Holy Sh!t how I made it a dire ape and my party still killed them all
Have him hand them over to Boss Croat or one of the other crime bosses he collects money for who will offer them their lives in return for secretly working against Saul and for the new boss' interests. They could even get sent out to shake down people who owe Smeed money in their free time. They could be told to sabotage the Gold Goblin from within, "throwing" their weekly profit rolls, etc. Gives Saul a better reason to turn on them later in the story when he finds out they've been working for another boss against him.
Hiya
Sorry for the necromancy...but...
...Smeed? The pastey, fat, a-hole, sweaty-lone-shark guy? Him?
...Really?... o_O
With my group, they kicked in the door, one elf chased Smeed up the stairs and caught him half way, the mystic threw her net and missed the baboon, the cleric just held the door open, and the other elf ran up to the baboon (who was trying to attack the elf running after Smeed). Round 2; Smeed is tackled and a single sword hack cuts down the baboon. That's it. Smeed gave up on round 3, begging for his pathetic little worm-like life.
Now, we are using a different rules system. While I'm still running Second Darkness in Golarion, we are using the Dark Dungeons RPG (a BECMI/RC clone; http://darkdungeonsblog.wordpress.com/ ). It is definitly a more "fast-and-loose" style play (as it was waaaay back in the day...), but still...I just can't see this encounter as anything other than a cake walk and a nice ego-booster for the players (and their characters, I suppose).
But, if I was in your position...I'd probably have them wake up shackled to the floor of a slave-galley getting ready to head out of port. >:) Yes, this could likely 'kill' the AP, but so what? The point of an RPG is for the players to do the playing and the DM to do the logical outcomes of their characters actions. I'm sure the PC's would try to escape and get back to seek revenge...of course, one of the slaves next to them would be one of the other Gold Goblin employees...one who 'found out the truth' about Saul. So now the PC's know they were set up and sold into slavery by their so-called "business partner". Continue adventure... :)
Well, either that, or just kill them all and say "Time to make new characters..."; then set it up so each of the new PC's is a relative of the dead PC's, and all the new adventurers get proof (from an anonymous source, of course) that Saul was behind the murder of their brothers/sisters/lovers/husbands/wives/whatever... Continue adventure... :)
^_^
Paul L. Ming