Thank you; I am happy that you found the writing compelling and the adventure's haunting quality effective.
The subversion of the boss encounter was a central design goal. I wanted to replace the traditional evil archlord with a tragic anti-hero, much in the vein of Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné. Like Elric, Pellen is a character bound to a dark power, and his inescapable fate is a necessary ritualistic death. It is great to know that this approach landed well.