Footnote One:

Gary’s Final Character Sheet

 

Hey folks, thank you so much for reading and supporting Grave Digger Gary Book One!

There’s a full list of thanks to and credits after the next bit, which is (as the title suggests) Gary’s final character sheet (for now, at least). Let’s dig into that and then I’ll see you on the other side!

Name: Gary
Class: Human Undead
Type: Heavy Zombie
Level: 4/30
Experience: 7574/10000

 

Titles:

Traitor to Your Own Kind – gain 14% of experience points for killing undead

Shovel Master - +20% attack bonus when fighting with your shovel.

Sweeping Blow: Hit as many adjacent enemies in a row equal to your level, up to a maximum of 5 in one blow.

Candidate for the Messiah of the Eternal Night – gain one additional evolution point per level gained

Grave Digger – gain 10XP for every grave dug

 

Speed: 14 Strength: 17 Constitution: 19 Intelligence: 12

Perception: 13 Stealth: 10 Willpower: 14 Charisma: 11

 

Hit Points: 65/65
Recovery: 3 HP/10 minutes

Wounds: None

Mana Points: 0

 

Attacks:
Claw +30% 4-8 Infectious chance +35%
Bite +40% 6-12 Infectious chance +75%

 

Special Weapon:

Sentient Shovel +40% (+60% with title bonus) 15-20 damage, Critical Hit 40, 35% chance to stun

 

Other Weapons:

Nightblades (x2)

+50% attack against the living, 10-15 damage (Critical Hit: 30)
+50% attack against the dead, 15-25 damage (Critical Hit: 50)
Collects Essence of the Living, refresh up to 60 hit points per vial
Use the Nightblades together on the same target to gain an automatic double critical hit.
The Nightblades can be thrown +50% attack chance

 

Defence:
Damage Resistance: All damage reduced by 4 points.
Immune to poison. Immune to drowning. Immune to radiation. Immune to Diseases. Immune to infection.

 

Evolution Paths:

Common: Tank: 2 Common: Glutton: 0 Uncommon: Terror: 0

Uncommon: Infection: 0 Rare: Commander: 1 Rare: Necromancer: 2

Rare: Base Builder (locked until level 5): 0

Residual Mana Powers:

 

Rise From Your Graves – once per day raise all buried dead in a 300 foot radius as undead

Raise the Dead – once per day raise all dead in a 60 foot square radius as undead

Command Undead – command an equal number of undead to your level as minions. No minion can be of a higher level than you.

 

Minions 4/4

 

Zafier, level 3 undead necromancer.

Note special power: Zafier can raise the undead once per day.

Forge, level 4 undead warrior.

Forge has 2 evolution points in tank path and is highly resistant to damage whilst keeping some of his former combat skills.

Morgan level 3 undead rogue.

Morgan can cast a magic arrows spell twice per day.

Annabel level 3 undead cleric.

Annabel has the ability to heal the dead twice per day, restoring them to their full hit point total.

 

Special:

Regeneration.
Regain 4-8 HP for eating the living.
Regain 3-6 HP for eating the recently deceased.

Skills:

Landscape Gardening (Int) +30%

 

Languages:
English (British): 85%
French: 5%
Multiversal Common: 85%

 

Goal:

Defend yourself. Eat the Living. Level up.

Footnote Two:

Thanks to

 

Thanks to the following readers for their financial support via Patreon

Tyler G. Trevor O. HollowVessel, James N. Lachlan P. Critical Hit, Taylor B. Midjji, Argak, joshjosh100, Just Graham, Nevan, Kraken, matticide FOWD, Eric H. Rhumait, Ian D. Obran, Pike, GoodOldChap, Nicholas P. Tyler M. Kaytlynn N. mino, Devourerofwords, Stian H. Scott F. Geoffrey R. Fortunis, ducksgoquack, Armand S. Redneck Gandalf, Jonathan T. Eric W. Endre M. BubblyGhost,

 

Thanks to the following readers for input and suggestions for titles, paths and chapter titles:

Falatharo, GravityFunns, Cody37, Jordan T, adrad555, BobMoss, CodyH, Kinja427, OliveBirdy, MVV, Thedudeist, Kawaii, Rydenius, Rainbowsockman, YoloRRL, Superstes, ForgetfulAetheist, Blob6997, AshroBugger, PeculiarFlame, AKnightWithaKnife

I think that’s everyone, apologies if anyone got overlooked – the full credits document of who suggested what can be found here: http://tiny.cc/3hhjuz

Also a big thanks to everyone who contributed to typo-spotting as well.

 

Hiatus Note:

Okay folks, so I’m going to be taking a break from Grave Digger Gary for December and possibly January as well, as I need some time to take stock and absorb all the lessons of the last couple of months.

A lot has happened since I started uploading the series in mid August. My main concern is that I ended up massively slowing down in terms of output, to the point that Patreon updates were delayed not once but twice and my writing schedule fell behind.

This was partly due to the impact of dealing with the admin and the social media side of things, both of which ended up consuming far more of my time and energy than I thought they would, but it was also due to unavoidable illness which meant I fell further and further behind with the chapters.

In terms of numbers, prior to uploading I was writing approximately 30,000- 40,000 words a month (July and the first half of August), which was cut to between 10,000 -20,000 words a month once I started to release the story (September, October). This was a steep drop, leading to Book One taking 4 to 6 weeks longer to complete than I’d planned for. In context, this complete Book 1 clocks in at just over 110,000 words.

Anyway, there are lessons to be learned here for me and the likelihood is that I will, moving forward, focus on releasing Book Two only when the majority of it or all of it has been written.

I’ll update towards the end of December about the future of the series once I’ve had a chance to take stock and mull a few things over. In the meantime, thanks as always for reading!

Rob

Once again, a huge thanks for all of the support to date,

Rob