Vaticine City, 1650: Esteban Mendoza was just days away from his ordination. He should have been preparing himself for his elevation, studying the sacraments, reading the scriptures... but for the last few days he had been too busy to even think about it. Padre Miguel was very ill, and almost everyone believed him soon to join the saints. But Esteban was not about to let the Padre go without a fight! Esteban's skill in medicine was limited, he studies in it at the university only just beginning, but he was doing what he could. After days of fighting to break Padre Miguel's fever, the old priest finally grew calm and spoke "enough young man! I am dying! Your cold, wet cloth will not aid me now. But I thank you for trying when everyone else has given up. For your kindness and determination, I would give you a gift ere we part. Fetch me my prayer beads." -Esteban did as he was told and brought the beads to the dying priest. Most of the strand was quite normal, made of dozens of red glass beads. Two of the beads were different, they were made of clay or marble and were blacked and glazed as if by fire. Padre Miguel spoke again "These prayer beads were carried to his death by the first prophet. Its true! It is said that there were ten of them joined together by a knotted cord of flax. As the flames burned the cord away, the beads fell into the fire and were scattered. These two were picked up by a young man who would later follow in the path of the first prophet. These beads carry a virtue for one of great faith. Long have the passed from hand to hand, priest to priest... and now I give them to you! Use them well!
A battlefield in Eisen, 1660: As the War of the Cross tore its way across Eisen, Padre Esteban found himself far from his books and the sanctified halls of the church, traveling with the Castillian army as both a chaplain and a surgeon. More than once he had even had been forced to fight for his life. As the evening closed on the end of a fierce battle the Padre was tending to the wounded... "I don't believe it! He is going to live! Its a miracle padre, thank the prophets! -said a castillian sergeant looking over a fallen soldier whom he thought too hurt to live. Only moments before Padre Esteban had been desperately trying to stitch up the soldier in a frantic effort to stop him from bleeding to death. As he looked from the now closed wound to the bloodstained prayer beads tied to his belt, he couldn't help but repeat the sergeant's words in his heart.
A small hospice in Castille, 1668: Padre Esteban was packing up his medical tools when a heard a strange knock on his door. Thinking it another farmer come to complain about the flu that was running around he went and opened it to let him in. But there was no one there. A note was tacked to the door with a knife! It read:
Padre Esteban. A Prayer Bead of the Prophet! In Altamira!Signed: A Friend
The next morning the padre found himself in a coach racing down the coast road. Who could the mysterious friend be? How did they know about the beads? Was there really one to be found in Altamira? What adventures truly awaited him? Only the Prophets know....
(Padre Esteban Medoza carries a Holy Relic Background- 1HP. Also has the Personal Relic advantage.)
