Basilica Hands

Basilica Hands is a lore collectible in Windrose, a recovered diary page that recounts the backstory of the pirate Israel Hands, nicknamed Basilica. It is written in the voice of the traveler Alexandre Exquemelin, part of the same scattered journal entries collected under Exquemelin's Notes. It carries no crafting use; its value is the lore it adds and the coin it fetches when sold.

Diary Entry

Pirates are searching the ruins for something. I hid among the rocks to listen in and caught the name Israel Hands. Nearly gave myself away.

Plenty of rumors circulate about him on Tortuga. They say Hands was born into a large merchant family in Bristol. The elder brothers inherited the business, while he, as in a fairy tale, was left with nothing but a cat.

And as if that weren't enough, his father was said to hit the bottle almost every night, beating both his wife and his youngest son, for good measure.

One evening, after the old man once again had one too many, misfortune struck: he tumbled down the stairs and smashed his head, at least a dozen times. Took a few ribs with it too. Must have been a very long staircase.

After that, Hands decided to take fate into his own hands and ran off to see the fabled New World. In the harbor he signed on with a small privateer vessel, where he met Edward Teach. Later, without much thought, Hands followed him into the service of Benjamin Hornigold, back when Hornigold was still a pirate himself.

They say it was under Hornigold that Hands earned the nickname "Basilica." Whether for a fondness for churches, or for nuns: I couldn't say.

I don't know what Hands' men are looking for here, but I'd best put some distance between us. Even wolves are safer company.

As usual, I'll have to stash my excess belongings beneath a fallen log marked with a red cloth.

From the diary of Alexandre Exquemelin, traveler.

Lore Notes

The entry ties three of the game's pirate figures together. Edward Teach, the captain Hands first meets, is the man later known as Blackbeard, and Benjamin Hornigold is the early mentor under whom the Basilica nickname is said to have stuck. The reference to stashing belongings beneath a fallen log marked with a red cloth echoes the recurring cache motif that runs through the traveler's other Tortuga notes.

Details

Properties

See Also

• Israel Hands

• Exquemelin's Notes

• Edward Teach

• Blackbeard