Spicing up my introductory scenario

Hi all,

I'm looking for advice and/or critique regarding the introductory scenario of a campaign I'm planning (won't be playing it any time soon, it's for after our current campaign wraps up and I get a turn at DMing).

The campaign is centered around the small coastal village of Neuwald. It was founded by a guild of Gnomish artisans who were based in the capital city on the other side of the bay, but got tired of being targeted by racist humans. They made a deal with the Duke: he gets exclusive trade in exchange for non-interference. The PCs (three level-1 adventurers) get hired as security after the Sheriff gets hurt and can't run around anymore. The village is about half human fishermen with their families, half Gnomish artisans, and they mostly get along well.

For the first scenario, I'll have the tavernkeeper (a lovely lady called Martha Aber) ask the PCs for help with a small issue: someone's been stealing beer barrels from her shed. Human regulars are starting to grumble about how gnomes love beer, it's all getting a bit heated, something's got to be done. With a little investigating, however, PCs should discover that the thief is actually a halfling bandit, sneaking it at night from a camp in the nearby forest. They either track him, kidnap him or kill him and investigate the village's environs ; before they can find the camp, they meet elves from an Elven village not too distant from there, and learn that a young elf lady has disappeared and is likely held by the bandits for...predictable purposes.

Then, they explore the forest, find the camp, plan and execute the attack, save the girl* and come back to Neuwald covered in glory and bandit guts.

I'm pretty happy with what I've got so far, but I feel like it's still a bit thin. I could pad the forest part with some encounters, or even do a short hexcrawl, but I'm having trouble finding stuff that doesn't feel like filler. What do you all think?

^*The ^young ^elf ^is ^actually ^a ^budding ^Bard ^who ^scrambled ^the ^bandit ^chief's ^brain ^with ^a ^weirdly ^powerful ^Charm ^spell ^in ^self-defense; ^he ^hasn't ^hurt ^or ^abused ^her, ^but ^he's ^madly ^in ^love ^with ^her ^and ^brought ^her ^back ^to ^the ^camp, ^where ^she's ^basically ^biding ^her ^time ^until ^she ^can ^find ^a ^way ^to ^escape. ^No Women in Refrigerators ^there.