Review: Glimmering Crypt of the Ioun King

 I have been meaning to get to this, but I have returned to work full time, and haven't had as much time as I would like to dedicate to this.  Let me just start off by saying that Levi Combs, and Planet X in general, are putting out some of the best content for 5e right now.  It all fits well into any 5e campaign, and will make your games weird as hell, basically gonzo gaming.  The real benefit for this for me, is I tend to run games in established settings, and all of this content is a great way to break up the feel of the campaign for a short time, and is a great pallet cleanser for me as a DM, and my players.

Obviously, this is set in the Underdark, or whatever servers as the Underdark in your game.  I personally feel that this is a perfect adventure as far as going underground goes.  The descriptions of the locales are unique, there is a heavy alien feel, and it is extremely dangerous.  One of my favorite places to set adventures is underground, and sometimes it can get a little repetitive.  This adventure gives off a heavy feeling of isolation inside of an already isolated world, so it really enhances the setting.  One other thing that I want to add about this, is that this would perfectly fit as a short trip underground, and would be really effective in a campaign that takes place on the surface.  It is open ended enough to where you can use it in either, and that is exactly what I want in adventures.

As far as the plot goes, I do not want to give up spoilers, but I will say that this brings a very flavored old school feeling adventure that could easily be dropped into any setting, and not feel forced.  I am planning on running this in the Forgotten Realms and Eberron, and I don't feel like any major reskinning would be needed.  I really can't say that about a lot of adventures, particularly thrid party ones.  This is generic enough without feeling... well, generic.  Replayability for an adventure is huge for me, and this has it.  It also has monsters that fit well into 5e, and seem well thought out for monsters.  I want to be honest, sometimes I feel like third party monster stat blocks are my least favorite part of TTRPGs, but I can't say that here.  I do not really want to dig more into the plot, but a lot can be gathered from the title alone.  

Overall, I cannot really think of any downsides to this adventure.  Everything from the art, to the inside covers, and the content of the adventure make this stand out.  While I haven't had a chance to run this yet, I have been dropping bits and bobs of the Phylactery into my games, and I am sure this will be as well received and memorable to the sessions as that content was.