Caulkin is another a revisit of an old sketch from 2019, like Alder. And as such they are tied together.

Caulkin is an old grumpy treehopper native to Shellwood, who is a big tinkerer and mechanically inclined. He is always messing around with things, building things, or modifying existing things. He has a workshop that is kept spick and span thanks to his little pseudoscorpion pet Apsu, who hitched a ride on him one day, as pseudoscorpions like to do, and he had no idea until he was already home. Being a pseudoscorpion she’s all about eating small pests that might be a problem, so he keeps her around. She also produces silk that he can use if he really needs to. She’s like a shop cat.

Caulkin might come off as grumpy but he’s not actually that mean, just blunt and wise to the ways of the world. He’s quite self-sufficient and doesn’t need much from others, but when he does he does what he can to minimize that need. He’d rather not have to rely on others. He will, however, do what he can for others if they should need something. The operative word here being “need” and not “want”.

Caulkin has found and taken apart his fair share of automatons and other Citadel-era devices, so imagine his surprise when he finds a decently sized one rusting away he intended to use for parts, that turned out to be not just still functional, but still alive. He named it Alder and begrudgingly, but not that begrudgingly, took up being a sort of family member to the old but naive automaton, as he felt like it wasn’t right to just turn it loose in an unfamiliar world. Besides, it could be interesting to try and figure out how a soul-imbued automaton worked.