Gloria Goldberg Drowned City Bruiser

Gloria Goldberg: Drowned City Bruiser

Primary fighter for a two-player Drowned City run alongside Lucius Galloway as the cluever. Gloria kills what Lucius can't, and curates the encounter deck so both investigators draw the mythos cards she wants them to.

How Gloria Plays

5, 4, 2, 1. 5 health, 9 sanity. 30-card deck.

• She fights with . Base 2 is irrelevant; every attack in the deck converts to . With St. Hubert's Key she sits at 6, and a level 3 attack spell puts her at 8.
• Her fires on every look at the encounter deck. Scrying, Alyssa, Scroll of Secrets, and her own all trigger it. Each trigger shows one extra card, and lets her discard one non-Elite card, put it on top, or bank it beneath her (max 3).
• She sets mythos order. If she knows the top card, she assigns it: enemies and treacheries to Gloria, everything else to whoever handles it best.
• Banked cards are ammunition for Psychic Sensitivity. Bank cards that still have copies in the deck.
• 1 means she does not evade. Kill it or let Sword Cane handle it.

Card Breakdown

Weapons & Fighting

• Shrivelling: Primary attack. Horror on symbol tokens is the cheaper cost for a 9-sanity investigator, and Hubert's Key can absorb a defeat.
• Azure Flame: Second attack spell. Costs damage instead of horror, so alternate between it and Shrivelling based on which track is healthier.
• Sword Cane: Charge-free attack or evade. Playing it does not provoke and fires a free attack, so hold it until spells run dry or an enemy needs to be evaded. Hands are crowded; see Sign Magick.
• Quick Thinking: Commit to a fight you expect to win by 2. With 6 to 8, that is most fights. Taboo: max once per round.
• "Watch this!": Commit to your own fights. icon counts on spell attacks, and a win by 1+ doubles the resources spent.

Encounter Deck Control

• Scrying: Top 3 of the encounter deck plus Gloria's extra look. See the round's mythos cards every round and arrange them.
• Alyssa Graham: Fast peek every round, so a free trigger of Gloria's each round. +1 on top. Can also peek Lucius's deck.
• Scroll of Secrets: Taboo makes the ability . Bottom card of the encounter deck plus Gloria's extra look, then discard, top, bottom, or bank. Can also hand Lucius the bottom card of his deck.
• Psychic Sensitivity: Free, fast cancel of any encounter card drawn by either investigator at any location, if its copy is banked. Draws a card. Also 2 and a for commits.
• Deny Existence: Free answer to whatever slips through. Ignore one aspect of a treachery or enemy attack.

Combo: Stack and Draw

Set the top of the encounter deck with Scrying, Alyssa, or Scroll, then pull a card you already know:

• Drawn to the Flame: 2 clues for 0 resources when the top card is harmless or banked. Backup clue discovery to help Lucius finish a location.
• Delve Too Deep: Both investigators draw a known card for 1 victory point each. Draws resolve in player order, so stack the top 2 accordingly. Taboo: group limit 2 copies in the victory display, which is exactly the 2 in the deck.
• Mythos phase: with the top card known, Gloria assigns draw order.

Combo: Bank and Cancel

1. When a look shows a treachery or enemy with copies still in the deck, bank it beneath Gloria.
2. When the copy is drawn by anyone, play Psychic Sensitivity: cancel it, discard both, draw a card.
3. That frees a slot beneath her for the next bank.

Stats & Economy

• St. Hubert's Key: +1 and +1 for 2 sanity. Puts her at 5 (6 with Alyssa), a real investigating number, which makes Drawn to the Flame and Enraptured flex picks. The defeat save banks against Shrivelling's horror.
• Sign Magick: Third arcane slot, so Shrivelling, Azure Flame, and Scrying all fit. Costs a hand: with Scroll of Secrets in the other, Sword Cane has no room. Play Sign Magick only once a third arcane asset is in hand.
• Emergency Cache: Tempo for the 3 and 4 cost assets.
• Enraptured: No "your test only" restriction, so commit it to Lucius's investigation at your location and put the charge on your spell or the secret on Scroll.

Signatures

• Psychic Sensitivity ×3: Covered above.
• Prophecy of the End ×3: Shuffled into the encounter deck. Drawn normally, it only surges. It only hurts when it is among the cards Gloria's looks at: then it must go beneath her, and 3 beneath her defeats her with 1 mental trauma.
  • Official ruling (rules form, May 2025): if one look shows multiple Prophecies, each Forced resolves and each copy goes beneath her. One bad look can end her game.
  • Timing is unruled. Reading A: the look is the trigger, so you see the cards, then decide whether to use the . Reading B: a "when" reaction must be committed before the look resolves, so you decide blind. See the Prophecy of the End reviews for both arguments.
  • We play Reading A. Every "when you draw X" reaction requires knowing X, and the triggering condition here is the look itself.
  • Under Reading A: if a look already shows Prophecy, decline the reaction. Discard it with Scroll, bottom it with Alyssa, or leave it on top to be drawn and surge away.
  • The remaining risk is the one extra card the reaction reveals, so at most one surprise copy per trigger. With 2 Prophecies banked, stop triggering until a copy is in the encounter discard.
  • Psychic Sensitivity cancels a drawn Prophecy if one is banked, which removes a copy from beneath her.

Mulligan

• Hunt for: Shrivelling or Azure Flame. Gloria has no other way to fight on turn 1.
• Keep: Scrying, Scroll of Secrets, Alyssa Graham, St. Hubert's Key, Emergency Cache alongside a 3-cost spell, Sword Cane if no spell is in hand.
• Ship: Psychic Sensitivity (nothing banked yet), Delve Too Deep, Drawn to the Flame, Sign Magick, Quick Thinking, Enraptured.

Upgrade Path

• Shrivelling (3) first, then Azure Flame (3). Both add +2 ; Shrivelling's horror cost is gentler on a 9-sanity, 5-health investigator.
• Sign Magick (3) as soon as one attack set is upgraded. Activate Shrivelling, then fire Azure Flame free: two attacks for one action. Or chain an attack into a free Scrying.
• Prophetic pays for Shrivelling, Azure Flame, Scrying, and Deny Existence, and adds +1 to any test on a Spell, which covers every spell attack. It takes no slot. It replaces Emergency Cache as the economy card.
• Sword Cane (2) becomes Fast, pings an engaged enemy for 1 on entry, and adds +1 to the test. It no longer costs an action to deploy, which matters with hands contested.
• Deny Existence (5) turns each answer into a gain: ignore horror, then heal horror.
• Enraptured (2) is max 1 per test and places up to 3 charges or secrets on assets controlled by anyone at your location, so it can top up Lucius's assets too.

Side Deck

All side deck cards are upgrade targets listed above.