I like where this is going. If you're interested, I've written a few short stories that you might be able to adapt into later portions of the adventure. Don't change the beginning, though, it's brilliant.
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Suppose a death cult has trapped an avatar of the Raven Queen in a separate plane of afterlife torment, and the cloaked figure needs the party to complete a handful of trials to release her power.
I hate TPK scenarios, but it might be cool of the party is KO'd by the Big Bad in a ritual, only to triumph against their power from the afterlife and be restored since their time had not yet come.
So, this may seem cliché, but suppose the handful of trials involved collecting several scattered artifacts by various means. One could be gained by answering a sphinx's riddle, one could be hidden in a chest that needs a special key requiring another side-quest (I don't know how long you want to make this game last), blatero, blaterare.
Expanding on that along with your second idea, perhaps bringing the artifacts together is sufficient to release the Raven Queen, and the death cult performs a ritual to keep her contained. Perhaps the party's objective against the Big Bad would not be to win, but simply interrupt the ritual long enough that the avatar is freed.