GM Challenge - What’s in the village?

[Olffandad]

How about... the hidden village is filled with mundane tax-dodging moonshiners?

They have a valuable recipe for a rare and valuable booze that is highly specific to their village and would be spoiled if too many people tried to visit them, plus the government and organized crime would muscle in on their business and take away their profits and control.

Long ago, they paid off local government officials and censored records and maps to wipe out the official proof of their existence. They never visit the local villages - if they must leave, villagers travel to a major city with fake identities.

The bridge is the village's "emergency exit" in case of disaster, but it is marked in guides and local lore as dilapidated and unsafe, so only really determined (or stupid) people would try to cross it. It looks bad from a distance, but is actually quite sound - and booby-trapped so unwary intruders might "accidentally" slip off.

The villagers also have a secret tunnel or mountain path, so they can ship their goods and import items from the outside. The outside buyers of the rare liquor have every incentive to keep the village secret, to keep the mystique and price of the liquor sky-high.

Scrying on the village from afar shows that their main crop is some unique flower not known to regular botany (the source of their rare liquor, like black lotus blossoms).

If travelers somehow show up, the villagers attempt to drive them away peacefully - say, by telling the outsiders that the villagers all have some incurable and contagious fatal disease. However, if the outsiders pry too much, the villagers will get nervous, covertly contact their outside contacts and flee any violent encounters. They might even burn the village to cover their tracks - as long as the moonshiners get away with their flowers, they can rebuild in a few years.

Then, as the adventurers attempt to leave with the knowledge of the secret village, the outside buyers will attempt to whack the players.

Plot Seeds

The players find a bottle of unknown liquor in a Big Bad Person's lair and need to identify it as a clue in their investigation.
A patron wants to learn where the liquor comes from but only has a vague geographical clue.
There are rumors of a rare elixir that cures disease or extends life that originates from these mountains