Critical Role has its own Dungeons & Dragons version of the Caped Crusader. Last week, in lieu of a normal episode, Critical Role aired The Adventures of the Darrington Brigade, a one-shot adventure featuring Taryon Darrington, Sam Riegel’s second character from the Vox Machina campaign. Darrington was a human artificer from Wildemount who temporarily joined Vox Machina to get a taste of adventuring, and eventually departed to create his own adventuring group near his home. During The Adventures of the Darrington Brigade one-shot, Critical Role fans got to meet some Darrington’s new companions. One of them, played by Taliesin Jaffe, is a hooded vigilante that bears a remarkable resemblance to Batman.
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The Owlbear is a multiclass Rogue/Barbarian who doles out justice while dressed as an owlbear, one of Dungeons & Dragons‘ most iconic monsters. Serious and brooding, the Owlbear carries dozens of daggers, and seeks to fight criminals and monsters, who he refers to as superstitious and timid. As for why he chose to dress an owlbear, the Owlbear explained that “two of the world’s greatest predators, the owl and the bear, while frightening, strike nowhere near as much terror as that alliance between them.” You can check out the Owlbear’s official portrait below:
The Critical Role cast had tons of fun with the Owlbear, dropping Batman jokes constantly and even sneaking in a reference to The Court of Owls, a relatively recent addition to the Batman rogues’ gallery. At one point, the Owlbear is even described as a superhero….although that’s only because he was just granted Heroism by Darrington.
While the Owlbear was likely just a one-off addition to Critical Role canon, there’s always a chance that he could re-appear sometime in the future. While the current Mighty Nein campaign is set approximately 30 years after The Adventures of the Darrington Brigade, whose to say that the Owlbear isn’t still doling out justice in his 70s, akin to Frank Miller’s version of Batman in The Dark Knight Returns. Or maybe we’ll see a new version of the Owlbear, one that goes Beyond the Owlbear’s original goals and has some nifty new gadgets. Or maybe we’ll find out that the Owlbear had a sidekick who took up the mantle when the original Owlbear finally retired.
You can watch The Adventures of the Darrington Brigade on Critical Role‘s Twitch channel.
