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

[ShadowRaven]

defend the Tor...an interesting plot device indeed. Now, unlike everyone here, I would not recomend the SAS or SBS. Elite and well equiped though they are, their orders come from way up in the chain of comand, and if the badguys don't have complete control over the military, getting them would be damn hard. Something more along the lines of C-Company, 2nd Royal Light Infantry would be far more likely. Set them up with a few sandbag 'foxhole' style bunkers with a couple of light machine guns. Say two each covering all the likely avenues of approach, with regular infantrymen standing guard over the tor itself as well as the well. They wil be on high alert, and more then capable of keeping the average terrorists out.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Send in your nasty, sneaky guys, the CIA-equivalent, maybe the SAS if you can get them, to kill the guy who can get them into Avalon. Sniper, ricin, icepick him, whatever.

That was the first thing that stood out to me, too.

The bad guys should be devoting most of their resources to getting rid of the only person who poses them a threat.

Do they have any way of locating him?

-Hyp.

 

[nerfherder]

Elite and well equiped though they are, their orders come from way up in the chain of comand, and if the badguys don't have complete control over the military, getting them would be damn hard.

Actually, it would probably require less official approval to get a squadron of SAS than it would be a Company of Light Infantry. The SAS are used to performing secret deniable missions, so a word by the right sort of chap in the government who played rugger (rugby) at Eton (very expensive private school attended by the social elite) with the CO could conceivably get them deployed on the QT for a secret "training" mission with live ammo. Regular army are just not set up for secret missions like that, and deployment on mainland UK is extremely rare, so proper chain of command would have to be followed, including getting permission from the Chief Constable of the Avon and Somerset police.

A few more bits of information about the local police:
The local police force is the Avon & Somerset Constabulary. It employs approx 3,500 officers.
Armed response is provided by the Roads Policing Unit (RPU). Armed Response Vehicles (ARV) are deployed round the clock. Each ARV is manned by two Armed Firearms Officers (AFO). There are 72 AFOs (and thus about 3,400 unarmed officers).

Cheers,
Liam

 

[nerfherder]

with 200 men you could easily remove the top 2 feet off the top of the hill where the casting was to take place.

the PCs will assume the top is really the top and cast their spell.

when in fact they need to levitate up 2 feet to cast the spell.

an illusion of sorts. but mundane.

I like your thinking The Royal Engineers could quickly remove, or even add, several feet of hill (as well as lay all kinds of nasty booby-traps).

Cheers,
Liam

 

[BSF]

You need to remember that even if the bad guys have won over part of the british government, they can't be too overt. Locking off the entire hill so you can dig entrenchmants and the like just won't fly. Artillery and mines? They don't seem likely. Well, perhaps antipersonnel mines since some of those aren't as destructive to the landscape to hide.

The better plans involve more subtlety. Close the area to all tourists and evacuate the nearby residents. Perhaps a staged accident involving a chemical spill. The mundane troops are on patrol to protect private property and assets. They will be instructed to call for support before trying to engage any "vandals and looters".

Do the badguys know the PCs have to go to the well? If so, that is where the defenses will be strongest. Snipers and the like. Take a different tactic. Snipers will be instructed to eliminate any containers in hand, then eliminate the terrorist.

Remember that you want some solid plans so you can provide the DM response for the precog. Most of the plans will be found out in advance and the players will enjoy coming up with ways to bypass the problems. You really only need one or two little things that throw them a curve.

Example: Once they figure out there are snipers guarding the well, they might send in the gunsliger with high defense so he can't be shot. Of course, if they figure out that there are claymore type mines in the area, they might send in the magneto wannabe. That's why the snipers shoot for containers first, rather than the PC.

 

[RangerWickett]

That was the first thing that stood out to me, too.

The bad guys should be devoting most of their resources to getting rid of the only person who poses them a threat.

Do they have any way of locating him?

-Hyp.

Well, I was trying to keep the thread as straightforward as possible, because there's a whole separate area of the campaign that the British Military normally couldn't get involved in.

Ready for another layer of complexity?

Parallel to the human world (Terra) is the world of the fey and other magical creatures (Gaia). The worlds share the same geography, but it's difficult to cross over. Right now it's even harder than usual, and the PC in question is one of the few who can. The control of planeshifting is actually the key conflict of the campaign.

Right now the PCs are on Gaia, trying to make a discreet approach to Glastonbury Tor. They intend to hop over to Terra when they get there, then perform the necessary magic before any enemies can attack. They don't know what they're up against.

Several adventures ago, the PCs ran across an area where the two worlds were pulled so close together that everyone on Terra could see everyone on Gaia, and vice versa. There was a particularly rare magical obelisk that sort of hitched the two worlds together. The PCs beat a monster and left, thinking they'd completed their mission, not realizing that the bad guys were specifically looking for that obelisk.

So when the PCs approach the Tor, they'll sense something's a little odd, like they can see two different sorts of terrain around them. Because the bad guys have set up the obelisk and activated it. Even if they stay on Gaia, the British military will be able to defend against them. Normally the PCs would just be boned, but because of the connection, the PCs will be able to get the assistance of the various magical creatures they've befriended, which normally wouldn't be able to cross over to Terra.

Long story short, the bad guys can't track the PCs while they're on Gaia. They just have to be ready to respond when the PCs show up at the Tor.

 

[Falkus]

What's the radius of this effect? Seems to me that setting up claymores pointing towards the edge would make for an effective first strike. As soon as the PCs can be seen by the people on the otherside, flip the switch and BOOM!

 

[RangerWickett]

What's the radius of this effect? Seems to me that setting up claymores pointing towards the edge would make for an effective first strike. As soon as the PCs can be seen by the people on the otherside, flip the switch and BOOM!

One-and-a-half mile radius.

Or rather, people assume it's a 1.5 mile radius. It's actually a field in the shape of a vesica pisces, and each circle has a 1 mile radius, so it's vaguely oval, 3 miles long, 2 miles wide. Too big to rig a mine field.

 

[Conaill]

How much are the bad guys willing to mess with the Well? Blowing up the well itself might be an option. Sure, the groundwater would find another way out, but it might no longer count as coming from the "Chalice Well" (no longer on the correct lay lines etc.

Alternatively, concrete barriers could be erected around the well in fairly short order. Especially if you get a few heavy construction helicopters involved. Heck, stack enough "jersey barrier" concrete blocks on top of the well to make it completely inaccessible. The corps of engineers can probably pull off an inpenetrable concrete barrier within a day or so.

If you want something more heavy-duty, let's have a look at the response to the Chernobyl disaster: "From 27 April to 5 May, more than 30 military helicopters flew over the burning reactor. They tried in vain to put out the fire with 2400 tonnes of lead and 1800 tonnes of sand." That's for a 9-day period. So count on 1400 tonnes over a 3-day period...

I assume they have to take the water from the well itself, not just from the outflow channel? Otherwise, they could just take some water a mile downstream...

 

[Quartz]

IIRC Britain doesn't do mines these days. The helos would be Apaches. Fixed-wing aircraft would not be a lot of help here - unless a Typhoon just happenned to crash in the right place. And the military do not have to get permission from the Chief Constable - the Lord Lieutenant or his deputy can call them out in their capacities as proxies for the Monarch.