Drowned Crew

The Sodden Crew/Sunken Crew/Drowned Crew is the second boss of the Cove.

The Crew are Group Entity  of three wraith pirates/smugglers trapped onboard a wreck rowboat/ship bounded in chains, four if you count the Drowned Anchorman. Wraiths are type of undead, they are often described as tortured or vengeful souls trapped in their own dead and decaying bodies with deep hatred for the Light and all living things.

Ancestor's Memoirs: The Drowned Crew
"Prying eyes had become a nuisance along the old road, and so I undertook to receive my most curious deliveries by way of marine shipments. A sheltered jetty was accessible by a narrow stone stair off the back of the manor, and a discreet system of pulleys could hoist even the heaviest prizes up the rock face from a securely tied dinghy below. I employed a crew of particularly unsavory mariners, who for a time sailed the four corners at my behest, retrieving many valuable artifacts, relics and rare texts. Predictably, they increased their tariffs to counter my intense stipulations of secrecy. Such resources had long been exhausted, of course, and so I prepared an alternative payment. While the greedy dogs slept off their revelry, I hexed their anchor with every twisted incantation I could muster, imbuing it with the weight of my ambition and my contempt for their cruel extortion. At the witching hour, the anchor pulled with preternatural force, dragging craft and crew down into the depths. They must have cried out, but no sound escaped the swirling black waters."

History
Once the roads got too dangerous and busy, the Ancestor would have his more... exotic materials and artifacts shipped in by smugglers. They traveled the globe for him in search of idols, ancient manuscripts and other items of more darker nature. This particular crew was his favorite, until they began asking for too much money to keep quiet. He decided to arrange "alternative" payment, in the form of a cursed anchor that dragged them and their ship to the bottom of the sea, but they didn't stay dead.

Behavior
The Drowned Crew will start the battle with "All Hands On Deck!", which does not take up any of their actions, move a hero to the front rank and summon a Drowned Anchorman. The Anchorman will immobilize the first hero in line with its anchor, forcing them to experience the crew's horrible death. While the hero who is tangled in the anchor is free to attack, his or her stress will increase rapidly over time, as they suffer through the same horrific experience. The undead crew will feed on their terror and despair to regenerate health (equal to the maximum health of the Anchorman, needs to be confirmed) every time someone takes a turn of any kind. The Drowned Crew will always start a round with "All Hands On Deck!" unless a hero is immobilized.

Any hero immobilized by the Drowned Anchorman can only be released either by killing it or when the hero's stress reaches either 100 or 200. Additionally, when the Anchorman is summoned it will have a buff that will drastically increase its Protection Points and resistances. It will keep this buff until it immobilizes a hero, after which the Drowned Crew will receive the buff instead until the Anchorman is destroyed.

When the buff is transferred to the Drowned Crew, any mark on the Crew is removed (needs confirmation).

Abilities
While "Heave to!" is the Drowned Anchorman's ability, it's worth mentioning here. It immobilizes the hero in the first position, and it gives the Drowned Crew a buff that will heighten its protection and resistances, while also dealing stress damage to the hero and healing the Drowned Crew every turn.

Strategy
A highly viable strategy that trivializes the fight is to use a Man at Arms on the front row, with Feather Crystal and Camouflage cloak, and spam his Bolster ability, propelling him to 75+ dodge. This will allow him to dodge most of the crewmans anchor attacks. The rest of the composition can be Highwayman (nice with his move front ability and ranged attacks), Arbalest with Mark and Snipe, and Vestal on the back for heals. He will enjoy pulling your Vestal close to him, so feel free to equip her with a move resist trinket. Focus the boss with Mark and ranged attacks, and quickly switch to the crewman and dispose of him when he does manage to anchor your Man at Arms. Remember to boost the MaAs dodge and the party's attack damage with camp buffs before the fight.

IMPORTANT: the anchorman will heal to full HP when he managed to grasp your front warrior, so do not spend time bringing him low before he does that.

Boss Weaknesses:

The Crew has low Blight resistance and, despite being Undead, relatively low Bleed resistance. Stun Resistance is average but manageable, although Stun isn't particularly useful against them - multiple attacks each turn render stunning them ineffective. Stunning the Anchorman or inflicting some damage looks more fitting. Also they have no PROT, so they're incredibly vulnerable to direct damage of any heavyhitter you prefer.

Boss Strong points:

Crew's pinnacle - long fight. They don't have particularly strong attacks(like Brigand or Prophet), but they're able to annoy you to death. Using stress attacks, bleed attacks, pull attacks, and on top of it healing themself each time they're in, the Crew are capable of exhausting even the strongest team of veterans if approached carelessly.

Another strategy:

The main problem in fight is Anchorman's "Heave to!" skill. And it's not the stress damage - which is actually manageable - but the healing. While your hero is tangled with an anchor, the Crew is able to heal themself each time they move, effectively reducing any damage inflicted.

A fast hero able to stun the Anchorman before he can act can also prevent the "Heave to!" attack for a time, allowing even slow heroes to attack the Crew, minus the Anchorman's buff and healing, without having to switch to the Anchorman if "Heave to!" happens before their action. This can make the fight easier by concentrating more attacks on the Crew, and less "wasted" attacks on the ever-renewed Anchorman.

Any hero with high dodge value is able to easily dodge "Heave to!" even though it's considered a debuff, and as such dodge trinkets or buffs are valuable for your frontman.

The crusader with stun+damage trinkets has proven himself very useful - he controls Anchorman perfectly. Stunning Anchorman gives a round without healing, which is crucial for your victory(unless you've brought some really big guns). And in case of "Heave to!", crusader can break out of it easily with 1-2 Smites, since he has bonus on undead.

The pull attack is also very annoying, dragging your heroes from rank 3 or 4 to the front. Consider using some move-resistant trinkets, like Heavy Boots. It'll ease up a fight quite a bit.

Lack of PROT welcomes any hero with strong attack. The Leper, for example, fits nicely. Just remember that the enemies switch who has a PROT buff.

Virtuous Heroes are immune to "Heave to!" debuff.

If the Highwayman is immobilized, they won't be knocked back when using pointblank shot, even if it was the killing blow.

"Hack strategy": Using a pull attack, such as the Bounty Hunter's Come Hither or the Occultist's Daemon Pull can drag the crew in front of the anchorman before he can throw the anchor, leaving him trapped and unable to act for the rest of the battle and making them vulnerable. However, they have lots of move resistance so you won't perform that trick easily. Use trinkets to increase your chances. The Anchorman has lower move resistance but pushing him behind doesn't seem to stop him from launching his attack(bug?)

Trivia

 * The animation of the attacks show a different crew member using the attacks. "All Hands On Deck!" and "Mutiny" are the captain shouting and raising his bell, "Drink With The Dead" shows the middle crew member attacking by drinking a bottle while the insanity symbol appears above its head and "Boarding Clutch" has the lowest crew member attacking by striking with a long hook weapon.