Having done this quest last night for the first time since Beta (it nearly wiped us out then too), I'd like to speak a bit on the risk/reward aspect of this quest.
Firstly. We found 3 of the small spoilers that we were sent to find on the quest, and about 10 agates. We were supposed to be paid 100gp each for the small spoilers, but due to a bug, we werent, and we ended up selling them to Norma for 181gp for all 3. The Agates sold for 2gp each. That makes a net payout for the quest of 201gp.
Now, the quest is filled with a pile of critters that were quite nasty, both lesser and greater. I'd suggest no change on the critters, they're pretty tough as is.
However, in order to pick up the spoilers we were sent to find, we had to take damage. In order to survive the quest, we ended up using along the order of about 5 or 6 potions of Insulation and Lesser Insulation, and lots and lots of healing.
The damage in question of course came in the form of placeables, and to our knowledge, we had no way of preventing it from occurring.
The end payout on the quest was 86XP, and 201gp. In the party, we had 3 level 5's, and we had an extremely hard time completing the quest without more then the single death that we experienced. The party was relatively balanced, with a Fighter, a Fighter/Bard for buffs, and a Ranger for scouting.
IMO, the reward on this quest either needs to be boosted up a fair bit, perhaps in the form of more of the small and large spoilers that you are looking for, or in the form of some loot off of the beasties or something.
My .02!