Beg for mercy

You look desperately around the ring of merpeople. They look menacing and seem like they know how to use their weapons. You begin to hyperventilate, not a good idea when you have limited air. Your eyes widen in fear.

“P-please don’t hurt me!” you stutter.

You hear a titter as the merpeople around you laugh. It seems that they see you as a form of entertainment. The lead merman – the one that saved you – just frowns. You think that he has other things on his mind.

“We must take you back with us”, he decides finally. “The High Council must be informed of this intrusion.”

You don’t like his phrasing. It makes it seem like you’re an enemy or a threat. You desperately want to escape, but it’s hard to do with all these merpeople around you. You deliberately swim slowly, hoping to slow the group down and give you more time to think of a plan. Your supposed incompetence in the water doesn’t seem to surprise the merpeople and they slow down to keep pace with you.

Suddenly, a tentacle wraps again around your ankle. Before you can do anything or the merpeople can react, you’re jerked down. You come face to face with the giant squid. It seems to be smiling at you. The merpeople try to attack it again, but this time, it swims away from them, with you in its grasp. Luckily, the Bubble-Head Charm you cast earlier keeps you from suffocating.

The squid carries you far away from the merpeople. It stops in the silence of the lake, without anything to disturb you. You wonder what it’s going to do with you. The squid begins to shake you up and down, and you come to a horrible realisation – it sees you as a toy. Now, you know you need to get free or the squid will tear you apart in its play.

Slowly, you inch your hand down until you grip your wand and pull it out of your pocket. You point it at the squid and shout.

“Stupefy!”

Instead of a jet of red light, all that comes out of your wand is a stream of bubbles. It doesn’t hurt the squid, but it seems to have some effect. The squid stops shaking you and stares at the disappearing bubbles. You shout the spell again and the squid begins to chase the shapes in the water. You continue casting the Stunning Spell until the squid nearly forgets you. Its tentacles loosen and you slowly swim upwards. The squid follows you – and your magically produced bubbles – but it’s too distracted to catch you again.

Finally, you break the surface. You look around and see that you’re close to the shore. You quickly strike out to the shore, stopping at regular intervals to distract the squid. When you climb onto the bank, you see the squid looking at you from below the surface like a puppy who wants you to throw a stick. You slowly back away until you’re far enough away from the lakeshore. You need to recover from this adventure before you can look for any more potion ingredients.