Imahara Joe

Imahara Joe
Fan art of Imahara Joe, by @porzio art.
Type	NPC
Actor	Matthew Mercer
Character Information
Pronouns	he/him
Titles	King of the Roaches
Creature type	Humanoid
Race	Human
Age	40's (in 843 PD)
Place	Bassuras, Hellcatch Valley, Marquet
Profession	Tinkerer
Status
Status	Alive (as of 843 PD)
Appearances
First seen	"Hidden Truths" (3x26)
Last seen	"A Gathering of Heroes" (3x76)
Stream	Campaign Three (8 episodes)

Imahara Joe is a human tinkerer in Bassuras. As an NPC, Imahara Joe is played by Matthew Mercer.

Description

Fan art of Imahara Joe, by MateuszWilma.

Imahara Joe was a human male in his 40's with lightly tanned skin and jet black hair with gray at the temples. He had a very faint light grayish-white chin scruff. When Bells Hells met him, he had a bit of soot smeared under his eyes and was wearing a heavy set of goggles pushed up on top of his head, a long light brown linen elbow-length vest-coat combination, large heavy leather gloves, a heavy leather scuffed and burned apron, and heavy boots.

Joe's place of business was located in a massive construction yard near the Sonyan Row surrounded by at least two layers of scavenged fences filled with metal tables, cranes, metallic ingots, bolts, and pieces of scrap metal. In the center was a small open air warehouse and three small buildings buttressed against one another, one of which was Joe's. His workspace was heavily armored, with a thick metal vault-like door, and a hidden weapon aimed at the doorway.

Fan art of Imahara Joe, by Sarah Birdzell.

While Joe was initially suspicious of strangers appearing in his workshop, saying, "I don't trust easy," he quickly warmed up to them. He had a bright, wide smile, and was excited to have people to talk to. He was fascinated by Fresh Cut Grass, although respectful of his autonomy as a fully sentient being, and stated that he couldn't ethically take him as collateral based on his level of sentience and historical connections.

Biography

Imahara Joe was the go-to person for many of the Crawler gangs for repairs and alterations to all their Crawlers. He was considered the primary tinkerer of The Ends and was trusted by the residents there. He was therefore was given the informal title "King of the Roaches", since the residents tend to scatter whenever an untrusted person appears.

Bells Hells first heard of Joe when Fearne's parents specified that they would meet her at "Joe's" in a few days. When the party asked around, one of the waitresses at A Taste of Tal'Dorei suggested Joe could be Imahara Joe. Later, Fresh Cut Grass remembered Dancer mentioning Joe in a frustrated way. Joe and Dancer were competitors for contracts, as they were both specialists in odd arcane constructions and machinery. FCG was able to lead the party to Joe's workshop.

Joe gave the party a detailed description of the Deathwish Run and advice on possible strategies. They ordered a skirmish-crawler and paid half the 1450 total cost as a deposit. When Fearne asked Joe if he knew Birdie or Oleander Calloway, Joe did. They came in every few months for a couple of years for power sources and occasional scrap. Fearne noticed the power sources were very similar to the orbs that the Nightmare King had in his laboratory: arcane batteries drawing from local ley lines.

Joe asked FCG if he used to run with Dancer. Joe told him that when the then-disabled FCG came through on a trade caravan, Joe wanted to buy him but Dancer got him first. Contrary to what FCG believed, Dancer bought him rather than built him, and FCG is definitely a pre-Divergence aeormaton. Joe mentioned that in the past five years some aeormatons have been coming online, reawakened.

When Bells Hells returned to Imahara Joe's the next day, they saw their almost finished, armor-clad skirmish-crawler. The group asked Joe if he could loan them his second skirmish-crawler, using the emblem that they had received from Paragon's Call as payment. Although it had a number of scrapes, holes, and dents, it definitely looked serviceable. They also paid 100 gold extra to add to its armor protection. Joe then showed them how to drive and gave them more information about the race.

After their victory in the race, Bells Hells returned both crawlers to Joe. They paid him to repair the crawler that they owned, and FCG and Ashton spent the night in his shop so that the damage to FCG could be repaired. In the morning, Birdie Calloway arrived to pick up more power sources and meet with Fearne, but was confronted by Yu Suffiad. During the ensuing brief battle and conversation, Joe and his workers disappeared into a back room. Later that day, the party picked up their repaired crawler and had Joe add a rickshaw-like attachment on its back, then headed off into the Hellcatch Valley.

Official art of Imahara Joe, by Akane.

