The Dungeon of the Thorn (Dungeon de la Espina) is a recurring underground of the shared cosmos. It is not always in the same place but always has the same form: a narrow passage, thorny plants growing from ceiling and floor, golden plant light at the end, and a human figure at the corridor’s end that the traveler never fully reaches.
| Type | Place (dungeon) |
| Spanish entry | Dungeon de la Espina — entrada nueva |
Locations
- The oldest versions place it under a branch of the Barrado Valley.
- Newer ones found it under the site of the Imploded Cathedral.
The new entrance
Recorded as “new” because it differs from the original, it is open only to those who have already tried once: the first time nobody enters; the second time one does, if one insists. The rule is literal: the thorn measures the previous visitor’s performance and decides whether to open. It is preserved in the Akashic Records.
The corridor
Two armed figures in mail and gray cloaks descend; the front one holds a lantern in the left fist and a sword in the right, the middle one carries its own lantern and looks back. Thorns of unnatural length, some nearly a handspan and polished like boar tusks, interweave into plant walls the body barely avoids. At the back, in a side branch, a solitary figure with a golden halo is embedded in the foliage: not a saint, not an apparition, a phenomenon proper to the corridor.
Those who return report hearing songs; those who return singing speak of nothing else.
Open questions
- Whether the halo figure is an uncanonized saint, a vegetal echo of something older, or a skilled thief of the corridor using the halo as a decoy.