Last game we played I wanted to give the dark relic: Sunder the Grave to a hero.

As he had the bronze treasure weapon: Staff of the Grave (cursed) equipped, it seemed like a strange thing to do.

Sunder the Grave: All enemy figures that you deal the killing blow to are considered to have the Undying ability

Staff of the Grave: Attacks of this weapon ignore the Undying ability

Any thoughts on this?

Simple:

the monsters now have undying, but the weapon ignores it

rubenmaes said:

That is kind of strange. Sunder the Grave is an Other item or some such, I can't remember? If it is then yeah, you pretty much negated the effect of that Dark Relic until you get rid of Staff of the Grave as far as I can tell.

Ignores undying means just that--undying is ignored. If it's ignored that means that you don't get to roll a surge to try and keep it alive. That particular dark relic is useless on someone using staff of the grave. Crushing Blow the staff of the grave, and you're in business. Otherwise, I suggest you use a different hero (preferably a non-mage) or a different dark relic.