Death's Embrace. Though seen as harbingers of the end of someone's life, Guiding Reapers are benevolent beings. They appear at the moment of a being’s demise, where they wait invisibly to help guide the soul to the afterlife. They simply perform the thankless task of bringing a soul to its rightful afterlife. Sometimes, they will do a very minor task to help ease this transition so long as it does not delay the task long. This will help prevent certain forms of undead, such as ghosts, from forming. A creature can evade the end wrought by a Guiding Reaper by receiving enough healing to prevent its death or becoming undead, provided the form of undead keeps its soul normally.   These tall dark figures appear as an insubstantial skeletal humanoid, swathed in dusty robes of black velvet bearing a wicked silver bladed scythe whose handle is of polished ebon wood.   Known by many names throughout nearly all cultures, Reapers are the personifications of death and all the pain and fear associated with that state. They are universally feared by the living as harbingers of destruction and masters of all that has already passed from life. These hooded beings travel through the planes with the sole intent of bringing about the end of life, slaying with a deliberateness inscrutable to all but themselves.   Some philosophers argue that Reapers were created along with the Negative Energy Plane, manifesting from this plane when mortalkind first realized death’s terminal permanency. Others claim that multiple Guiding Reapers meeting on the Negative Energy Plane or another area infused with overwhelming negative energy might join together to form a new higher-ranking Reaper.