Larkin Wren

Inaka Chiirona

Chiirona’s family found their way to rural Shenmen nearly a century ago as a typical example of tengu migration, but the then-upcoming construction of a monastery in what would later be the environs of Willowbrook meant that a business opportunity was at hand. They found their way into possession of the uninhabitable swampy land at a bend in the Willowbrook River to convert into flooded farms, and have grown rice there ever since - first for the sustenance of the community, then soon thereafter for booze. They also incorporate the symbiotic farming of carp, crabs, and ducks into their cultured ponds, which are favored delicacies of both the family and their best customers. The tengus’ tough, nimble feet and waterproof feathers are the perfect adaptations to stride through muddy or flooded fields without trampling their delicate crops.

Thanks to Chiirona’s early lifetime dedicated to the fields, she has something of a spiritual connection with the plant life in the area, but her connection to the fungal life is what gives her existence meaning in adulthood as a master of her craft at the brewing of the family sake. From gregarious fruiting bodies to micorrhiza invisible to the naked eye, local fungi respond to Chiirona’s call; her particular focus on yeast cultivation has resulted in the family’s sake business expanding in recent years. When you can catch her behind the bar instead of the brewer’s vat, Chiirona is proud to pour with a generous claw her delicious and potent brews of the traditional recipes, as well as new and unusual lines she’s hoping will catch on. How much of this generosity is due to the creeping influence of the notoriously-racist jorogumo in the wider world is known only to Chiirona.

Chiirona “earned” her second name in youth when she fell into a flooded paddy on her back, leaving her talons sticking up in the air as the only parts of her visible. Ever since, she has endeavored to reclaim the name by honing her dexterity and grace in order to claim that she could swim the length of an entire rice paddy leaving nary a ripple. When asked to demonstrate, she is usually quick to distract the asker with a drink. Chiirona’s family’s “deal”