Imahara Joe

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

Appearance
Imahara Joe is a human man in his 40s, with black hair with a graying streak, and gray chin stubble. When Bells Hells first met him, he was wearing thick goggles and gloves, a long linen vest, and a heavy leather apron and boots.

Personality
Imahara Joe is a little wary at first, but friendly, and seems concerned for the party's well-being, warning them about the dangers of the Deathwish Run.

Before Campaign 3
Fresh Cut Grass recalled that Dancer seemed to feel she had a rivalry with Imahara Joe, but Imahara Joe felt it was friendly. Birdie Calloway and Ollie Calloway had been purchasing arcane power sources from him since about 841 PD.

Imahara and Vitro Isham met each other in the past and continued their relation via letters correspondence. Vitro considers him to be "one of the greatest minds of automaton and arcane locomotion in Marquet", but wishing for Imahara's talent to be used in more "official capacities".

Pre-Deathwish Run
After Dusk revealed that she had been traveling with Fearne's parents but was separated from them, Imogen cast Sending to contact Birdie, who told her she was a few days away and would meet them all at Imahara Joe's. The next day, Bells Hells all met at Imahara Joe's to acquire a skirmish-crawler for the Deathwish Run in their preparations for confronting Paragon's Call. Imahara Joe, after a moment of hesitation, invited them in to his workshop. He explained the details of the Deathwish Run to them, told them about his experience with the Calloways as customers, and agreed to sell them two crawlers, for which they paid a down payment.

Imahara Joe also mentioned that he recognized Fresh Cut Grass as having been up for sale a few years ago, as an original Aeorian aeormaton, but that he hadn't had the money to purchase them at the time and Dancer beat him to it. This was a surprise to FCG, who thought Dancer had built him.

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. Imahara Joe then showed them how to drive and gave them more information about the Deathwish Run.

Post-Deathwish Run
Following the race, Bells Hells returned the loaner crawler (Buck Fucket) back into the to Imahara Joe's, have him assess the damage on their commissioned crawler (now named the Red Moon), and patch up FCG. Imahara Joe was surprised but pleased they had not only survived, but won the race. He was able to cut FCG loose from the loaner crawler, and spent the evening fixing the damage they had taken during the Deathwish Run. FCG, along with Ashton, stayed the night in the workshop.

The day after, the rest of the party returned to Imahara Joe's to meet with Birdie Calloway, witnessing her as she arrived. Imahara Joe could only speak the words of welcome and offer to sell her some more batteries, when an ardent conflict between Birdie and Dusk broke out. When they eventually came to a compromise, Birdie apologied to Imahara for the scuffle and payed him for any damages, as well as for the repairs on the party's crawler, which were solid ready several later. Upon their arrival, Imahara Joe began fashioning a rickshaw addition for free, on FCG's request for a flatbed to drag behind one of the crawlers, warning the group to race gently for the safety of its passenger.

and
The party stopped by Imahara Joe's to have him look at FCG, after FCG met with Dancer. Joe, with FCG's consent, opened FCG's chassis, which contained various runes. When the party told him about FCG's attack earlier that day, he told them of the Care and Culling, an assassination plot during the Age of Arcanum. He also gave them some information about the mysterious D, the trader who had originally brought FCG to Bassuras, and gave FCG a coin of the Changebringer.

Upon fleeing their fight with Otohan Thull, Bells Hells fled through the sandstorm to Imahara Joe's shop. He let them in, but upon learning that they were likely wanted by the Paragon's Call, asked them to go into a storage area beneath the shop and keep quiet, telling them he would help, but if pressed, would save himself. The party told him they understood. Joe did not reveal that Bells Hells were there when questioned by representatives of the Paragon's Call, though he did open the storage area when asked; Bells Hells hid in an adjacent cavern just outside a door in the storage cellar. He charged them a premium to make a lead-lined box on short notice, but warmly bid them farewell when they left his shop.

To prepare for the upcoming Apogee Solstice, Fresh Cut Grass contacted Joe via Sending and asked him to build a bomb. Joe agreed to do so, but said it would be very expensive. The Calloways later collected the bomb on the party's behalf.

Notable items

 * A large welding shield, worn as a helmet with a spyglass extension.
 * A welding device

Appearances and mentions

 * Campaign 3

Behind the scenes
Imahara Joe is named for Grant Imahara, an engineer and good friend of Matt and Marisha's, who passed away in 2020.