But you would need hearing exactly as keen as Miko's, if you wanted to hear the exquisitely careful footsteps of the Medium humanoid following them. Or, more likely, the whisper of her breath, and the slightly irregular beating of her heart.

Miko doesn't notice, at first. The sound of footfalls, of breathing, of a beating heart all blend in with the sounds of the group. And of the centipedes.

Eventually, though, she makes her Perception check.

A rogue, upon noticing that she's being followed, might privately hint to her companions that something's up without tipping off the pursuer.

Miko turns around.

"Who's there?"

Nobody!

(The footseps stop. The breathing stops. Unusually, so does the heart.)

"What?"

"Something's following us."

Whatever it is, it's good at hiding. Neat trick. If Miko went in for uncertainty, she might even suspect that she had simply imagined the sound.

He draws up his bow to a more combat-ready posture. "Any idea what?"

Good idea. Miko doesn't draw either of her swords but she touches the katana's handle.

"Something that can either stop its heart or cover the sound at will. And that can probably see us right now; I could hear its heartbeat until I turned around."

"Oh."

Lann sighs, and lowers his bow.

"Wenduag, you said you weren't going to follow us."

"I said I wouldn't follow you to your deaths," the blue catgirl says sullenly, coming into view. (Her heartbeat resumes.)

Well, if Lann doesn't think that she's a threat.

"Does that mean you plan to help?"

(At the very least, she suspects that Wenduag intends to keep specifically Lann safe. But it wouldn't help anyone else if they got into a situation and Wenduag decided that the best course of action was to get Lann out and leave everyone else behind.)

She bares her teeth, then reluctantly sheathes them behind a grimace. "I guess it does. I know the way through... most of the way, I mean. And you're less likely to die if I'm here. But I won't die with you, understand?"

If anyone dies on her watch that's already a pretty staggering failure on Miko's part.

"I understand. I have no objections."

She glances at the remaining three—well, four, but she doubts that Lann is going to refuse. Not that she expects anyone else is, for that matter.

Camellia waves her off. "You are our fearless leader. If you say we should bring the feral, we bring the feral."

There seems to be general agreement on this point.

Yeah, that's basically what Miko expected.

"After you two, then."

She lets Lann and Wenduag take the lead. She's been reminded of something and wants to talk to Seelah in relative privacy before they get to the dangerous part of their journey.

(Or Seelah-and-Anevia, she's not that picky.)

Seelah's available!

Oh good.

"It's occurred to me," Miko says quietly, "that if I die… well, not die, but if I enter negative hit points such that I'd be considered dead if I were alive right now…"

Why isn't there a better word for that.

"Anyway, if that happens. I realized that Raise Dead won't work and I'll need the spell Resurrection. So if I—need the spell, and you're able to get my remains to safety, I wanted to preemptively give permission to sell my equipment to cover the cost. Except the swords; they're intelligent."

Seelah nods, businesslike. "If it does come to that, I'll keep it in mind. Nice thing about Resurrection is you only need a bit. Even ashes will do."

Miko nods right back!

"That and the extended time horizon."

With that taken care of, she returns to near the front of the party.

The Shieldmaze entrance is conspicuous. An archway of carved limestone, in the wall of a cavern of black granite.

"I remember going in when we were still practically kids," Lann murmurs. "Then... well. You wanted to stop."

"That hasn't changed," Wenduag grunts.

Miko surveys the great stony arch, hands on her hips.

"Fortunately, none of us are children. What sort of hazards are inside?"

Hiss. "Demons. Creatures of living fire and stone. Traps, illusions, undead. I did not swear off it when I was a child, dead thing."

Okay but they all have class levels now.

Miko puts her hands up.

"I didn't mean to imply that, just that we are all capable of handling danger."

She really doesn't want to offend Wenduag enough that they get pointlessly delayed even more.

Mumble grumble.