Hello everyone!
TLDR: need help to improve the options I prepared for the ending. Very scared about messing it up.
So, we finally got to the end! I am speechless, what a story!
I couldn't believe I'd manage to end this wonderful campaign, but here we are!
In my campaign Strahd was Tatyana's love interest. He overheard Sergei and Tatyana talking and misinterpreted their intentions, and in a burst of fury he killed his brother. Tatyana saw a monster in Strahd for the first time and killed herself jumping off the balcony on Ravenloft's heights.
Now we are in the catacombs, Strahd is visibly shaken, and there will be a fight which will end with a defeated Strahd, who was surprisingly easy.
After his defeat, Ireena will come in the room, handling Ismark's bloody and martoriated corpse. She will speak at first with despair in her voice but then she will show spasms and speak in a devilish voice, saying that Strahd can't give her joy anymore. She will introduce herself as the avatar of a Vestige and will explain how Strahd was always an unwilling puppet, after the night of Sergei and Tatyana's deaths, forced to live an eternal loop until herself would set him free. Which is now, because she grow bored of his weakness and he was not fun anymore to watch. She will give more lore explanations and will transform into a Pit Fiend, attacking them. Strahd, set free and finally awake, will try to avenge himself and protect the party as an ally.
I would love your opinion on this plot twist and how to justify why the Tatyanas always died in the past, and exactly why now she decided to stop the loop.
I prepared 2 options for the ending:
1- they kill the Pit Fiend, Strahd is free from the loop and finds peace in death, Barovia heals and everyone is happy. The survivors will tell the tale to children and so on. Good ending.
2- they don't manage to kill it. They all die, Barovia stays like it is now and Strahd will still be in the loop, since the Pit Fiend enjoyed fighting him and the party. The party is now dead and serving as Ravenloft's servants. Bad ending. (Anticlimactic?)
But what about option 3?
Important: 2 adventurers are bound to Barovia due to a pact they made with a Vestige, so they can't escape, like ever.
3- they are almost there, Pit Fiend is struggling, party will be for sure in bad conditions. Pit Fiend wants to bring the party down with it, and shatters the reality of Barovia, trying to destroy the Valley. Strahd as a final heroic display of redemption conjurates his entire magic and teleports all the good souls of Barovia out of it, distracting the Pit Fiend. If possible the party will be able to swing some more blows, end it potentially, and Strahd will sacrifice himself to save everything good in Barovia. There will be a crater where Barovia was, and a poppy (a key flower in our story) will blossom, lonely, in the middle of this destruction. The survivors of the party will decide what to do next in their lives (in character)
Do you think it is anticlimactic if they will be saved by Strahd, except for the 2 players bound to Barovia?
How would you improve the options? I am afraid to mess it up completely right at the end with some bad decisions or using tropes. Is there something you do not absolutely like here?
What do you think?