Good contest Nifft. Better luck next time.
I gotta agree with the judge, as written, my adventure does seem a bit railroady. The problem was that I was trying for a sense of futility and it came out as ultra-linear. Still it was the mood I was going for and in the end the mood was what helped me win so its not all bad. If I expanded on the idea I would certainly try to throw in some options for the PCs. In the end though, there is only one way to free the Paladin if you play by hell's rules. Options therefore would have to be ways to try and bend the rules or else go around the contest.
When writing the adventure I started with the poppies, the wizard of oz field, and the idea of a sort of dream world, I originally thought of playing nightmare off as the dream not the equine. The infinite wall, the field of poppies, et al. were supposed to be dreamlike and the solutions fairly simple once one got past the difficulty.
As an adventure, I imagined that each test would probably be failed on the first attempt, creating a sense of futility and then later success when it was worked out.
Oh, and what can I say, I am horrible at writing riddles.