The poem should not have an English translation that follows rhyme scheme, since it's in drawven so you can skip making the poem make sense as a poem and use it specifically as a game mechanic so include whatever clue words you need to convey the message properly and say it's a rough translation with a Linguistics check or with a spell.
That's the first challenge of the puzzle, make sure the players understand that.
Make sure the players are rolling Knowledge (history, Local, religion, or geography) if they get stumped. This gives you a lot of leeway, make the DC low so a player in your group could just take 10, since this is a clue and not a challenge.
Is the goal simply to put one of the stones into the bowl, or is there a specific stone they need? You could have the stones/obelisks themselves have aligned auras that could be detected save for the one they need, similar to cleric auras based on the alignments of the gods. This gives them another avenue to solve the puzzle with spells and magic instead of skills. You can expect any group to have access to Detect Magic.
The last option is trial and error, which results in damage like you have listed, or in summoning a monster for them to fight, most likely based on Summon Monster or Planar Ally aligned to the god(s) they are making the mistake(s) with. The CR should be based on APL, so use a spell with a CL and spell level equivalent to whatever CR you want to use. If you really wanna go in-depth (you don't, this will be a short challenge) then make sure to use different challenges for different gods.
Generally, with any open ended puzzle, you want the players to have at least 3 in-game mechanical options to explore to solve the issue; with trial and error typically defaulting to the 3rd option, skills being the option that may or may not be covered by the group, and easy spells that you can expect any party to have being the easiest solution.
No matter how many mistakes and/or challenges and fights they encounter during this puzzle, they should only get the base XP for this encounter, otherwise it's pretty good.
Thanks so much!
I hadn’t thought about the translation aspect of it, that’s a really good point. I also like the aura idea, the only cast in the party is a bard though but it’s a thing I’ll add, just for depth. I also hadn’t thought about summoning.
The three point mechanical idea is really good. I’ll keep that in mind in mind for the future. Thanks again!
Detect Magic and Dispel Magic are the two most important spells in the game, and you should not feel bad about punishing a group of players that are not prepared to have these spells on hand. This is important for puzzle design at higher levels.
You could also expect a group rogue/trapfinder to check each obelisk, understanding that the only one NOT trapped is the correct answer.
Thing is, having an understanding of how skills and spells interact with the world really helps making a coherent dungeon that feels like you are challenging the characters in the game, rather than the wits of the players. This is important in a TTRPG, since otherwise someone playing a super-intelligent wizard etc. may not feel like their character is acting in a super intelligent way.