Advice on running "Quoth the Raven"?

(If you're in my game, stop reading!)

My players went through "Chimes at Midnight" at 7th and 8th level, and after 18 months or so (and the players now at 10th level), I'm ready to run "Quoth the Raven." I really enjoy these adventures, and I want to do the atmosphere justice, so I thought I'd ask for advice.

I've set things up, using a heavily modified "Shards of Eberron" three-parter, to bring a Risia manifest zone to Sharn, so that the snow makes sense in a sub-tropical city. There is likewise an explanation for the Ashblack fire that actually has its genesis in the characters' actions. I'm set to advance the NPCs as far as I have to. (I had to advance them for "Chimes at Midnight," too, so it shouldn't be too difficult.) Unfortunately, Paizo has not uploaded a supplement for Dungeon 150, so I'm out of luck there.

The characters involved are a sea spirit folk shugenja, a warforged artificer, a kalashtar paladin, a goblin fighter/rogue, and a half-elf bard/dragonmark heir/windwright captain. Aside from the artificer's (IMO ridiculous) level of flexibility, and arguably the dragonmark heir's immense greater dragonmark power, the characters aren't hyper-optimized or over-powered.

So, any advice? General or specific, anything's fine.

It's been a little while since I read that module, but:

Watch the recent movie "Zodiac", and take note of how the killer taunts people in the newspapers. I think the slow buildup of foreboding, the feeling of paranoia, the claustrophobic, inhospitable nature of the blizzard, and just how things are dragged out should be played up, rather than the rush from place to place. Were I running it, I would actually have an adventure going on in between the parts of "Quoth the Raven"; have it in the background at first. Like the PCs are directed at the Inquirer before the adventure begins, but they don't even take notice until half way through the more pressing adventure, at which point they have to back-track.

The deathtraps. God. They were cruelly unfair, imho. At least the pipe organ one. I felt the clue was so obscure, it'd take a music major player to catch. However, since you have a Bard, who has a perform skill, then your players have a means of catching it. Just make sure that the bard gets a good roll to realize "Hey, that's a music thing". Otherwise I think putting 2 and 2 together is hard. Also, tell the PCs they can attack the machinary in the 3rd trap.

More on deathtraps: What you might do is reduce the overall harshness of the traps, and instead try and force the PCs to split up. So two go this way, two go that way, the rest go to the third. Run each group 1 round at a time, so you can switch between them in a cinematic sort of manner.

Clues. The clues are intentionally spare so that the Pcs have to milk stuff out of Viktor. But if the PCs fail the skill challenge (which is what it is) with Viktor, they're buggered. So drop better hints about the adventure.

Chimes of Midnight Badguys. If Viktor's henchmen died in Chimes, I honestly think they shouldn't be brought back. Use some villain in an earlier adventure that got away, so it feels more personal to the PCs. If more than Vrenn and Mange got away, incorporate them into the story; the Raven having hung a thick, alchemical-soaked sack over the Rasper's head, or pierced the hobgoblin with a hundred piercing needles, etc etc. This is Viktor's "loose ends" being cleaned up.

Forsehadow the cop that busts them at Hell's Heart. He shouldn't just come out of no-where; have him walk up to the PCs as they're on the trail, maybe hassle them.

Handouts: Make handouts of the Raven's letters.

Put something in the Archives downstairs. That was left blank due to word constraints. I think a cat and mouse chase/dash between the stacks (and stacks falling over) with some sort of predator would be very cool. Especially something that can leap up on the stacks. Alternatively, something to talk to; there aren't that many RP opportunities after Viktor. So an intelligent monster might be useful.

Inspirational Movies, just to observe: Se7en, Saw. The former for the general feel of the murders, but the second for the death traps. They feel frantic and gory, and no matter what you do you feel screwed.

In addition, if you plan on using Hell's Heart (Free adventure from WotC's site), be sure to describe the asylum for proper foreshadowing.

Oh! Before you run the PCs through the meat locker with Slimy Doom meat, serve hamburgers or steaks or something.

1) Remake the Raven from the ground up. He's a great character, but the build is unbelievably mediocre. I changed him into a duskblade/abjurant champion/master of masks.

2) Rechan's suggestion about putting something in the archives basement is an excellent one.

3) The deathtraps were fine for my party. If they have access to knock or teleportation, a number of them are cakewalks.
-blarg