In my Ravnica-based D&D campaign, the group's cleric has something of a... complicated relationship with his guild. In the invented lore for the campaign, a spirit known as Grigorev was once one of the five members of the Obzedat Council, which rules over the Orzhov Syndicate. For reasons that the party has yet to discover in their entirety, Grigorev was outmaneuvered by a fellow member, Karlov (who is canonical) and cast out of the Obzedat, shackled away under a curse known as the Pillory of the Sleepless (an aura from the original block) while Karlov consolidated his power.
The cleric has been hearing whispers from Grigorev for most of his life, and Grigorev serves as the god that grants the cleric his divine powers (Grave domain).
While most of the campaign has been focused primarily on the external Phyrexian threat, the cleric has been hunted by a death knight known as Czernog the Butcher (pronounced "cher-nog") who serves as Karlov's deadliest weapon.
However, researching Czernog's backstory with the help of a high-ranking archmage in the Orzhov with his own reasons to undermine Karlov, the party discovered that Czernog was actually a righteous Boros Legionnaire before he was captured and tortured into forsaking his oath.
A death knight is profoundly hard to kill permanently, given that they will always return after they are slain until they repent, which most aren't inclined to do. So, the archmage devised a plan: to trap Czernog in a Magic Circle and then use the party's renown to call upon Aurelia and absolve Czernog of the evil committed under Karlov's control.
What this meant was an unconventional combat encounter: the party needed to fight Czernog, but they could not kill him - instead, they needed to ensure that at the end of ten rounds of combat (representing the minute needed to cast Magic Circle,) Czernog was in a particular place within the ruined chapel where he was first ordained as a paladin of the Boros Legion.
In some ways, this was a dream to DM, because it meant I actually got to use all my cool stuff (though with a new sorcerer in the party, spells quickly became unreliable as the sorcerer could always cast Counterspell, so he had to rely on his melee attacks).
Still, ten rounds with death knight I had turned legendary by giving him legendary resistance, legendary actions, and altered some aspects of his HP and gear was a lot.
Essentially, it became a healing endurance match. Czernog had a scythe that had a 10-foot reach and dealt 2d6+5 slashing damage as well as 6d8 necrotic damage, with two attacks per turn and the ability to attack with a single legendary action. He could also use a legendary action to force a wisdom save against any non-undead creature that could hear within 60 feet, dealing 4d8 psychic damage and frightening creatures for a minute on a failure, or half damage and no fear on a success. +11 to hit with the scythe and a DC 18 for the "Shriek of the Damned," which is based on the Ring Wraiths from Fellowship of the Ring.
Ultimately, what the fight wound up being was first a bunch of damage to him (which honestly wasn't really necessary at all) and fighting off a total of 22 minions (mostly skeletons and zombies, but a couple of blackguards and a homebrew monster called a Scourge Knight that didn't really get a chance to do anything) with a bit of help from two Necromancer Wizards the archmage brought in, along with the five zombies and five skeletons they raised for the fight.
Once the area was cleared of minions for the most part, the party overlapped as many difficult-terrain effects around the spot Czernog had to be once he was there, and then the Barbarian and Fighter/Paladin both grappled him, holding him there until the end of round 10.
Meanwhile, the Cleric had to pour out a ton of healing, aided by the Druid.
It was a fun, different sort of challenge, and while I was hoping to scare the party just a little bit more, I was happy to see that they pulled it off without any of the party members dying (one of the necromancer wizards made a sacrifice play, dying to draw one of Czernog's attacks off the Barbarian to ensure he remained grappled, though as servants of a powerful Orzhov archmage, they knew they could be resurrected).
With Karlov's champion taken away, the cleric awoke the next day to receive a personal invitation delivered by none other than Teysa Karlov to have a discussion directly with the Obzedat Council, with a magically-enforced guarantee of protection.
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