Jaax & Pollux

**Jaax** is a locathah artificer, accompanied by their Steel Defender, Pollux. They are played by Jacklyn Treuer.

## **Description**

### **Appearance**

Jaax resembles a stunted humanoid catfish - light brown leathery skin, two long whisker-like feelers protruding from their upper lip, with arm-like fins as appendages to control Pollux. They have blue eyes and wear a set of goggles above their eyes.

Their steel defender Pollux is akin to a walking fishbowl. It is comprised of a central reinforced glass bowl with an upper hatch and controls and equipment storage on the inside. Pollux has two thick mechanical legs, and heavyset mechanical arms with bracers that open up to reveal a crossbow on the left arm and a spear on the right. The armour plates are covered in barnacles and are painted in abstract patterns.

### **Personality**

Jaax has a nice personality, priding themself on being a kind soul, always willing to help. They don't know much of surface-dweller customs, but they are always willing to learn and are excited at the process of doing so.

Pollux has a rough, rudimentary personality. Speaking in mechanical whirring noises that only Jaax can seem to understand, Pollux can express simple responses to simple concepts, but lacks further sentience beyond simple self-autonomy.

## **Biography**

### **Background**

Jaax grew up in a small tribe of locathah and other water-dwelling humanoids near the sea floor of the Emerald Gulch Sea. Fascinated by the surface and by the people who fished the waters they called home, they constructed Pollux out of scrap metal and polished sea glass, with a hint of arcane manipulation. After a few test-runs, they ventured out into the surface, surfacing on the coast of the Greying Wildlands, before venturing down the coast to Jigow.

### **Call of the Netherdeep**

Jaax & Pollux met up with the rest of the party during the festival, where they successfully completed the maze, won the rice harvesting contest, completed the tortoise race, and beat Maryl Bronzefang twice in an arm-wrestling competition.

## **Character information**

### **Quests**

Jaax has joined an adventuring party to see the world, and help whoever they can.

### **Proficiencies**

* **Skills**: Athletics, Animal Handling, Arcana, Investigation, Perception, Survival
* **Tools**: Leatherworker's Tools, Smith's Tools, Thieves' Tools, Tinker's Tools, Woodcarver's Tools

### **Notable items**

#### **Current items**

* Pollux's weapons
* A quarterstaff just in case
* Medals of the maze, wetlands, horizonback, and muscle
* Smith's tools and thieves' tools

### **Abilities**

#### **Locathah abilities**

* Leviathan Will: advantage on saves against being charmed, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned, stunned, or being put to sleep
* Limited Amphibiousness
* Natural Armour

#### **Artificer abilities**

* Magical Tinkering
* Spellcasting (1st Level)
	+ Cantrips: Fire Bolt, Sword Burst
* Artificer Infusions (4 infusions, 2 items)
	+ Enhanced Defense
	+ Enhanced Weapon
	+ Repeating Shot
	+ Duplicate Magic Item: Bag of Holding
* Right Tool For The Job
* Battle Ready (Battle Smith)
* Steel Defender (Battle Smith)

### **Pollux's Abilities**

#### **Ability Scores**

* **STR:** 14
* **DEX:** 12
* **CON:** 14
* **INT:** 4
* **WIS:** 10
* **CHA:** 6

#### **Actions**

* Force-Empowered Rend
* Repair (3/Day)
* Light Crossbow
* Spear

## **Appearances and mentions**

* Call of the Netherdeep Campaign (not on the podcast)

## **Quotations**

* "I'm Jaax, and the big guy here is Pollux. Say 'hi' Pollux!"
* "As long as you're alright with me using the big guy's arms!" (to Maryl Bronzefang after being challenged)

## **Trivia**

* Their combined name, Jaax & Pollux, is a play on the name of famous painter Jackson Pollock.
	+ This is referenced by the fact that Pollux's armour plating is covered in abstract patterns.
	+ In Jacklyn's character document, Jaax's original name was Gargol, but she changed it to sound more interesting.
* Jacklyn uses a light Australian accent to speak as Jaax, simply because it was the first accent she thought of that wasn't Scottish or Irish.
* Jaax has the highest intelligence of the party, and Pollux has the highest strength.
* Jaax and Pollux have separate hit points, so Pollux is damaged first when it comes to physical damage, but both the locathah and the mech can be damaged if they're in a spell radius.
* The idea of a locathah riding in a fishbowl mech was thought up of to counteract the locathah's Limited Amphibiousness trait.
* Jaax's favourite colour is sea foam green.
* In place of initial character art, Aurora jokingly sent an image of Minion from the *Megamind* films to the Netherdeep Discord server.
* Jaax identifies as agender, and as such, uses they/them as pronouns.