Fans of Pathfinder Tales have long since become acquainted with Count Varian Jeggare and Radovan, the half-elven Pathfinder venture-captain and his devil-blooded bodyguard. From novels like Prince of Wolves and Master of Devils to Pathfinder's Journals such as "Hell's Pawns," the streetwise duo has matched wits and blades with everyone from decadent Chelish nobles to the gothic horrors of Ustalav and the mystic masters of the mysterious East. Now Dave Gross brings us a glimpse of the past: one of Count Jeggare's early adventures in the Mwangi Expanse, a tale of rivalry and exploration turned deadly serious. For where courtly civilization ends, the law jungle begins....
From fan-favorite author Dave Gross, author of Prince of Wolves and Master of Devils, comes a stand-alone adventure set in the award-winning world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
A Lesson in Taxonomy is a short, two-part series of free Pathfinder web fiction available on the Paizo website. It features an early adventure of Varian Jeggare (before he met Radovan), when he instead had a bodyguard named Remigo. Varian is on an adventure in the Mwangi Expanse, trying to complete his bestiary, when Remigo betrays him at the behest of the evil Prince Kasiya (a character who appears in one of the novels). It's helpful to see the backstory between Varian and Prince Kasiya, and it's overall a solid story. Though I do miss Radovan!
A Lesson in Taxonomy gives us the story of Varian Jeggare's last excursion before completing the Bestiary which earns him the rank of Venture-Captian in the Pathfinder Society. For Maximum effect, it should be read AFTER Prince of Wolves.
The opening line, "No reprobate more taxes my patience than a drunkard," is wonderfully ironic, given what we know of Count Jeggare of Cheliax.
This story is quite short, with only two chapters. However, in that short time, Dave Gross manages to develop four characters into fairly well fleshed out people. The story is fun and filled with betrayal and trickery.
I've enjoyed everything I've read so far of Count Jeggare's exploits as a Pathfinder, and this was no exception. It's one of the shorter pieces of short fiction I've read, but satisfying nonetheless. Gross does a great job with Jeggare, portraying his aristocratic worldview in a way that seems realistic yet sympathetic.
Even though this story takes place before all of the other Pathfinder Tales involving the count to date, because of its brevity, I would suggest not reading it first and instead read a longer piece which more fully introduces the character (perhaps Prince of Wolves), then come back and enjoy!
I bought this epub and converted it to .mobi using Calibre for my kindle. Worked fine with no errors.
A short read and I really enjoyed Gross' tale of Jeggare before he met Radovan. This was about Jeggare's journey into the Mwangi Expanse with a less-than-ideal bodyguard to finish compiling his Bestiary. With his Bestiary complete, Jeggare may finally be allowed to become a Pathfinder Venture Captain.
The story developed quickly, with betrayal, friendship and excitement all fitted into a nice, small package. Nothing too deep, but enjoyable regardless.
I've noticed that pages 14-20 of this ePub are actually from Lord of Penance. It skips a large chunk of the story of A Lesson in Taxonomy and picks up at the start of Chapter 2.
I noticed this a while ago, but forgot to mention it here. I was just flipping through iBooks and remembered it so I went to re-download it thinking that the problem would have been fixed, but it appears that noone else has this problem?
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32
