The Cave of Songs

A very nice, cozy mod with an ancient sad story behind the main quest. I haven't encounter any bugs or logical mistakes. Perhaps some dialogs could be refreshed after new story development, but it is a minor whim of mine.

Spoilers!

And it is very fresh that solving the main quest you don't save everyone and do not solve the main problem, you just manage to get yourself out) Helping a couple of creatures on the way.

I guess I played this one.

Interesting story. Played with Ranger/Rogue - combination of stealth and animal empathy is really good strategy for this module. Still there were moments I had to run.
- it would be neat if my henchman could use animal empathy as I did
- or level-up as I did

Early masterpiece.

Amazing mod with great dialog, interesting areas and well balanced fights. I'd recommend this for anyone. It works great in multiplayer as well.

Best "short mod" I've played from the Vault.
Bar none.
Depth of dialogue with some of the NPCs really held my attention; there's some great substance here.
Well Done.
Very satisfying game play.
Highly recommend.
Thank You for laboring over its design.

Fun little adventure.

A great Mod from a long time ago... Baldecaran's work is always great and since I really like his mods it surprised me that I hadn't played this one before... now I finally did it and it is a beautiful and somber tale, I totally agree: it is a masterpiece from the early days. 

A true classic, very Dungeons & Dragons.

Just finished playing this module! Very nicely thought out story!

I played and finished this for the first time this week and came away very impressed. Being a pretty short module, this is a great example of quality over quantity, and although it might not be immediately apparent in the opening areas, it's very atmospheric. The Grimwood, the titular cave, and the areas beyond all feel very detailed and alive and feature wonderful visual and sound design. I was also impressed with the henchman, both gameplay-wise and in terms of character design and how he fit in to the story. He was very useful and a lot of options are provided to set up his behavior to fit your preferences. There is not a lot of dialog and story in the first half of the module, but after you reach the cave it really opens up and the writing is consistently strong. I won't spoil anything but the story is impressive and the characters involved feel realistic and have a real depth to them.

I played this on D&D Hardcore Rules with a level 3 Rogue build around Dexterity / Weapon Finesse and Llarien set up to mostly use his bow and heal me. By the end of the adventure my character was level 6. All encounters felt fair, with a handful requiring reloads. Of the equipment I found, the potions (Barkskin, Bless, Clarity, Cure [...] Wounds) and medkits were by far the most useful. Some of the more challenging encounters might've been easier (possibly to the point of becoming trivial) had I put some skill points in UMD, as there are quite a few scrolls and even a couple of wands to be found. I liked that equipment in general was scarce -- you don't find a lot, and you don't have a lot opportunities to sell things or replenish your supplies, which makes managing your resources an important factor.

One aspect I did not like was the death system. I like having an XP penalty for respawning, but the "Afterlife" area seemed unnecessary and only added extra hoops for me to jump through before letting me get back to the adventure. It also tied into henchman death in a not-so-great way, as the only way to get him back if he fell was to let my character die (because that is the only way to get to the Afterlife -- which is where he goes when he dies). The system is not game-breaking or anything, but definitely a nuisance, and I would've preferred a more elegant solution.

Overall, I would say this module is a definite must play. It's considered a classic, and deservedly so -- it holds up wonderfully, even today -- and I am looking forward to playing Baldecaran's Honor Among Thieves next.

One of the great modules out there.

Afraid I found this one a little overrated...not to say it wasn't worth playing, but there were a couple of issues with it. Starting with the positives:

-As others have mentioned, the atmosphere of the game was amazing. The Cave of Songs felt like a real legend in the world, based off the way people talked about it, and it was cool to get that sense from the NPCs in the area.

-Basically all of the NPCs had interesting things to say, but if you weren't interested in the lore (or had played through it before), they were also skippable. The storyline, once it actually really started, was unique and interesting.

-The henchman is pretty cool and very useful as well, especially early on (and especially for me, as I played a Rogue).

-The game had a fairly nice flow to it, though it did feel a little linear. Combat was reasonable in difficulty--not outrageously hard (I actually found it mostly easy, even starting at level 1, as long as I didn't attempt to engage enemies labeled as "Impossible"), but you still had to be smart about it.

