Campaign start tonight, need HELP!

[The Lemon Merchant]

I've been slammed at work and now I've 3 hours before I begin my new campaign, for which I am woefully unprepared. I would appreciate any suggestions one an adventure to get this thing rolling.

Here's the pertinent info:

Nordic campaign - barbarians, harsh winter climates, basically your stuff of nordic legend.
I am wanting to shy away from a pure hack & slash dungeon crawl and integrate some social aspects to the campaign - however epic battles against monstrous foes are part & parcel of Norse legend so I'm not ignoring them entirely.
The party is 1st level and combat heavy (7 players - 2 rogues, cleric, bard, ranger, paladin, fighter) party makeup.

I have complete access to Dungeon Magazine back to issue #77, with spotty access prior to that, so if there's anything in one of those you may think is worth looking at, I'm willing to look.
I also have Rappan Athuk, Tomb of Abysthor, the 1e modules A (Slavers), G (Giants), D (Drow) series, S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, Temple of Elemental Evil and a few of the Dungeon Crawl Classics from Goodman Games.

I've considered adjusting the Giant series to take on a more political aspect, but I think it outclasses a first level party.

I'm not looking for a campaign outline, just something to get me kickstarted.

 

[Rabelais]

I wouldn't look much farther than Keep on the Borderlands... Those Caves of Chaos need clearing, the denizens hunt our people's Reindeer and steal our children!

You can dress up the Keep, and make it part of a larger world.

BTW, my wife and I had our pictures taken at the Center of the Universe there in Meridian last year.

 

[Arkhandus]

Probably too late, but..... Well, they're vikings. First thing that happens is that they get jeered into going a-viking, and make a raid on some hapless village along a nearby river. They do some looting, burning, and slaying when necessary to finish the first two objectives, and then they get back home and you can deal with the at-home family matters/political business/celebrations at the next session, by which time you'll have had more time to work out a plan to start with.

Of course, the start of the first session can involve the PCs' roleplaying and such until they get sent a-viking, so it won't just be an all-combat session, but still a simple one. And of course the whole raid situation will allow for a bit more thinking and non-fighting activity on the players' part while you mentally work out what stuff to put in the village and where.

Maybe at the next session it comes up that the reason they need to get some loot and raid other folks at the moment is because they gotta do something about the Jotun/Giant problem that's cropping up, and to do so they'll need to get some new, better armaments and armors, which ain't free unless you steal 'em in a raid. Or maybe they need the loot as a bargaining tool in getting other viking towns to ally with them to fight the giants.

The initial adventures can start with fighting humans, orichar (orcs), and such (in addition to whatever political or social stuff you plan on running, of course). Maybe even some svartalfar (dark elves). And maybe the community needs to try and get Odin's or Thor's blessing for their upcoming battles with the giants, so they might need to do some daring stunts for that, or steal/pillage some good material for sacrifice.