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.