You're the British military. Defend Avalon from my PCs.

[Agback]

One quick comment because it's 12:30am here. I wanted a group of 12 because of the Knights of the Round Table/Apostles parallel.

I see the parallel between 12 soldiers and 12 apostles (though, as I mentioned it before, I think that the magicians would have to have a very good reason for it to make it worthwhile interfering in operationsla matters). But I don't see the parallel with the knights of the Round Table. There were twenty-five of them named on the Winchester Table, and more than forty are named in different adventures, while some accounts describe the Round Table as being thirty yards across and seating 150 knights.

The story of the Round Table is associated with the ruined Roman amphitheatre at Caerleon, which was supposed to have been the chamber Merlin built to house the Round Table. (If you haven't done so already, and you ever get a chance, go to see Caerleon--it's a real treat.) The central area of the amphitheatre is an oval about 45 metres wide and 60 metres long, which is a bit big for a meeting-hall for a mere dozen men. (The bleachers of the amphitheatre would have seated six thousand or so: room for a whole Roman legion.)

 

[Fynn]

Hmmm,

Everyone is concentrating on what the military will be doing. Fair enough your soldiers will follow all the orders they are given (presumably) but what about your three ringers? How about your three ringers do things that the military would not normally do? How will they interact to make the military MORE effective?

Eg,
1) Electrify the floor of both sensitive locations? - This works particularly well if they have to smash open the wellhead - the electrified field gets bigger! (For double the craptastic have both a magical and mundane electrical field). Precog *The floor is electrified* Will they pick this up ~twice~?
2) Have the battlemage cast killing cloud or similar under the wellcap, crack the wellcap, release the water, electricity and noxious fumes!!
3) Mind control just one of the pilots to land his vehicle (with lots of explosives onboard) in a sensitive spot if things look bad.
4) Welcome to my least favourite Golem *Explosive Golem*

Just a few suggestions.

 

[Agback]

Everyone is concentrating on what the military will be doing. Fair enough your soldiers will follow all the orders they are given (presumably) but what about your three ringers? How about your three ringers do things that the military would not normally do? How will they interact to make the military MORE effective?

That's the crucial issue. We aren't in the race to re-train, re-indoctrinate, re-equip, and re-organise the British Army to deal with dragons, spellcasters, magnetic mutants, and invisible assassins. It would probably be hopeless even trying to warn them of what to expect, because their likely incredulity would make them less ready: they wouldn't take the operation so seriously. It is going to be hard enough to get them to take guarding the Tor and the Well seriously. The best you can do is get the gear into the area and hope the NCOs improvise effectively. Fortunately, British NCOs are extremely good.

Then we have to work ways to cover their weaknesses without our other capabilities.

Everything depends on whether any one of the PCs can work the essential magic, or whether the particular one who is listed as knowing it has to do so. If it is the former, this could be very tough. The Army is scarcely any help against an invisible assassin or a wizard with Improved Invisibility.

We need an Invisibility Purge on a Trigger, cast on the capstone, set to go off if anyone gets water out of the Well. And a string more around the perimeter set to go off if any well-water crosses the perimeter in their section. And another in St. Michael's Tower, set to go off if anyone speaks the opening words of the opening spell. And another on the concrete box we set over the phantasmal basin, to go off if anyone opens or smashes the box.

I really like the idea of lowering a tub filled with ordinary water into the shaft of the Well, so that when anyone dips the Well they get that instead of Well-water.

Question: does the water have to be taken from the Well itself for the spell to work, or can it be taken from the stream that flows from the Well through teh garden, from pools in that stream, etc.. Will bottled water from the Chalice Well suffice? I seem to recall that that is sold in the Newage shop near the entrance, so anyone in England might have some.

 

[Paladin]

When you say "no mines" I figure you mean "no buried land mines", so you should have the troops set up Claymore anti-personnel mines...with a twist. Have the troops take powdered CS (tear) gas and fill their used MRE plastic bags with it. Tape these bags to the front of the mines with 100mph tape, camo the mines and set up trip wires, or have them personally activated by the troops (who are camo'd as well.) When the mines blow, they'll do their normal (terrific) damage, but then the survivors and kill zone will be coated in tear gas as well, reducing their effectiveness to counterattack*. Then have your machine gunners raze the kill zone for 3 rounds or so. Then, get a mop.

*Not many soldiers wear their NBC mask when infiltrating an objective, unless they're really anticipating CS.