I cursed myself for an idiot for speaking, but something about all that gold was making me feel funny. The fake map I had sold to my Northen friends had purported to show its location. I had found the legend while helping myself to the library of an old duke whose title I had been attempting to scam. Unfortunately the old man's heart had given out during the final stages of negotiations and I had found myself with a dead duke and a very limited window to escape, out the window as it happened, before I was discovered. The only items of value I had been able to steal were a few old books and a diamond necklace. One of the books claimed to be a journal of a long ago expedition that had stumbled across the place. The legend went that the city of Tzecholitchi had once been the seat of a great Empire before civilization came o the Northern Continent. It's black sailed ships had sailed across the world, and even if the tale was to be believed to other worlds, brining back riches and slaves beyond counting. For a thousand years the city had prospered but during that time they neglected their tribute to their Goddess, a strange deity who was half woman and half serpent according to the hasty sketches I had seen. Eventually their empire had collapsed and their slave states rebelled, marching on their former masters and putting all they found to the sword. Beset on all sides and hopeless, the people of the city had cried out to their goddess begging for mercy and aid and casting all the wealth left to them into her temple pit. To show her contempt for their riches, the goddess turned their entire city to gold. It was only when they began to throw themselves into the Temple Pit that the Goddess had finally relented. Jungle had sprung forth across what had once been cultivated land, consuming in an hour what had taken a thousand years to build. The armies had been turned back by the serpents and the fevers that stalked the jungle and the name Tzecholitchi had been all but forgotten. 

But not apparently by all. Both of the Dre Costan's knew the name.

"What is this place," the timber merchant asked, his eyes alight with avarice as he ran his hand along the golden wall.

"No where we should be," I muttered uneasily, both Dre Costan's pretended to relax.

"We are just going to stumble onto a city of gold and walk away?" One of them demanded. I had to admit that the feeling of unease in my stomach was the only evidence I had for wanting to flee. The wall alone would pay the Andredan army for a year. The Merchant, Herronhoop or something, pulled a heavy knife from his belt and struck the wall at a glancing angle, attempting to shave off some of the precious metal. There was a dull clang but nothing happened. He frowned and tried again, this time attempting to drive the point into the gleaming wall. It glanced aside without a scratch.

"Maybe if we had some heavier tools," he pondered, glancing back towards those of us with swords. No one volunteered to try it. 

"There must be an enchantment," one of the Dre Costan's said. "I bet we can find some gold inside, something small enough to carry away."

"Gold is heavy," Beren pointed out, "do you really want to carry it through the jungle."

"I do if I'm going to be rich when I reach the other side," another of the travelers said. It was nearly nightfall and the sky to the west was low with heavy looking clouds.

"I suppose we can at least shelter for the night," Beren capitulated, though I could tell he was as uneasy as I was, and probably a little less struck with gold lust besides.