One of the groups at my local gaming store had an interesting approach to the final encounter of Mike Shea’s The Innocent, which they played last week: they slept through it!
It appears that upon reaching the final encounter, they were quite hurt and out of resources… although the bard had one casting of Leomund’s Tiny Hut left. So, they cast it and rested.
Meanwhile, the Big Bad completed his ritual, gained all the rewards he needed, and then left, leaving the party with nothing to do and no-one to save.
Very odd.
At least they got a good night’s sleep!
You can spend lots of time trying to prepare for anything the PCs might do but they’ll still surprise you sometimes. Those are usually the most memorable games!