And now for the negatives, all of which fell more into the "annoying" camp than the "makes the module unplayable" camp, fortunately:

-Having to die in order to get your henchman back was really annoying, particularly since it comes with an XP penalty. Mine got himself killed a couple of times by healing himself while the enemy was at Near Death, and he died to their attacks of opportunity (wish there was an option to tell him to retreat).

-(Minor spoilers) The last section of the cave was the coolest atmosphere-wise, but it eventually got pretty annoying that there was no way to offload excess loot. I wound up heavily encumbered with something like 170 pounds of loot (most of it class-specific, which was also annoying), so I wish there were either a place to sell it or more magic bags to purchase/find.

-While the story was pretty cool, my character's motivation seemed really...lacking. There wasn't much in the way of roleplaying at all, and my whole goal was to go into near-certain death for...curiosity, I guess?

-There was a lot of nonsense/useless items all over the place. Including a couple of keys that I got from the witches which didn't seem to go to anything at all.

-(SPOILERS) It was especially irritating that if I couldn't wear Medium armor, I couldn't finish the module without either releasing an obviously evil demon or destroying him, which costs me a whole level for some reason. Completely cutting off the only reasonable Good-aligned way to finish the story simply because of a class choice is really stupid IMO (it'd be one thing if I ignored RP-style skills like Persuade, but just because I couldn't wear the armor? Really?).

So a mixed bag for me. It was a module worth playing, but I couldn't heartily recommend it.

I must say that ol' Baldecaran didn't put all his efforts on this one.

Good showcase of what is to come from Balecaran, very re-playable

A good module but getting a bit too dependent on puzzles in the Dark Queen's abode. Stuck is kind of what I mean...Interesting tale and effects. Not a fan of this minimalist henchman interface though...

Quite heavy atmosphere. Narrative similar to folk tale.

Rule 1 of playing Cave of Songs: forget about what you learned from other games in terms of "kill all, loot all, rack up the XP" (however evil/greedy re-run is quite refreshing experience after you do the "proper" one).

(Spoiler alert) Playing with different endings (mainly outcomes of different Wishes from the demonic contract) is a game in itself. Certain challenges are quite interesting even if just running away is the tricky part (good luck surviving first rest with that demonic ring you may get while finishing main storyline).

Even better with friends.

A finely-crafted, atmospheric adventure, that keeps on giving, even after you think you might have unravelled its final secret.

Eminently suitable for single player. Deceptively simple at first, immersion deepens as you pick your way cautiously through the dangerous forest and the spooky cave - and that's when the story really begins. The writing becomes very powerful, hinting at the meandering dreamscapes of the Prophet series, but remaining much more focussed.

It's nice that you can backtrack everywhere. Once the player has grown more powerful, it's rewarding to scour the hitherto no-go areas. You can even go back to the inn where you started, to sell loot and regale everyone with your interesting tales of adventure.

One tiny word of warning - for reasons unknown, transition triggers are frequent, even in doorways where they're unnecessary. Buggy at the best of times, some of them are a bit small, so you have to find the sweet spot to click before they work. Persevere, it can be done, even in EE and on Android.

Scored as a 10 because it's under-rated IMO.

The Cave of Songs is a fairy tale of dreamlike quality that will stay with you for years after. Baldecaran explores themes that are commonplace in fantasy, but manages to find new angles to them without outright subverting them. What makes the writing in this module so great is that it creatively addresses the dilemma of low level modules, which need to tell an interesting story rather than the standard fetch quests, but do so without unrealistic power creep. In the Cave of Songs, you become witness to an intriguing legend, meddle with archmages and demons, but when you return to the Hopping Hobgoblin inn, precious little has changed. You are still that young adventurer you set out as, if a few important lessons wiser. I also really appreciate that the module does not simply cut after the final confrontation, but instead allows you to return and regale the townsfolk with your tale over a mug of ale. It does wonders for the feeling of a continous journey between modules.

