Lucius Galloway Drowned City Cluever

Lucius Galloway: Precision Cluever

Primary clue engine for a two-player Drowned City campaign alongside Gloria. Lucius evades with , investigates with Tool and Science assets, and dials skill tests to exact margins to cash in Chemistry Set, Book of Verse, and later Antikythera.

How Lucius Plays

• Stats: 2 / 4 / 1 / 5 , 8 health, 6 sanity. 30 cards.
• Ability: After you evade an enemy by 2 or more, discover 1 clue at your location (once per round). An evade action is effectively an investigate when an enemy is around. Gloria handles the killing; you exhaust things and take their clues.
• : +1 per enemy at your location.
• Read the token, then adjust. Book of Verse and Artistic Inspiration both trigger after chaos tokens are revealed, so you know your margin before spending. Steady-Handed fires later still, when you would succeed. Decide which payoff band you want first, then spend.
• Budget sanity. Dreams of the Flood taxes 1 horror whenever it's out and you find clues on your turn, and 2 means treacheries hurt. Forensic Kit is your main horror heal.
• Exhausted enemies are resources. An evaded enemy stays exhausted at your location, which turns on Forensic Kit's heal and gives Gloria a free swing.

Card Breakdown

Investigation Engine

• Chemistry Set: Your main investigate. Succeed by exactly 0 for 2 resources, 2 to draw, 4 for an extra clue. Avoid failing by exactly 2, which discards it.
• Forensic Kit: Investigate at 6 base. Heals 1 horror if an exhausted enemy is at your location, so evade first, then investigate. Primary answer to Dreams of the Flood.
• Microscope: Banks evidence whenever an enemy at your location is evaded or defeated, so Gloria's kills at your location count. The two-action investigate is slow; save it for the end of a scenario or a high-shroud location when you need a burst of 3 clues.
• Deduction: Extra clue on any of your investigations. Pairs well with Forensic Kit's high base.
• Hyperawareness: Turns spare resources into +1 or , which covers both your investigations and your evades. Most useful against high-shroud locations and high-evade enemies, before Steady-Handed and Antikythera come online.

Combo: Hitting Exact Numbers

The deck's core loop is landing on a specific margin, then collecting the matching payoff.

• Book of Verse: +1 after reveal, and succeed by exactly 0 to draw. Replenishes the first time you discover a clue each round, including clues from your evade ability, so it is effectively once per round for free.
• Artistic Inspiration: +1 or -1 after reveal. The -1 matters: it pulls an overshoot back down to 0 or 2 for Chemistry Set. Refuel by discarding a dead card.
• Fieldwork: +2 on the next test after moving into a location with clues. Pairs with Nimble's free moves.

Typical sequence: commit to reach roughly the band you want, reveal, then use Book of Verse and Artistic Inspiration to land exactly on 0, 2, or 4. With both available you can shift by -1, +1, or +2, which covers most draws.

Evasion & Movement

• Pickpocketing: Draw on every evade. Lucius evades constantly, so this is the main card-draw engine.
• Nimble: Free moves for the margin. Evade by 2, take the clue, then step to the next location with clues and trigger Fieldwork.
• Obfuscation: Cancels attacks of opportunity, so you can investigate while engaged when evading first isn't worth the action.

Economy & Draw

• Research Librarian: Tutors Book of Verse, the only Tome. Play it early.
• Cryptic Writings: Free 2 resources when drawn on your turn, plus 2 icons when drawn otherwise.
• Emergency Cache: Pays for the 2 to 3 cost assets in the opening turns.
• Perception: Commit and cantrip on investigations.
• Well-Funded: With 3 Tool/Science assets out it is a double skill. Chemistry Set, Forensic Kit, and Microscope all count.

Signatures

• Book of Verse: See the combo section.
• Dreams of the Flood: Stays in your threat area until the first time you discover clues on your turn, then deals 1 horror and shuffles back in. You cannot avoid it as a cluever; just pay it. Forensic Kit with an exhausted enemy present heals it back, and Steady-Handed heals on an exact 2 later.

Mulligan

• Hunt: Book of Verse or Research Librarian, Chemistry Set, Forensic Kit.
• Keep: Pickpocketing, Artistic Inspiration, Emergency Cache, Cryptic Writings.
• Ship: Skills, Microscope (0), Obfuscation unless the scenario opens with enemies.

Upgrade Path

• Steady-Handed is the third precision dial and the only one that works after success is locked in. Succeeding by exactly 2 also heals 1 horror, which helps with Dreams of the Flood. It's Limit 1 per investigator; the second copy is redundancy. Obfuscation's job is covered by evading before investigating.
• Fine Tuning readies an exhausted Tool or Science asset. On Chemistry Set it means two precision investigations per round; on Microscope (0) it doubles evidence; on Antikythera it doubles the trigger. Fieldwork's flat +2 is replaced by Steady-Handed and Book of Verse.
• Relic Hunter before Antikythera, so Chemistry Set and Antikythera share accessory slots instead of competing.
• Antikythera pays off every exact margin: 1 or 3 for a clue, 2 or 4 for a card and a resource, 5 for an extra action. It's unique, so buy one copy first; the second is a backup. It replaces Hyperawareness: by this point your skill values are high enough, and resources are better spent on assets than on pumping stats.
• Microscope (4) no longer exhausts to collect evidence and gives +2 per evidence, so Gloria's kills at your location fill it fast.
• Pickpocketing (2) draws and gains a resource when you evade by 2 or more, the same margin Lucius already aims for.
• Manual Dexterity draws 2 on tests won by 2 or more, which includes every evade and every Forensic Kit investigation. You lose Nimble's repositioning.

Side Deck

All upgrade targets; see Upgrade Path.