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.

The Drowned Crew will start the battle with "All Hands On Deck!", which will pull one hero to the first position and summon the Drowned Anchorman if one isn't out. The Anchorman will immobilizes the first hero in line with its anchor, forcing them to experience the crew's horrible death. While the hero is tangled in the anchor is free to attack, his or her stress will increase rapidly over time, as they suffering through the same horrific experience. The undead crew will feed on their terror and despair to regenerate health 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.

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 discrete 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 shipped in by smugglers. They traveled the globe for the Ancestor in search idols, ancient manuscripts and other items of more darker nature. But when they started to demand more and more payment with each expedition, the Ancestor decided to give them alternative payment in form of a cursed anchor that dragged them and their ship to the bottom of the sea.

Behavior
The Drowned Crew have two actions per round, and will always start out a round of battle with "All Hands On Deck!" unless a hero is already immobilized. This doesn't use any of their actions. When the Anchorman is summoned it will have a protection buff until it immobilizes a hero. When a hero is immobilized, the Drowned Crew will have a protection buff, and every turn the immobilized hero will take stress damage which will heal the Drowned Crew.

Abilities
"All Hands On Deck!" will pull random team member to the front of the line, and summon a Drowned Anchorman if there isn't one with a high protection buff. The animation shows the captain using this attack.

"Mutiny" will attack a random hero dealing minor damage and a debuff that lowers damage/critical chance. The animation shows the captain using this attack.

"Drink With The Dead" does minor damage and around 10 stress damage. The animation shows the middle crew member attacking by drinking a bottle while the insanity symbol appears above its head.

"Boarding Clutch" does decent damage to a hero and causes bleed. The animation shows the lowest crew member attacking by striking with a long hook weapon.

While "Heave Ho!" 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 will a high protection buff, while also dealing stress damage to the hero and healing the Drowned Crew every turn.

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 them vulnerable. However, they have lots of move resistance so you won't perform that trick easily. The Anchorman has lower move resistance but pushing him behind doesn't seem to stop him from launching his attack(bug?)

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.

Strong points:

Crew's pinnacle - long fight. They don't have particullary 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 exhausing even the strongest team of veterans if approached carelessly.

Actual strategy:

The main problem in fight is Anchorman's "Heave Ho!" skill. And it's not the stress damage - which is actually managible - 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.

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 Ho!", crusader can brake out of it easily with 1-2 Smites, since he has bonus on undead.

The pull attacks 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. Leper, for example, fits nicely.

The "Heave Ho!" is considered a debuff. Since it only attacks rank 1, you can try to raise debuff resistance of your frontman to avoid it(this needs checking though, chance of debuff may be too high to manage)

Tip: If your hero is courageous, he/she is immune to "Heave, ho!" Also, if a Highwayman is immobilized, they won't be knocked back when using pointblank shot, even if it was the killing blow

Video

 * With all hands on deck it summons drowned puller (14 hp, dodge 0) who then immobilizes your characters, trying to drown them (stress damage), apply debuffs (-33% damage and -5% crit) with mutiny and deal bleed damage with boarding clutch. It acts several times per round and regenerate some hp when trying to drown your characters. It is worth noting that while one of your characters is immobilized by a drowned puller, the Sodden crew gain 50% protect and 25% stun resist, 50% bleed and blight resist. It's death kill the remaining drowned puller, if there is one.