Although generally the module seems best suited for a druid or ranger, there is a set of extraordinary equipment only usable by an Elven Sorcerer. Regardless, one should definitely put a level or two into Rogue to be able to take care of traps and locks. I also highly recommend installing Zwerkules' Bioware tileset facelifts (as override or patch hak) to play this module, since lacking a hak pack of its own it relies entirely on the standard Bioware content. Grimwood forest especially comes into its own this way, between the skilled use of sounds and lighting in this module and the detail of Zwerkules' work. The lack of custom content in Cave of Songs also means that all characters, even the companion, are assigned standard NWN portraits. If like me you have played too many modules and seen those same faces over and over again too many times for it not to break your immersion, just replace the standard po_el_m_01 assigned to the companion with the portrait of your choice by naming it that way in the override and creating the copies (_l, _s, _t). Personally, I found CS_M_02 in "Cobra's Male Portraits" pack to be a decent fit.

More aggravatingly, the antiquated henchman system here means that combat can be a real pain, with the challenge often being not how to defeat your foe, but how to keep your companion alive. There being no option to order him to retreat, he tends to expose himself to attacks of opportunity by casting a useless minor healing spell just when his HP are at near death. I should not blame the builder for the faults of the engine, but encounter design could at least have taken these problems more into account. There are one or two pivotal moments during which I really wanted to enjoy the turns of the narrative, but had my immersion gradually broken by continued reloading due to henchman death, even after I grudgingly disabled Hardcore Rules. Worst of all, just before the finale the henchman ran out of arrows (which must be a script error, as usually henchmen without inventory access are given infinite ammo) which made him rush headlong into his death even more often. No inventory access also means that your PC has to carry all the loot by themselves, and while I appreciate that for once the decision which ancient artifacts to haul out of the deadly tomb actually is an agonising one to make (as it should be!), any immersion thereby gained is lost due to not being able to let the henchman handle his share.

All things considered, this module still holds up really well. It works great as a prologue to the Prophet series, anticipating some of its themes and characters (although to my considerable frustration, you cannot actually bring it up to the returning cast that you have potentially met before - how difficult would it have been to script recognition depending on an item, as it is done in the OC?). But it also works well as a standalone, and despite its age and flaws I actually consider it one of the best gateways into the world of modules.

Minor spoiler: One of the greatest surprise moments in NWN is hidden behind picking the greedy option when negotiating with a certain character towards the very end of the module. It is absolutely worth trying it out (I completely missed it on my first playthrough and was amazed when I encountered it this time around). But be sure to save prudently...

PS: The "real" Cave of Songs... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn9B83rGIIQ

Absolutely phenomenal adventure, really well thought out and flawlessly (almost, more on that later) executed!! Great story and very good pacing, brilliant atmosphere and overall balanced to tough encounters. You might wanna be careful as the creator states during the early stages, especially if you don't use henchmen as I typically do (played through the adventure solo, with a Fighter 1/Monk 1, rather strong character and had to avoid a few things early on or I would turn into minced meat) 

I would suggest you invest a couple of points in Lore, just to make sure you won't need merchants often.

The only 'flaw' I found in this adventure was: 

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Potential spoilers

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There was an abandoned temple somewhere in Grimwood, and inside there was a magical pool that fairies protected. Those, I'm fairly certain, were spawning indefinetely, since I had to kill about 20 of them to escape the temple. That can be a 'cheese' spot where people could easily farm a couple of levels really fast . . 

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I had tons of fun playing this, cheers and thank you for sharing!! 

P.S. - If that means anything, Baldecaran, I have actually played this adventure in 2006 or so, when I was in highschool. I've played probably 100+ Modules since then in NWN and now NWN:EE, yet I did remember things from it!! I remembered some places, some things you needed to do and other details!! (I don't wanna spoil stuff) This has happened to me only with your module, and N1 by Phantasma. I don't know if that is important to you, but I don't remember that vividly random videogames from my highschool era, and it is important to me ^ so sincerely Thank You for the experience/memory! 

I had a great time playing this adventure. Recommend it to everyone and especially to those who start with a new character! 

Module Testing Tournement 2020