Around Town

Ok, the criminal groups are active around the town, generally at night and around deliveries. Other than the Riflers operating on the western shore, the Thieves' Guild operates fairly openly along the waterfront, and the Swamp Rats through the marshy eastern shore. The Swamp Rats take advantage of their location to strike at targets up the Krithik River as well as trade on the lake itself.
With all of these, the party could stumble onto illicit activity, or be approached by officials or otherwise to investigate or deal with some aspect of them.
As a semi-legitimate enterprise, the Thieves' Guild tends to operate more conservatively than the other two groups. They also have a vested interest in town politics, and would very likely take the approach of hiring adventurers to investigate or disable their competition, especially the Riflers. The Riflers are a fast growing group expanding along all of the waterways of the realm from coast to peak.
For other interests, a good idea is for an object to have been stolen, and the concerned victim to engage the characters to recover it. This could take them into encounters against any or all of the groups. Kidnappings for ransom are also useful fodder for seeding a small detour.
Other possibilities have been used in this adventure arc already - finding an artifact, rousting a lair, looking for information, etc. All of these could springboard from encounters with townspeople. The image forming for me is like the towns of Oblivion and Skyrim, where there are several mini quests to get access to by walking around town speaking with its residents and travelers.
The beauty of that model is that the threat can be put in place at any time without interrupting the main plot. It is also a good way to introduce foils for the party. I really like the idea of a rival adventuring group that is effectively competing with the party for work.
We've played for over thirty years, and have always created and used multiple characters in overlapping stories. It is logical to assume that more than one group have heard about dragons in these hills drawing their interest to bear.
It is safe to assume that the stability of the government is still a work in progress. As such, if the DM wants to explore political elements and plots, they could easily begin.