Searing Crags

Searing Crags
Boss	Colos & Suses
Power Seals	3
Borders With	Quillshroom Marsh Glacial Peak Underworld Tower of Time HQ
Enemies	Bagoat Bat Birdy Blue Kappa Boulder Douche Bouncing Dogo Green Kappa Ountarde Poursuivant Piquant Ranged Kappa Rochecrossidère Scurubu Wall Shmu
Soundtrack	Impossible Ascent (Searing Crags) To the Top (Searing Crags)

Searing Crags is the eighth area of The Messenger. It is a red mountain at the base of Glacial Peak.

The west side of Searing Crags is accessed from Quillshroom Marsh, and the north side leads to Glacial Peak. In 16-bit, a southeastern pathway to the Underworld opens up and can be crossed with the Lightfoot Tabi.

Appearance

Searing Crags is composed of rocky red-orange terrain. Green cacti, white animal skulls, green tents, brown crates, and leaf-free brown trees are interspersed throughout the area. The background sky has a sun in the lower-left corner of the screen, creating an orange horizon in a red sky. A few stars dot the red portion of the sky closest to the orange horizon. And in the distance are huge pointed and jagged dark rocks.

Items

8-Bit

• Ninja obtains the Rope Dart as his third free upgrade from The Shopkeeper.
• After Ninja gains the power to freely time travel, he can use the Lightfoot Tabi to cross a river of lava at the beginning of the pathway to the Underworld. Across this initial lava gap is Pyro the Phobekin, and Ninja can talk to Pyro to "collect" Pyro.

16-Bit

• Ninja interacts with Colos and Suses's flowerbed to obtain the Power Thistle.
• Ninja plants the Astral Seed in Colos and Suses's flowerbed in 8-bit. He then returns to the room in 16-bit and interacts with the flowerbed to obtain the Astral Tea Leaves.

8-Bit → 16-Bit

• If Ninja owns the Power Thistle and talks to Colos and Suses in 8-bit, Ninja is sent to the pathway to the Key of Strength. Ninja travels through some time rifts and collects the Music Note in 16-bit.

Power Seals

For the main article, see Power Seals.

Linear

Power Seal #1

In a room with a breakable block directly next to a checkpoint, break the block and head past the checkpoint into the next room. There are two spike-lined crusher blocks with a lantern under each of them, separated by a death gap and rocks falling from the ceiling. Wait for the spike-lined crusher blocks to lift up, and Rope Dart the lanterns to reach the opposite side of the room. Slash at the falling rocks while crossing the gap in order to destroy them and to prevent taking damage. Climb up into the Power Seal room.

Final

Power Seal #2

In 16-bit, in a room with a swinging spikeball, climb into the upper-left corner to reach a checkpoint. Head left into the Power Seal room. Cloudstep the lanterns while avoiding midair rotating circles of spikeball plants to reach the Power Seal.

Power Seal #3

In 16-bit, in the tall vertical room before Colos and Suses's boss room, there is a breakable block on the left wall. Break the block and head left into the next room. Cloudstep off of the falling rock projectiles to cross the death gap. Climb up into the Power Seal room.

The Shopkeeper's Dialogue

Initial Dialogue

Shopkeeper	Congratulations, you made it to the base of the mountain.
Ninja	Almost there!
Shopkeeper	Do you know what this means?
Ninja	I don't know, does it mean you have another dialogue trap for me?
Shopkeeper	...
Ninja	What?
Shopkeeper	Oh, so you're just going to try and steal my character like that???
Ninja	...
Shopkeeper	I guess you think you deserve a prize?
Ninja	No...
Shopkeeper	Well, you do. Plus, you will never be able to make the climb without the Rope Dart.
Ninja	The Rope Dart?
Shopkeeper	Don't overthink it, everyone will probably end up calling it the Grappling Hook anyway. Here.

Rope dart

Ninja	So, thanks for the Rope Dart?
Shopkeeper	Oh did you think that was an awkward interaction?
Ninja	You could say that.
Shopkeeper	Clearly you never had to tell your boss that your little experiment went wrong, permanently impacting one of your colleagues.
Parrot	Hey, I heard that!
Shopkeeper	Anyways, you can use it on rings, lanterns, walls and enemies. Go nuts!

Monk

Ninja	About that monk...
Shopkeeper	It is as I feared, our most promising Messenger did not die, but was instead cursed forever. She became the Queen of Quills.
Ninja	How did that happen?
Shopkeeper	This is a tale for another time.

Any stories to share?

For the main article, see The Shopkeeper's Stories.

Ninja	Do you have any stories to share?
Shopkeeper	Of course, here's one for you. It's a story I once told the guy who hooked me up with music for my shop. There once was a village struggling to figure out who the werewolf was. People kept dying every full moon, and very gorily at that. One day, a brave young couple decided to venture into the woods. He would be the hunter, and she, the bait. As one would expect from such a clichéd setting, they got separated and our hunter faced off alone against the beast near a cliff. After fifteen minutes of a literal uphill battle, the hunter managed to chop off the werewolf's paw with his axe, just as it was attempting to choke him. The hunter then ran for his life, severed paw still clutched to his throat. By the time he got home, the sun was up, and he found his fiancée bleeding, also badly wounded. The paw on his throat had reverted to its human form, and that moment he noticed it was wearing a ring he had purchased a few days ago. The end.
Ninja	...woah, that was spooky.
Shopkeeper	I'm still looking for a title. Any suggestions?
Ninja	What about "The werewolf bride"?
Shopkeeper	Wow, great idea!
Ninja	Really?
Shopkeeper	No, not really. You put the reveal in the title.
Ninja	...

Level boss

Ninja	Looks like the boss is up.
Shopkeeper	Surely you mean the bosses?
Ninja	Bosses?
Shopkeeper	Bosses. The bosses are up.
Ninja	I need to fight more than one boss here?
Shopkeeper	Well, technically it's more like personal training than an actual fight.
Ninja	What?
Shopkeeper	Ah don't let me ruin it, go see for yourself.

Trivia

• In the Power Seal room closest to Colos and Suses's boss room, there is a red and brown-gray mattress with a small green pea underneath it. This is an easter egg that references The Shopkeeper's story in Forlorn Temple.
• Although normally the Big Time Shard pathway is only open in 16-bit, Ninja can slowly whittle away at the Big Time Shard in 8-bit by throwing a Windmill Shuriken at it from the left side.
• According to Thierry Boulanger, the main writer and director of the game, the flood turned Searing Crags from an active volcano into a dormant volcano.

Gallery

Searing Crag's tiny map icon.

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Interactive Locations Map

Ninja Village

Music Box

Autumn Hills

Rivière Turquoise

Forlorn Temple

Catacombs

Dark Cave

Tower of Time

Corrupted Future

Bamboo Creek

Howling Grotto

Elemental Skylands

Quillshroom Marsh

Sunken Shrine

Cloud Ruins

Glacial Peak

Searing Crags

Underworld