Siren

The Siren is the first Boss of the Cove. She has 2 turns per round.

Ancestor's Memoirs: The Siren
"My lofty position wasn't always accompanied by the fear of office, and there was a time when I could walk the streets or raise a glass in the tavern without concern for molestation. Faithful as the tide, one precocious village waif made it her hobby to shadow my every errand. It was charming then, troublesome later. In financial desperation, I struck a bargain with the ancient things that surfaced in search of sacrifice when the moon was right. Their price was the delivery of an obscure idol and one other item of more troubling portent. The pact struck, my new-found accomplices slipped silently beneath the brackish water. A fearful stirring at the edge of the torchlight betrayed a familiar witness and gifted me with malign inspiration. Under the blood moon, I lured my wide-eyed prey to the pier's edge. Before she could properly appreciate her position, I clamped down a manacle, chaining her to the leering idol. A small push was sufficient to send both into the icy waters. And, when at length the tide receded, jewels of the most magnificent grandeur lay scattered upon the shore."

History
"The aquatic devils have remade the poor girl in their image. She is their queen... And their slave."

Before he went fully off the deep end, a young, homeless village lass had a crush on the Ancestor, and followed him everywhere he went. While he originally found it charming, she eventually became a nuisance when his darker and more secret experiments were going on. When he needed some extra money, he gave her to the Pelagic fish-men who infest the Cove. Now, she is their queen... and their slave.

Trophy
After completing the Siren's champion quest, she will drop her conch as a Trophy.

Abilities
* A hero controlled by the siren takes 10 stress damage on each of their turns. When a hero is released from the Siren's control they will go to rank 4 and gain a buff for 20% resist debuff. ** The Siren will summon either a Stinger, a Grouper or Guardian. The guardian is twice as likely to be.

The siren will use a move called Song of Desire to attempt to charm members of your party to her side, while this can fail it will more likely succeed and your character will go to her side. After a few rounds they will return to your side. When charmed they will now use different attacks depending on their position, and have access to the entire class repertoire. For instance, a charmed Highwayman can use Point-blank shot, which moves him behind the Siren, and then use Tracking shot from the new position. Previously, they used more basic attacks even if that hero did not have access to them (Mace smash from the Vestal and wicked slice from a highwayman for example).

She also summons random monsters with her High Tide ability.

Behavior
Siren's Song: If it is the first turn of the round, and following conditions are met, the siren is sure to use this skill:

- At least 1 hero who is not in Death's Door.

- At least a total of 2 heroes in your party.

- A hero has not already been possessed by the Siren, there are no other enemies besides the Siren.

If it is not her first turn, but previous conditions are nonetheless met, the Siren still has about 1/4 of a chance to use her beguiling song.

When choosing which hero she decides to charm and sway over to the Pelagic ranks, she will disregard heroes with high Debuff resistance in lieu for those who have a lower one. Namely, your hero with highest debuff resistance will NEVER be targeted by the Siren, whereas the one with lowest resistance is thrice more likely to have it used on him/her.

Pressure Crash, Devour, High Tide: Her repertoire of skills will be used after she has either successfully bewitched one of your party members or failed to do so (or they have already switched sides). They are all equally likely to be used, except if the Siren has been unable to charm your heroes, in which case, High Tide gets a 2x boost of being used, in order to compensate for the missed chance of strengthening her ranks.

Strategy
Focusing her down to end the fight quickly is viable but since most of her damage comes from her summons and charms it is totally possible to slowly whittle her down. Using Uppercut from the Bounty Hunter or blackjack from the Hound Master on your charmed character will not overly damage them but keep them from doing too much damage to your other party members. Her summons however should be dealt with quickly as they can easily boost/guard her or stun your already weakened team.

The charm attack counts as a debuff, so using an item, trinket, or skill that increases resistance to debuffs will increase the chance that the skill fails to register. In particular, having the entire team use Holy Water before the battle will make the first few rounds much, much easier. The charmed Hero will suffer some stress for each turn they are under Siren's influence and will return to the 4th rank of the party after a few turns.

Avoid stacking damage buffs on a single party member and bringing the Man-At-Arms, as his abilities offer little assistance against a Siren's attacks, and if he is charmed, he can stun, use buffs and place a Guard effect on the Siren, forcing you to stall, waste a turn stunning him or even kill him.

Bringing an antiquarian with a low debuff resist is a sound strategy, because she can do little to harm your party with her weakened skills when charmed. The Arbalest and her Rallying Flare (giving a +20% debuff resist to the entire party) can also help with this fight. Finally, if your party contains a hero with a good movement skill (such as the Bounty Hunter), you can further decrease the damage from charms by bringing classes with heavy positioning restrictions (like a Leper in the back rows, or an Arbalest in the front) and moving them to their weak positions after they're charmed by the Siren. Compared to disabling with a stun, moving a hero like this can be more efficient - stuns last one round and impart stun resist bonuses for successive rounds, whereas move skills can be used every round without restriction, and if you can place the hero correctly, a positional move can disable some charmed, slow-to-maneuver heroes for two rounds. For example, moving a Leper to the back row will cause him to waste two turns moving forward, as he can only move one position per turn and can take literally no other action in the back two rows.

Note that if you flee the fight while a Hero is currently ensorcelled by the Siren, that hero will be lost.

To avoid having your best attributes used against you, consider building a party with the following strengths:
 * Self-heals / Secondary Heals / Buffs -- The Charmed hero will pick a random ability from their set, so there is a chance they will pick a self-heal, inconsequential secondary heal, or self-buff. (ex. Crusader, Leper, Antiquarian)
 * Bonus damage against Eldritch -- No effect on attacking party members (ex. Occultist)
 * Bonus damage against Large enemies -- No effect on attacking party members (ex. Bounty Hunter, though his stuns and move skills can cause chaos if not planned for)
 * Mark -- Even if a Charmed hero Marks a fellow party member, they are unlikely to stay charmed long enough to attack the Marked party member. Furthermore, the summoned Cove enemies do not have attacks with bonuses against Marked targets. (ex. Occultist, Arbalest, and Bounty Hunter)