OK, so using some of the fan material about the world of K’ydon (a cold version of athas) this is what i was thinking of as an adventure hook:
The PC’s are members of an independent city-state on the far side of K’ydon, away from the prying eyes of the Warden-Queen Hu. Having just come of age, they are serving in the militia. Whilst the city is nominally independent, the reality is that Queen Hu’s operatives can effectively strike anywhere on the planet of K’ydon.
The PC’s are on a routine patrol to an outlying farm when they are attacked by a very well organised and heavily armed group of soldiers from the Warden-Queen’s elite attack group, led by a Templar. They incapacitate the PC’s and then kidnap a very beautiful female member of the PC’s party (not sure weather this should be an NPC or one of the PC’s themselves) leaving the PC’s tied up, in the freezing cold, to die.
The PC’s somehow survive, and quickly realise that their companion was kidnapped as a potential candidate for the Warden-Queen’s annual life-draining process during which she assumes the face of her beautiful female victim. Subsequent research will reveal that they have 2 months to rescue their companion from the city ruled by the Warden-Queen before the ritual takes place, and even if their friend is not selected, she will be killed in any case.
How is that for a hook?
I’m hoping it leads them on an awesome adventure: first off wilderness to get to the Warden-Queen’s city, then subterfuge to get in, then cunning and planning to free their companion – any ideas of sub-plots, obstacles, prison design etc?

Why a cold version of Athas, and if cold, how does it manage farms, underground, freezable plants, some magical trickery, slightly less cold equatorial region? I ask because what warm blooded animals consider cold is a LOT more dangerous to plants than what we call hot is. Water changes dramatically at 32 F/0 C and at 212 F/ 100 C. Animals run from about -30 F to 120 F fairly easily Plants for farming tend to work differently. Trees can ‘freeze’ and still survive, but temp that NEVER comes above 32 F is going to need a major recalculation of the cycle of life for any farm.
If you plan to take a captive have it be an NPC, that way you don’t have a player sitting out for the first few weeks (unless you have a player on hand that has some reason to not be available to start the game out,then PC works great) while the other players try to figure out the rescue.
Other than that it sounds like a good start assuming you have been trying to find a use for the snowshoes that are just sitting around on various equipment lists. Do you use cold weather mounts, sleds, dogs, skies? What about magical fire, is it limited in the setting, or just really rare, or perhaps long lost secrets that nobody happens to know, but still possibly discoverable, or does every town and expedition really need a fire capable spellcaster?

Good ideas… basically i see K’ydon as Tundra planet, with the exception of the equator which is much like the baltic region of earth, nice in summer, spring, autumn but snowed under in winter…. I’m using daytime temps of around 5-10 Celsius, night time between -10 and 0 as the temp range. I live in place a little like that right now (it’s winter where I am!)
I think i’ll have a player create a character for the kiddnapping (ie play a few weeks before the big event takes place) with a back-up character ready. I know one player who loves that kinda stuff. I don’t think i’ll have magic affected, it’s just a cold climate, nothing magical. Cold weather mounts are a good idea; snow shoes…. hmmm…. think i’ll set it in early autumn, so they have to get to the Warden-Queens city before the first major snows…. evil grin

That sounds a lot more reasonable as a habitable environment for low tech humanoids, when you said a cold Athas I was thinking you would be using an extreme temperature, what your making is more of a cold Zakahara, equally interesting, but different in that the environment will only kill you if you ignore it, while an environment as extreme as Athas can kill you just because you are not lucky, even if you make all available preparation.