Help me run a memorable "Serpents of Scuttlecove" (Spoilers for Savage Tide AND Council of Thieves)

[Morieth]

Hello, good folks!
My long-running Savage Tide campaign is "nearing" the beginning of Serpents of Scuttlecove, a part that I'm really looking forward to experience. As such, I'm looking for any kind of advice from fellow GMs and player alike to run the adventure "at its best" -whatever that meant for you & your group.

Lots of info about my current campaign (for those who care):

Modifications from standard Savage Tide material:

Campaign world is Forgotten Realms. Sasserine = Tashluta, not much relevant. Isle of Dread is still off the southern edge of the map. Mantained Olmans and everything else.

Rules are are 3.5 material except for base classes, for which use Pathfinder core book (not really interested in "extreme" game balance, besides party is composed by very strong & non-core classes so I had to beef up core-class enemies)

The Crimson Fleet has been replaced by the Rundeen, a pirate-like merchant guild. Upper echelon, called "Yershelem", are all lemorian followers of Demogorgon, know of its plans of releasing the Savage Tide and plan to serve him ALSO in releasing the Leviathan (Elders Evil). They hope that, by serving the Prince of Demons, they will be spared from world-wide cataclism and the fall of civilization, and left as "pirate kings" of a new, watery world. Low-ranked members of course know nothing.

Old Demogorgon's plan has been modified a little, now it's a one-two punch requiring both the Savage Tide, and the Leviathan.

Party composition:

Kanter, human warblade/rogue going for the Master of the 9 prestige class from Tome of Battle. The party tank. Follower of Kelemvor, VERY bigoted and simpleminded, hates undead and Olmans. LN

Kornell, human sworsage/cleric (Valkur)/ruby knight vendicator (class modified for Valkur instead of WeeJas). Captain of the ship, hates Rundeen. CB

Kaim, half-elf Wilder. Charming, womanizer, pacifist/coward. Since Savage Tide is pretty poor on mages and sorcerers, I reworked a lot of things to make them more psion-flavored, including the old Olman empire.

Kalendrel, elf stormborn sorcerer going fo the arcane archer class. New entry of the group, comes from Scuttlecove. CN

Plot deviations from standard Savage Tide:

At the end of "There is No Honor", the party took up the offer of Rowyn Kellani, and agreeded to destroy the now exposed thieves guild and rebuild the lotus together.
At the end of Bullywug Gambit, the party spent too much time investigating and looting Kraken Cove, and thus completely missed the raiding party with the half-orc headed for Sasserine. When they arrived home, they found the Vanderbopren estate razed and Lavinia killed.

Rowyn Kellani "acquired" the Vanderboren's rights to the colony, so The Sea Wyvern's Wake required no major adjustment. Ran a fine "survival-horror" scene on the Sargasso.

Here there be monsters: to make a long story short, all nameless crewmember died on the shipwreck. Trip to Fogmire was hazardous and deadly: most named survivors went mad (as in, "creepy mad") and in the end (due to some horrible planning by the party) brutally killed by Olangro and put on display as with Golnura. Only surviving crewmembers were Urol and the cabin boy, the gnome with the top-half of the skull removed (brain exposed, permanently "feebleminded") and the young lad having both his feet and hands eaten by Olangro. Not my usual style, but I wanted to portray demons as -REALLY- sick and grotesque creatures. Horror achieved, mission accomplished.

Nothing non-standard after that. Used Kingmaker rules for kingdom building, warblade founded a warrior schoold and the wilder a psionic academy.

Scuttlecove modifications -A LOT-:

Basically, I re-placed the Council of Thieves campaign in Scuttlecove as background for the elven sorcerer (who was part of the group that defeated Ecarrdian). Changes: Ecarrdian is a half-demon (not half-devil) spawn of Demogorgon (not Mammon); his mortal father was a Rundeen pirate obsessed with having a "strong son", who sired him by eating one of the pearls (not a coin); changed the whole "decadent aristocracy" theme with a more fitting "decadent pirate aristocracy"; substituted House of Thune with the Unholy Triad, a group of ur-priest; the creature bound in the infernal engine was a balor named Ammett that proceeded to destroy the Triad leaving Scuttlecove without government; instead of General Vourne of House Cheliax, captain Wyther himself "tried" to impose his rule (by unifying pirate crews); several other captains challenge his claims as the situation reaches a stalemate.

In the end, I -think- that when the players will arrive at Scuttlecove, the adventure itself will not need many changes.

So, what am I looking for? Pretty much anything you can help me with: tips on major NPCs characterization or how to run certain scenes or dialogues, encounters that you though too easy or too hard, background music, tweaks to NPCs statistics. Any help would be really appreciated.

[Luna eladrin]

Spoiler:

It will take some time before my campaign will reach that point, but I am thinking of adding Porphyry House Horror and linking Rowyn to Tyralandi. Rowyn also survived in my campaign. I want to link Tyralandi not to Graz'zt, but to Malcanthet. Rowyn will become a Thrall of Malcantet. I want to use Porphyry House Horror as an introduction to Serpents of Scuttlecove. If your group is really involved with the Lotus Dragons that would probably be an option you can use.

[Morieth]

Thanks for the tip, I'll read that and see what can come out of it.

[Curaigh]

My characters blitzed through pretty quickly, but there were two things I did after every street encounter.

Spoiler:

had a snake wander off after looking at the body. (this was justification for the seventh coil to not 'rediscover' party tactics and let them plan ahead. Secondly I had some of the hyunger monks come and look at the corpses, making sure the crowd gave them plenty space. they would sniff the corpses and take bits after the party had looted the bodies. Creepy stuff even though they never showed their faces to the party :)

Play up the jungle aspect, plants, birds, spiders, snakes everywhere.

Spoiler:

this is how the assassins got to study the party for three rounds, eventually the party killed every snake that crossed their path :)

[Morieth]

Good tip on the Dire Hunger monks, very good for creepy atmosphere. I didn't get the assassins one, though: do they hide in the foliage?