The Thorn (Fallout: New Vegas)

The Thorn is an underground settlement located within the outer walls of the New Vegas Westside. The R in the sign is pointing to the sewer, letting you know that is the main entrance. The main interest of The Thorn is the Arena, where you can bet on the outcome of fights between Wasteland creatures or fight in the Arena yourself. Slightly to the north of the thorn is the entrance to the commercial and residential area of the New Vegas Westside. The access to the area is denied from 1:00 am to 6:00 am.

Layout
In the middle is a large Arena, and surrounding the sides are cages with Wasteland creatures grown & kept by Red Lucy for Arena battles.

If you like you can set up custom fights by talking to Red Lucy. You get to choose what creature and how many of it will fight in red vs. blue team. Since the creatures are expensive to breed, keep and maintain you will have to pay for the fight. If red team wins you get your caps back plus a little extra. To initiate the fights simply talk to Red Lucy and select let's talk about The Thorn and ask What's fighting in the next match.

Lucy sends you into the wasteland to find eggs from increasingly difficult creatures. Once the Courier has brought in the last egg, they can sleep with Lucy. The Gender of the Courier does not matter. Also, you can fight against the creatures you brought, such as Deathclaws or Firegeckos.

Bugs

 * Crash-to-Desktops are very common in this area, especially while fighting in the Arena. Save often.
 * This area has been known to crash to the XMB. It's advised to save often.
 * After defeating any animals in the Arena, the doors open allowing you to leave. A second or two later all the gates that just opened for you to leave instantly seal and the only way out is through the side of the Arena, which itself is sealed unless this glitch occurs. This can easily cause you to get caught in between the two doors leading into the Arena with no way out except the console. This doesn't happen every single time but it's extremely common.
 * When fighting any number of Cazadores or Deathclaws (1-3) the creatures may turn on each other, stinging/clawing each other to death, and the doors will not open after they are dead, leaving you trapped in the arena. Also the fight never ends when fighting one Deathclaw, the doors do not open, and you are trapped forcing a reload.
 * When betting on a fight between any creatures, the creatures enter the arena and do absolutely nothing (as if not hostile to each other). Red Lucy is unable to be interacted with and the fight remains a permanent stalemate, unless you want to shoot one and have Thorn turn hostile. (Solution: Kill one of the teams, exit The Thorn, wait a few (game)hours then return, Things should be normal.)(Solution:If Lucy is facing pit, to her right and behind her there is an area you can sneak where one team is visible. With a silenced weapon, kill that team and the match will end. You can exit the pit from the stairs located behind Lucy. If no one has seen you kill the team, things will be normal. If you are attacked retry and don't shoot if you are "detected".)
 * Sometimes, when approaching the exit door, it automatically seals, leaving the player trapped inside the Thorn. The only way out is teleporting through the console. To fix, go talk to lucy then return to exit. (cause not yet determined, any help appreciated)
 * When entering the arena and going to fight the door opens but your cannot get through it. An invisible wall blocks your path.(you can get through it by crouching then jumping or just walk forward and keep jumping)
 * Reloaded from the auto save at the bottom of the ladder and was able to get through the door.
 * After winning a fight the gate was open but the door appeared closed even after hearing the opening sound, but I was able to walk through the seemingly 'closed' door.
 * Choosing to fight in the arena may cause any current followers to go missing.
 * When using a Plasma Rifle, or a weapon of the same type, and disintegrating enemies into goo, the goo will not disappear immediately like corpses would - or not at all.
 * It is easily possible to walk through the gate before entering the battle area. Creatures can not walk through their own gate, which proves as a huge advantage when taking on the harder creatures.
 * Sometimes the enemies will back out through the door they came from (before the gate) before it closes or even if it has already closed. This prevents the the battle from being completed, and so stops the courier from leaving. If you're lucky enough, the enemy may reveal itself through the door by walking into it (a giantscorpion's claws, for example), and you may be able to get a few cheap shots at it. It's advised to save before the battles, and not to use explosives on creatures from a distance before they get free as this can throw them back through the door or possibly hit spectators, which will turn them hostile. Though to avoid this altogether the player can hug the right wall of the arena and go around the column (next to the exit gate) to approach them so that they will be too close when engaged in combat and will not run away.
 * After asking Red Lucy to fight and she telling you to go to the cage and your screen going black, rather than reloading in the arena below, you may simply reappear in the same spot, with Lucy in a permanent bug state refusing to talk to you.
 * When two Creatures start to fight they can dissapear thus resulting in Red Lucy refusing talking to you (plus you lose the bet)
 * Constantly crashes when talking around to NPCs.
 * After you fight in the arena and win once you bet on a fight the animals will come to the middle of the arena and will not fight. Note: If you bet on the animals or set up a custom fight before you fight in the arena the animals should fight one another
 * After participating in a match crashes while attempting to leave the arena.
 * After choosing multiple participants for a fight (3 Rad Scorpions on one team, for example) the cage doors will open and the participants will walk out toward the middle of the arena but they will not all stop in the correct "zone" to initiate the fight. As a result both teams will just sit there and no fight will take place. Early attempts at leaving/returning/fast traveling/letting a few days pass did not seem to reset this. If you attempt to "move" the participants by jumping down and nudging them, or if you try shooting them, the inhabitants of The Thorn will open fire on you for interfering. This makes it impossible for any further fights to take place.
 * If you kill the animal(s) you are fighting before they exit their gate, the match will not end, and you will be trapped in the pit. Even noclipping through the exit gate, Ruby will be stuck saying "The crowds are waiting for you, stranger." This makes certain matches, such as three Deathclaws, extremely challenging, since you must wait for the animals to begin their charge before firing. Also, you can press console key "~" select animal and write "resurrect" it will be reset animal. kill animal again and exit to cage door. After go to thorn again. This fight need be reset.
 * Using a Missile Launcher to fight opponents in arena while in combat often results in guards turning on you and shooting you. Red Lucy stays neutral while they attack you. If you kill 3 or more guards, things go back to normal and Red Lucy can be talked to again. This may be caused because of the explosion affecting nearby guards and they take it as you are attacking them. Using Mines, Plastic explosives, and other grenades do not seem to have the same effect.
 * Animal staring contest. shoot one arena will reset and guards will stop shooting at you and you can now continue the Thorn entertainment.
 * When I pitted one Deathclaw against two Cazadores in the arena, they entered and stood on the appropriate "spot" to initiate the fight, but nothing happened. Tried speaking with Red Lucy, but she wouldn't say anything. Tried to nudge the creatures forward towards eachother, but they wouldn't move. Battle was stuck with no result.

Behind the Scenes

 * The Thorn might be reference to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, where there was an arena where you could both fight and bet on contestants, and there is a blue and red team. Although in Oblivion, the teams were Blue and Yellow.

Appearances
appears in Fallout: New Vegas.