The adventuring party were in yet another predicament. Shortly after escaping the ticklish jellyfish, the party were shocked to find yet another problem waiting for them in the ever-confusing ice maze. 

"Why, why, why did you grab that let alone put it on?!!" Shouted a very annoyed Roland.

"Arf," Replied a blank faced manatee with a glittering cowbell hanging about its neck.

"Oh, of course," Roland replied in mocking sweetness. "It just magically hurled itself onto your neck, just like that slug statue magically attracted itself to you."

"Arf."

A description befitting Roland's face would be, "a pot boiling over with foaming milk." And while the mage processed the lunacy of his teammate, Melinda just glided about in the background blank-faced and calm. 

The tickling incident did its job after all and got some of the paladin's stress off her mind, so she was content to just let things go by. Whatever happened next, Melinda was quite sure the team would handle it fine and dandy. 

While she glided along, Roland was busy handing a heavy lecture to the spinning Manatee Esther, all the while holding another cow-bell remarkably like the one she was wearing. 

"This is a serious journey! Not some swim through the park! You can't just put on any random artifact and just put it on like it was an accessory! This is why you employ mages in your party for this exact reason-blah blah blah-"

What Roland failed to notice was the collar in his hands was slowly snaking both ends of cloth towards the enticing skin of his neck. He didn't fail to notice this for long; but by then he was sporting a very very different appearance.

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