OK, I have completely thrown out the adventure I had originally planned for 6-9's and I'm just starting another one. I'm sorry, but I wasted a lot of time trying to massage a bad adventure idea into something playable and I should have just given up early. So I've got a new idea, one that I'm considerably happier with, and I just wanted to throw one idea out there:
I'm considering running it as a fixed-level adventure. All the time and encounter based awards will be up-scaled to 'what would have been' had we done continuous experience. In fact, I'm pretty sure I can model the experience and treasure with 100% reliability. Anyone game for this? This would be the Cheesemakers crowd (Pirvinia, Samad, et al), plus potentially Jonas (Mowgli). Let me know--otherwise I can run it on the continuous scale.
I don't have a problem with running it as a fixed-level adventure.
I would prefer to run Cruendithas(6th lvl archaeologist) in place of Tsaaruk(8th lvl barbarian) - not sure how that affects the makeup of the group. Tsaaruk is certainly worth more damage in a fight.