The
Thicket of Thorns is extremely dangerous, but it is also the most common way to travel between worlds. It can even be used to travel between two locations, far away from each other in the same world. The safer routes through the overgrowth are known as Pathways. Where such a pathway connects with a world, it creates a gate through which one can move from one to the other.
Gates
The creation of a gate happens in one of two ways:
- A failed but strong attempt to pull on the Thorns Branch, or even a different branch if you're unlucky, can cause a tear that won't close up immediately. Keep ripping at it, and it will develop into a gate, though it might require some pruning to make less dangerous.
- The Thicket is constantly growing, and new plants will try to puncture the walls to the worlds around it. Sometimes, cracks are ripped open at a moment's notice, other times they form slowly over the course of many years. It is possible to accelerate this process by encouraging growth in a specific area. It can also be slowed down by pruning the vegetation.
A gate can look like many things. A rare few are obvious enough to be an overgrown corridor to walk down. Most are hidden if not for a ritual of some kind. Spinning counter-clockwise in the mushroom circle, while lit by the moon, might open up a path into the Thicket. A singular prayer in front of a statue might make it show the way. There are many thousands of different ways of opening gates, and the knowledge isn't always given freely by those who have it.
Passing through a gate from the Thicket is usually easier. There are many hidden sigils and seeminly natural formations within the Thicket and they can be used to determine what worlds are near. Once you've indentified that you are close to where you want to go, all you need is to find the places where growth pushes outwards. If there are no charms in place to stop you, all that is needed is to step through.
Travel
While inside the Thicket, it might feel like walking the narrow paths of a hedge maze, where the hedge has grown wild and dangerous. There is other vegetation there too - from moss and grass to the occasional tree. As long as you keep to the little walk path underneath you, you have a chance to survive. Stray from it, and you will be lost and soon die. This is the pathway. It might connect with others or might lead you to only one destination. But any destination is better than being stuck.
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