After their return to Bassuras, Bells Hells visited Joe and learned more about the mysterious trader who sold FCG to Dancer. The trader had come through the city about three times in the past five years. They were tall and masculine-presenting, wore a "really intricate metal mask" and a dark hooded cloak and went by the name "D". Joe had bought various items of ancient technology from them. Joe inspected FCG and confirmed it looked as though FCG was functioning as intended. Joe also read the party an account of an event called "The Care and Culling" wherein caretaker companion automatons gifted by Aeorian political figures to their rivals across Exandria suddenly killed the rivals, ending good relations with the city and making Aeorian technology suspect thereafter. The tinkerer made FCG a gift: a coin-like medallion of Avandra the Changebringer, hoping that the goddess would help the cleric just like she had helped him.

After fighting Otohan Thull Bells Hells hid in Imahara Joe's place, which he allowed, putting them into an underground storage area; he did state that he wouldn't risk himself too much for them (to which the party agreed), and when members of the Call questioned him, he let them inspect the place where Bells Hells were supposedly hiding (they went to an adjacent cavern until their chasers left). The adventurers ended up paying extra for a lead box they had commissioned Joe, and when they were ready to leave, they did on friendly terms.

Weeks later, when Fresh Cut Grass and Laudna were speaking with Professor Vitro Isham in the Aydinlan Seminary, the firbolg teacher confirmed not only that he knew Imahara Joe, but that he actually considered him one of the greatest minds of automaton and arcane locomotion in the whole continent.

Joe prepared a bomb for Bells Hells to use in the Tishtan excavation site just at the beginning of the apogee solstice, after which he wasn't in contact with them for several days. However, when the adventurers went looking for him (along with Dancer) to request his help fixing a strange harness, they found out that he and Verna the Viper were being held by Paragon's Call, and forced to build stuff for them, including a brumestone nullifier they were working on when the adventurers arrived. After Bells Hells killed General Ratanish and his soldiers, Imahara Joe and Verna agreed to go with Dancer to Whitestone to collaborate with Percival de Rolo in the task of fixing the harness.

When Bells Hells returned to Whitestone they discovered that their tinkerers (with the additional assistance of Allura Vysoren) had fixed the harness, and Imahara Joe greeted them cheerfully. He witnessed the tests that confirmed the Quintessence Array worked, and when the adventurers showed them the spark of Rau'shan, he used goggles to protect his eyes from the energy that the relic radiated. Since they couldn't return to Bassuras, Imahara Joe and the rest of his team stayed in Whitestone as refugees. Days later, he was still in the city, helping with magical and alchemical materials for the Exandrian Accord, although Keyleth was supposed to bring him to the camp near the Red Center soon.

Relationships

• Dancer - Although Joe apparently wanted to be friends with Dancer, she originally regarded him with suspicion and jealousy as a competitor, although she later worked with him in repairing the Quintessence Array in Whitestone.
• Adorna, a worker in Joe's shop
• Stanley, a worker in Joe's shop

Notable items

• Arcane power sources
• Crawlers in various stages of repair
• At least two "beefy" automatons
• A large welding shield-helmet with a spyglass extension.
• An oblong device with the pronged fork at the end that is able to fuse metal with a "bright arcane spark that flares off of it with long drifting blue flame". (welding apparatus)

Fan art of Imahara Joe, by @porzio art.

Appearances and mentions

• Campaign Three
  • "A Taste of Tal'Dorei" (3x25), mentioned only
  • "Hidden Truths" (3x26) (first appearance)
  • "A Race for the Prize" (3x27)
  • "The Deathwish Run" (3x28)
  • "Dark Portents" (3x29)
  • "Breaking Point" (3x31), mentioned only
  • "A Stage Set" (3x32)
  • "Blood and Dust" (3x33), mentioned only
  • "What Dreams May Come" (3x34)
  • "Axiom Shaken" (3x43), mentioned only
  • "Ominous Lectures" (3x45), mentioned only
  • "The Fey Key" (3x47), mentioned only
  • "The Aurora Grows" (3x49), via Sending
  • "Red Moon Rising" (3x50), mentioned only
  • "Hope Within History" (3x55), mentioned only
  • "For The Tempest" (3x68), mentioned only
  • "Nice" (3x69), mentioned only
  • "Embattled in Bassuras" (3x70)
  • "Phantasmal Parley" (3x72), mentioned only
  • "An Ancient Flame" (3x75), mentioned only
  • "A Gathering of Heroes" (3x76)
  • "Seeking Sedition" (3x88), mentioned only
  • "Where The Red Fearne Glows" (3x94), mentioned only

Quotations

• "The Run runs through The Skids. It's through dense neighborhoods, rapid turns. It's extremely dangerous for both riders and onlookers. They crowd, anyway. Part of The Run is not just the race, but preparation for it, meaning people, before the race, set surprises. It's part of the fun. The only rule is, 'Don't die.'"

Trivia

• Imahara Joe's name, likeness, and mannerisms are an homage to Grant Imahara, an electrical engineer, roboticist, and Mythbuster who passed away in July 2020. Grant was a friend of Matthew Mercer, who stated on Twitter "It is indeed my little homage to one of the most lovely people I have ever known. <3".

References

Art: