This village would be almost completely frozen over, from centuries of it not being taken care of. I have an idea for how you happen upon this village.
Basically, yu would enter a cave, there would be the general creatures, maybe some kind of human/humanoid characters to fight. Once you got around them, there would be some kind of boss creature/human/humanoid to fight(maybe a were wolf of some sort). After defeating him/her, you would search it. You would find a sealed container of some sort containing a map. This would give you a questline, that would lead you to another cave. This cave would have the general inhabitants like the first one, except no boss. You would then proceed to the lower level, and explore a bit. You would come to the end of the cave, and see light coming throgh a large opening in the cave. You would walk outside, and see your first glimpse of the lost village.
There could be anything in it. It would have some sort o manor, surrounded by old houses covered in ice. There would only be a few houses you coud enter. The manor, being the main focus would likely be oe of them. You find gold and some basic weaponry, and armour on the smaller houses, but you would find a set of armour (that isn't obtainable any other way), and a weapn(could be a sword, spear(if they're in the game), axe or mace, depending on your skill with the weapon-types).
After finding these special items, you would of course find your way back outside, but you would see a hooded figure standing in front of the caves mouth. You would pull out your weapon(for catuionary reasons), and apprach the figure. Once you are within a certain range, the figure would spring into a fighting stance and start to attack you with magic. This would be a very powerful mage. They would have been one of the heads of the village, and would be a very challenging fight. They would also be undead, so they could posibly be a lich. After defeating the undead creature, it would end the quest.
Any thoghts or ideas are most welcome. Just thought I would share my idea for an adventure-style quest. Hope you all like it. And sorry for the long read, no other way to explain it though.