1) Get your character blinded somehow.
2) Try following something (as you are trying to force random
NPC to do).
3) Let me know how well you manage it.
TL:DR - If an NPC is blind, it cannot see you to follow you,
no matter how intimidating you might be.
All joking aside, in most cases if an NPC is attempting to do
something your character can do (like wield a weapon, drop an
item, open a door, follow a person, cross an ocean/river w/o a
boat, etc), and your character would be stopped by some affect
upon them, it's likely the NPC will be unable to perform that
action as well.
*Edit - stupid auto-smiley-conversion.