The abandoned tower

You don't really need troops. You don't have the resources to supply them, and you could probably get them fairly quickly when and if you do need them. What you do need is resources and heroes.

The abandoned tower looks most likely to have some resources, or be home to a powerful individual, without the baggage of having to recruit dozens of minions you can't even feed.

You leave the inner area, turn left, and head out via a side gate. A small track leads away from the abbey, towards a wood. Squinting, you think you can just about make out the tower in the distance, or at least something grey in amonst the foliage.

Opening your map again, you check the direction of the tower and - yes, it's in that wood. You start off down the track, towards the trees.

It's not a short walk, but it is a relaxing one. The forest is quiet, and calm, and it's almost a pity you'll probably wind up turning it into a nightmare at some point. Hmm... maybe you could keep it as a quiet place to enjoy yourself in?

You don't have the time for these thoughts right now, though. Before you stands the tower, half-ruined, covered in moss, with stones and rotting wood strewn around it. It looks properly abandoned, not merely deserted or devoid of human life, but abandoned by all to the elements.

You kick down the door, which falls to the ground in a shower of wooden fragments, and enter the tower. There's no way up, you didn't purchase wings and the wooden stairway is broken after the first dozen steps. The ground at your feet is strewn with detrius, the broken fragments of wood from your entrance, the rubble of a decaying tower, and... a trapdoor.

You walk over and kick aside some of the rubble. Hmm, it seems suspiciously... newly-used. Looks like it's not actually abandoned.

You grab the shiny, non-rusted metal ring, and haul. The wood creaks, but it comes along in one piece, the trapdoor opening up to reveal a ladder leading down into darkness.

Well, you've come this far. You step down onto the ladder, and descend into the abyss...