It was a fair fight

Friday night game review.
It was only four players tonight, so they were down one Wizard and one Ranger (slash rogue), I couldn't change the fight they had just walked into at the end of the previous friday game, so I just went with the encounter as it is written in the module I am using,
The general situation was that they had walked into a reasonably open yet oddly configured room, with areas of deep, otherworldly darkness roiling in set areas, and stocked with two Hook Horrors, an Umber Hulk and a Beholder... well, the Hulk and the Horrors were Shadow versions and the Beholder was a Frost version of the Eye of Flame variety.. but yeah, it was four medium sized humanoids vs four Large Monsters.
Although the start of the combat did not go too well for the player characters, with the Warforged Barbarian (Cog), getting grabbed and partially masticated by the shadow Hulk, they quickly rallied and charged in, setting up strategic Marks to hamper the selective fire of the Beholder, hacking the Horrors to bits slowly but surely and pouring a ton of heals into the Toe to Toe fighter types.
The players at one point, towards the end, were quite shocked when the Tiefling cleric (Mallet) announced he was all out of anything but basic healing.. of course, they were slightly more shocked when the cleric healed himself by drinking the blood of one of the Hook Horrors.
Turns out he is a descendant of an ancient line of psuedo vampires.
Anyway, the players managed to Triumph.
They were tickled by the treasure they found, another odd creation of mine.
It is an animated Fullblade (great big sword), that projects an image of a warrior named Tensendor, who animates the sword by appearing to carry it around and use it. The illusion is real to the sword, but insubstantial to everything else.. it can also use a special ability to transfer a condition or some ongoing damage effect to anyone the sword has wounded during the current combat.
Fun and kooky items are a favorite thing in my games.
The players also found a strange box, which is made from Adamatium, can only be opened if you know exactly what is inside, and is really heavy.
I have no idea what they are going to do with it, but I have warned them that the original owner, according to Tensendor the Sword, only had it so he could protect it, and he never actually opened it.