The Nest of Candles - New Players' Guide

Just the Facts

This will help you understand wtf is going on, if you are a new player in the NoC world.

If you remember nothing else, try to remember these:

Olemheiden: The small forest where the story begins. About 20 miles long and 8 miles wide at its widest, but visible from far away, because of the unusual presence of the giant trees called . . .
orulin: The miles-high trees where all the elves of this world dwell, found only in Olemheiden. There are 6. Each houses an entire tribe of hundreds to thousands of elves. Each has a name.
Jeraslan: The most economically prosperous orulin, until an earthquake rendered it unliveable. Most of the population of Jeraslan now resides in the nearest orulin, named Tulerohk, as refugees.
Catam: The human-populated nation next door to Olemheiden. A Catamese army has recently occupied Olemheiden for reasons unknown.
Blue Companions: A somewhat mysterious, locally legendary group of heroes, all of whom are now dead or missing. They have apparently been around for a while. Several of the PCs have been inducted into the Blue Companions, but the last legendary Companion, a paladin named Lucas, disappeared before he could explain much about the purpose of the group.

The Breaking of Jeraslan

A mysterious earthquake rendered Jeraslan unliveable, cracking it up the spine. The elves of Jeraslan moved to the nearest orulin, but were considered unwelcome refugees there. The party was drafted to use druidic healing magic to try to preserve Jeraslans' roots and keep it from dying completely. They did this, killing many grimlocks living underneath Jeraslan along the way. They encountered some clues hinting at much deeper ways down below the orulin.

A magically engineered spillway known as the Cataract was also broken during the earthquake, temporarily flooding the forest.

The Gnoll Huddle

Gnolls, an occasional danger in Olemheiden, began to capture many "lowlander" elves, the elves living on the forest floor of Olemheiden. Lucas, a paladin of the group called "Blue Companions", led the party on a rescue-slash-genocide mission. The party was to sneak into the gnoll compound and free the lowlanders from their entrapment, hopefully before any got eaten. When this was done, the party gave the signal and Lucas' secretly massed forces rushed the gnolls, exterminating them and burning their homes.

Illuvien

After the earthquake and the battle of the gnolls, Dvethen Ir'Wyran, one of the heroes, was accused of murdering his sister by an elven politican named Spyridon Dara. It later turned out that Illuvien, Dev's sister, was not even dead; she was captured by the gnolls, along with her two kidnappers, whom she claimed were hired by Dara himself.

After Dev was witnessed rescuing Illuvien, clearing him of the crime of murder, she fled from him in western Olemheiden, and was observed disappearing into a red-blue-pulsing portal.

The Forest Olemheiden - larger.

The Blue Dragon

Upon hearing about the pulsing portal, Lucas led the party on an adventure to find the secret library of the Blue Companions. Almost immediately after this adventure began, however, a huge blue dragon appeared out of nowhere in the middle of Olemheiden, accompanied by a cloud of harpies. Very soon the heroes were attacked, and Lucas and Crom were carried off. Though Crom survived by getting knocked unconscious, Lucas is now thought to be dead.

The heroes finally found the hidden library in the orulin Olemcorro, in a secret tunnel going through the center of it. The library turned out to be empty except for a mysterious three-dimensional map, apparently depicting the orulins in some kind of mesh. Crom reappeared, having recovered from his tangle with the dragon and crawled through tunnels for days.

The Siege of Olemheiden

Shortly after finding the map, the heroes witnessed a night battle between Egar Geza, the dragon, and unknown forces. At the end of the battle, the ground forces killed the dragon and built a massive camp around its body. Their leader, Xabier Lubó, and his chief wizard then set up more camps throughout the forest, apparently intending to occupy Olemheiden.

The Soft World

While investigating the army, the heroes discover another pulsating blue-red portal, which becomes visible and opens when they hold the Map (the one that they found in the secret library) near it. They climb through, finding a bizarre world consisting of hanging spherical cages, monstrous black flying things and an infinite amount of moss. They escape back through the portal before anything in that world can welcome them.

Spies?

At last, the heroes sign up as mercenaries in Lubó's army. The attend a banquet where dragon meat is barbecued and served to the cheerful occupying army.