Associates of a Frog Man
Kuai Tungi is a stout, angular, quince-colored nakudama fisherman who wants only to be the best. He’s not completely sure, himself, why he wants this— maybe it’s just a midlife crisis, but after twenty-five happy years adventuring over the hills and inland waters of Obojima, it seems that real novelty can only come from settling down and putting all his focus, commitment, and sheer will into truly mastering something. Anything. He guesses that may as well be making sushi. Ready for change, he buys a spot on a busy side street in Yatamon and sets up shop, apprenticing to the Mariners Guild as a diver in search of the freshest and fanciest ingredients of any restaurant on the island, determined to outdo them all.Warlock Patron
One day soon after opening his business, as he rolled downstairs late one morning to begin opening up the shop, Tungi found a customer already eagerly waiting outside: a jumping-spider-spirit hung from the awning, talking softly to herself as she peered through the slatted window just below. Unable to turn away a customer, the nakudama let her in, but after ordering, she introduced herself as “Chochu” and offered him a contract: incredible power in exchange for a few, minor, rarely recurring favors for the spirit she represented. Hardly able to believe his luck, and entirely forgetting to ask for details, Tungi signed, and Chochu vanished without paying her bill.
A few weeks later, Tungi was asked his first favor by his new patron. Chochu showed up again in the morning, apologetically payed her tab, and told the nakudama that the next time he was near the shallows1 (as he was so often while fishing or laying traps), he was to swim up to a particular residence and change around the numbers on the door, then swim away. The diver found this a strange favor indeed, but did as he was asked with no trouble. “Is this sort of thing all I’ll have to do?”, he wondered, as he swam back to shore after emptying his traps.
Friends and Acquaintances
Chochu is a spirit who serves Tungi’s patron as a messenger and runner of basic errands in the material plane. She’s an enormous (size “small”), acorn-brown jumping spider whose features all but disappear into her fluffiness. She has a habit of ignoring people while lost in her own thoughts, being overall very absent minded, and a tendency to talk to herself about what she’s thinking and/or doing. She and Tungi had a rocky relationship at the start, but now they’re good friends. Among a few other favorite places, Chochu can often be found at Tungi’s sushi shop when she’s not in the spirit realm.
“Ten-Socks” Seseng Poma is a nakudama born in the costal highlands around the same time as Tungi. Are they siblings? Who can say— either way, they’ve been friendly for a long time and think of one another as close to brothers. Poma is a neurotic over-preparer, hence the nickname— as a youngster, he once brought five pairs of socks on a two hour trek because he’d heard from a passing woodsman that the way was “a little muddy”, and Tungi and the rest back home won’t let him live it down.
Enemies
Nigorime is a gilled salamander-like spirit who left the spirit realm behind for a peaceful life in the gentle waves and submarine caves of Obojima’s shallows. He’s a forgiving sort, but with a towering temper that comes and goes in an instant. He likes collecting trinkets to arrange in fastidiously straight lines, and he never locks his door. He likes things to be clean and orderly, and is one of the main victims of Tungi’s pranks.