Interesting items to start a group off

Starting with a new group of players this weekend. None of them have played before (well, one of them played a couple of times about 20 years ago).

We have a day long session planned (they have to generate their characters too). I'm anticipating them dinging level 2 at the end of the session (I'm not counting XP, just going by milestones), but I would really like to give them some sense of progression during the session by getting hold of some cool items from a powerful NPC they'll be meeting at about halfway through.

As well as simple progression the aim of the items is to give them opportunities to try problem solving and the kind of free-ranging innovation that D&D can excel at; I strongly suspect these players are going to need a bit of a nudge to realise how completely freeform they can be in what they try to do, and these items should help them in that. I'm thinking of things like a bag of holding, a spool of endless rope, etc. I really don't want to start handing them out +1 weapons and armour that early, and that stuff doesn't increase options the way cool kit can.

So, what items would you provide an inexperienced group with?