"So the thing that you have to understand is that if you just acid splash a piece of metal, you are probably not going to get the results you want. I've only ever done this with very small pieces of metal, and the thing you want to do is have very sturdy gloves and a polishing cloth so that as soon as the acid hits the metal, you can make sure that you get only the amount of acid you want on any given spot on the surface." 

Well, if she thinks she can pull it off, Dyra has some corroded metal items she would pay to have repaired. Does Luzai feel up to cleaning up a tarnished silver bracelet, de-rusting a steel dagger, or getting a brass figurine set to shine?

If Dyra has a set of heavy gloves she can borrow, then sure. (She does have magic gloves, and magic items are supernaturally durable, but supernatural durability won't protect her fingers from any acid that seeps through the fabric without harming it.)

Hmm. Dyra has gloves of her own, but they might be a bit of an awkward fit on Luzai's hands? If it doesn't require enough manual dexterity for that to be an issue she can get them out for this.

Fit shouldn't be an issue, that's fine. 

Luzai is very, very careful about each use of Acid Splash. She finds an area where there's nothing anyone would care about being damaged, and she's careful to only get a relatively small fraction of the acid on the metal objects; she's a lot more cavalier about the rusty dagger, because there's relatively more mass to remove and also because there isn't any delicate engraving underneath to worry about damaging, but even so, it's well under half. And once there's acid on the metal objects, she handles them like an angry snake, but like, if one were trained in the handling of venomous snakes; very careful, always hyperaware of the dangerous bits, but essentially calm and competent. 

She has to cast Acid Splash several times per object; the actual acid from a given casting just, actually, does not last very long. 

Dyra is quite pleased with her work!

"That's more than I would charge you for the inflict; do you want me to make up the difference in money, or is there anything else you'd like to purchase while you're here?"

Luzai will briefly go over her recollection of what Dyra has to trade. "Money, please," she says after a moment. 

Then Dyra will dutifully count out a handful of silver and copper coins, mostly older Mendevia mintings, for her to take, and then cast inflict light wounds on Lucy.

"It was a pleasure trading with you!"

"It was a pleasure trading with you too!" 

Maybe people in Osirion are just more reserved, but in Osirion, Luzai never met a priest of Abadar who was so openly enthusiastic about trading. Luzai is a fan, honestly, people being happy is great. 

And then she can go rejoin the rest of the group to take on the Shield Maze! 

Lann is trying and failing to hide his impatience. "Let's go," he says, trying really hard not to be pushy and rude to the surfacer adventurers, especially the one with the angel sword. 

With only six people to transport it's possible to just take a boat across the lake instead of walking the long route, which saves them a bit of time navigating the caves outside the shield maze. It's not long before Wenduag announces they've arrived at the entrance, which proves to be rather anticlimactic; rather than some outwardly ominous construction, the way in takes the form of a crack in a wall of stone bricks that would otherwise bar the way to whatever lies on the other side.

"Another squeeze? It's enough to make a girl wonder why she even bothers wearing armor."

Despite her words, Seelah doesn't hesitate to remove her mail, and thankfully unlike the last such passageway it doesn't need to be enlarged in order for her to fit through.

"Eventually we will be aboveground and then there will be fewer cracks to squeeze through." This crack does not threaten her with incipient claustrophobia at all, which makes it a marked improvement over yesterday's. 

"You think this one is small, I could show you some ones that'd make you swear off armor for good." 

"I think I like my internal organs where they are just fine, so going through with it would be a bit of a hard sell. How about I'll try to stick to less difficult tasks in the future, like fighting demons."

On the other side of the wall is a room that looks somewhere between a closet and a vestibule. The ground is still stone like the caves they came in from, but it's a flatter stone, and the walls are similarly vertical, making the construction feel much more like a room in a more ordinary building. There's no sign of anything else alive and nearby, but the door leading out into the rest of the maze is open.

Detect Magic?

There's nothing she can pick up that's within 60 feet and not on the other side of a stone wall!

"This room doesn't have any magic in it. Or if it does it's got its aura disguised really well." 

"Great," Lann says dryly, moving carefully towards the entrance to the next room. 

As she proceeds some magic does start showing up to her senses, but on closer inspection it seems to only be the occasional weak evocation aura from a continual flame. Rather than light enough to see by, they seem to provide just enough illumination to cast flickering shadows and trick the eyes that they've seen movement. For Luzai, Wenduag, and Lann this doesn't interfere with their navigation, but Seelah occasionally ends up bumping into things and Anevia and Camellia have to slow their pace. Judging by the look on her face, the latter is considering the virtues of just casting light and dealing with whatever else notices them.

“—You could cast a light on something easily concealed,” Luzai decides to pre-empt Camellia by suggesting, “and then quickly unconceal it if we run into anything that requires it.”

The girl nods, and a moment later her off hand is holding a glowing coin.

With the added light, the three members of their party without darkvision make better time, though the fact that they're doing a breadth first search for missing kids puts some limits on how quickly they can progress. The first sign of trouble is when Wenduag points out a cave lizard lying in wait in halfway down a passageway; it has enough rubble around it to make hitting it with arrows a hard task.

"--Can we throw a rock to spook it? Make it think it's found prey?"