chasers as well.
  Puppeteer: Invaders seeking to enslave 
  entire worlds, puppeteers provide an interesting 
  alternative in that Stennes could be almost anyone 
  at any time. He could even be one of the heroes! 
  Stennes could be a rogue puppeteer trying to 
  defend the Earth and humanity, or he could be 
  subverting it through clever and subtle deployment 
  of the heroes, preparing the way for an invasion 
  of puppeteers riding alien soldiers. A typical host 
  for Stennes would be a character with levels in 
  either Negotiator or Mage (or Telepath if using 
  Agents of PSI), and whatever base class levels are 
  necessary to qualify for those advanced classes.
  Replacement: Imagine if Stennes were once a 
  powerfully psionic human suffering from XP who 
  was approached by the Enlightenment (see the 
  Agents of PSI campaign model in Chapter Nine: 
  Campaign Models of the d20 Modern Roleplaying 
  Game) and offered a replacement body. If they 
  understood how to duplicate a body, but not how 
  to engineer out existing conditions, then every 
  
  replacement body would suffer XP and Stennes 
  would constantly require a new one. Heroes could 
  never be entirely sure exactly how old he was. 
  Obviously the Enlightenment and Stennes’ psionic 
  power are parts of the Agents of PSI campaign 
  model from the core rule book, but replacements 
  could appear in any campaign model, especially 
  if you give them a supernatural origin rather than 
  a scientific one. As a replacement, Stennes is 
  concerned about laws governing cloning and 
  protecting his sources of replacement bodies. This 
  could put heroes in conflict with rival scientific or 
  supernatural organizations, or even government 
  agencies. Stennes could be using his influence to 
  advance cloning and replacement technology for 
  almost any reason. 
  Mindwreckers: If using the Agents of PSI 
  campaign setting, Mindwreckers make good 
  villains. They’re chaotic, destructive, and have no 
  compassion for non-psionic people. Stennes could 
  be a Mindwrecker using the heroes to eliminate 
  his enemies and thus gain power within the group. 
  Clearly this is best suited for the Agents of PSI 
  campaign model. Stennes could also oppose 
  the Mindwreckers, possibly with ties to the Silent 
  Walkers. In any case, Stennes should be a 
  Telepath with at least enough base class levels to 
  qualify for that advanced class.
  Adventure Changes
  If you’d like to use Stennes instead of Department-
  7, you can introduce these simple modifications to 
  Come for the Reaping.
  Introduction
  “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Some 
  friends of mine have asked me for help. Their 
  daughter works for a company called Ogdoad 
  Research. O.R. is a think-tank of sorts, 
  investigating alternative technologies. They have a 
  reputation for extracting practical information from 
  folklore. The young lady, Amy Heseltine, usually 
  calls her parents after work on Thursday evening. 
  They called me this afternoon after discovering 
  that the O.R. facility where Amy works, a restored 
  mansion in the Santa Monica Mountains, has been 
  incommunicado since some time Wednesday night. 
  It is possible that O.R. is using its treasury to 
  keep the LAPD at bay while conducting its own 
  investigations. My concern is Amy Heseltine. Find 
  and protect her if at all possible.”
  Background
  Stennes Drygedenov recently hired the heroes. 
  He meets with them in his penthouse office, 
  communicating through an intercom. The 
  heroes never see him. It is Thursday evening, 
  approximately 6:00 PM, on December 5, 2002, 
  when Stennes gives them the speech in the 
  Introduction.
  Stennes is lying about two things. He has 
  never met the Heseltines. He knows who they 
  are because his academic trust gave Amy a 
  scholarship, one of many scholarships for gifted 
  students. He often maintains contact with his 
  scholars, building relationships that can last for 
  years and acting as a mentor. He knows about 
  what happened at the facility because Amy called 
  him.
  Campaign Model
  Your choice of campaign setting should dictate 
  other changes in the adventure. 
  Urban Arcana: Any changes you make 
  should be to fit the adventure with how you 
  define Stennes. However, any of the alternatives 
  suggested above could oppose the Infinite 
  Serpents for their own reasons.
  Shadow Chasers: Come for the Reaping fits 
  easily into the Shadow Chasers campaign model. 
  In fact, Resident Evil is cited in the core rulebook 
  as an inspiration for the model! Start by defining 
  Stennes, and then tweak the adventure so the 
  people behind Ogdoad Research are opponents.
  Agents of PSI: The easiest way to make 
  Come for the Reaping fit this campaign model is 
  to make the reaper a monster of the id. If one of 
  the deceased staff members created it, the reaper 
  will grow weaker and eventually fade away. If Clint 
  Castle or Amy Heseltine created it, the heroes may 
  have some tough decisions to make. Once you 
  define Stennes, you know who his opponents are 
  and can put them behind the O.R. research facility.
  
  Open Game License Version 1.0a
  The following text is the property of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. and is Copyright 2000 Wizards of the Coast, Inc (“Wizards”). All Rights Reserved.
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  12 Inability to Comply: If it is impossible for You to comply with any of the terms of this License with respect to some or all of the Open Game Content due to statute, judicial order, or 
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  15 COPYRIGHT NOTICE
  Open Game License v 1.0 Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc. 
  Modern System Reference Document Copyright 2002, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Bill Slavicsek, Jeff Grubb, Rich Redman, Charles Ryan, based on material by Jonathan Tweet, 
  Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Richard Baker, Peter Adkison, Bruce R. Cordell, John Tynes, Andy Collins, and JD Wiker.
  Come for the Reaping, Copyright 2003, The Game Mechanics, Inc.; Author: Rich Redman
  Customizing the Reaping, Copyright 2003, The Game Mechanics, Inc.; Author: Rich Redman
  open game license
  Designation of Product Identity: 
  The Game Mechanics company name and logos, the Come for the Reaping name and logo, all artwork, maps, trade dress, and graphic design elements; all characters, including Clint 
  Castle, Stennes Drygedenov, and Amy Heseltine, as well as their descriptions and likenesses; Ogdoad Research, the Aguas Mansion facility. This does not include elements that al-
  ready appear in the Modern System Reference Document and are already Open Game Content by virtue of inclusion there. Infinite Serpents, and Yuan-ti © 1978-2003 Wizards of the 
  Coast, Inc. Used with permission.
  Designation of Open Game Content:
  Those portions “Building a Campsign,” “The Setting,” “The Boss,” and “Who is this Guy?” which are not Product Identity. Note that Open Game Content is still copyrighted material, and 
  any use of Open Game Content from this publication must be accompanied by the following: “Customizing the Reaping, Copyright 2003, The Game Mechanics, Inc.; Author: Rich Red-
  man”
  
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