The adventure begins

Introduction

The characters started out by being students at Solomon Gaal's School for adventurers. The old man, a retired adventurer himself, dubbed "the Indiana Jones of our times", decided to go on one last treasure hunt. When he disappeared, his wife asked the brightest and most caring students in the school to track him down. Unable to pass a chance at adventure, the tiefling rogue went along...

First combat

The adventuring party started out following Solomon's trail. On their way to a remote village at the end of the world, called Winterhaven, they were ambushed by a band of kobolds.

The adventurers entered on the left side of the map, and the kobolds jumped out from behind the rocks and bushes.

The encounter was easy enough, and allowed the players to get the hang of the combat mechanics. It also allowed me to drop a few skill checks, and to gear up my rusty tactics.

First non-combat situation

After defeating the kobolds, the adventurers continued on to Winterhaven. As always, the guards stood stoically at the gates. Now, I kid you not, of the three parties that I led there, all three of them had at least one guy trained in Intimidate. And all three of them decided to intimidate the town guards so that they'll let them in. In retrospect, these two duders made terrible town guards, as a slight growl from the wolfish looking Shifter was enough to have them quake in their pants.

Moving on, I remember doing a lot of non-combat dialog in the first session, as the adventurers made themselves comfortable in their new base of operations.

They met the surly woman owning the only inn and tavern, and made sure to pay her extra for her good will. In return, she dropped a few rumors. The tiefling spent money as if he were a noble, made friends with the barmaid, and even took her to bed. The rest of the party was content with the common room.
They met the town blacksmith, a dwarf. Here, the paladin went ahead and talked about weaponry and smithing with him. The dwarf was happy to see someone interested in his work, and offered to polish the paladin's hammer for free. He later crafted ornate daggers for the rogue.
The general store was run by a retired adventurer (or so he claimed), whom I re-imagined as a vivid little man with beard dyed blue. The wizard changed that to pink, hoping to get in his good graces; the guy immediately thanked her, than closed shop and went out to town to show off.
The temple of Avandra was run by an older woman, Sister Linora. The wizard, also a follower of Avandra, made polite small talk with her.
However, none of the folk above knew much about the old Solomon, except that he passed through a couple of weeks ago, and never came back.

Finally, the adventurers met two more persons of interest.
An old farmer, the town storyteller, was having a lively evening at the tavern. He was more than happy to entertain the adventurers with stories and rumors, including a best guess on where Solomon went after leaving town: an old mound claimed to be a dragon cemetery.
The local lord also visited the tavern, and spoke with the adventurers. The tiefling rogue again shined by pretending to be a noble's son (helped by a minor illusion from the wizard, making him seem well dressed). He had a friendly talk with the lord who took a liking to him, and asked him to get rid of the bands of roving kobolds threatening the roads (for a reward, of course).

In game terms, the adventurers now had a choice in front of them, continuing what they thought to be the main quest (looking for Solomon) or doing mercenary work (hunting down the kobolds).