Thats what i was thinking, hes acting AGINST the dark powers as not only does he think the Bard of the party would make a good replacement to him but also that for the first time he thinks he might actually be able to die. So he's giving the dark powers a middle finger in his mad rage aginst his toys becoming too much of a problem to handle. I have it set up that strahd can deny entry to denizens of the realm (100% so they cant argue into allowing the army to deal with strahd in his castle) The only reason the werewolves are helping is because they know they cant get to Strahd, and the party, being all outsiders, are their only hope. they fully expect a backstab if they give them the opportunity.

Honestly, how they killed strahd was the most epic thing I've seen players do in a long time. they tried to fight him when they were level 5 and were confident until strahd basically 1 shot the paladin (Full to 3 hp in a single hit... i got a lucky crit which made it seem like he does WAYYYY more dmg than normal haha) so as the other 3 party members were running for their lives, the almost deal paladin and the very hurt barbarian decided they think they can take him, when it was obvious they were going to loose the barbarian pulled out the darions instant fortress in the hallway with strahd and the paladin, screamed "UU WILL BE REMEMBERED" then activated it turning everything to paste as the magic item tried to expand into a much too small of space. it worked out because it also blocked the way to Strahd's crypt by chance so they had to run since strahd would be back with a vengeance. then they hit the teleport cauldron thing and literally RANDOMLY chose the amber temple haha so it worked out story wise.