Quote:
Originally Posted by tshiggins
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Indeed.
But if you just place them on the ice, won't they be incredibly obvious?
Whereas if you conceal them under ice, they will be prevented from bouncing, which makes them less effective.
Directional anti-personnel mines can be concealed in icy tunnel walls or under an inch or two of re-frozen ice under potential intruders, without losing much, if any, of their effectiveness.
Of course, a TL5^
Fougasse could be built in place into the ice, using iron projectiles and black powder propellant. Use a minor Conditional cantrip of a brief flame to trigger it and you've got a pretty cheap, but reliable mine, as long as you have the magical ability to make the ritual trigger.
Unfortunately, while the occultists of the
Ahnenerbe are providing lots of magical support, they are
not going to be living in Kadath, let alone patroling ice tunnels below it. A squad of Aghartan combat engineers from
Svartálfrheim, specialized in tunnel warfare, might include a trapsmith with minor sorcerous abilities, but somehow I doubt such a guy would want to stay there.
So, whether the magical triggers were made specific enough and long-lasting enough to use without an assigned occultist, or the ASNs would give their allies something to convince them to assign a sorcerous demolition expert to Kadath on a permanent basis, I guess a magical solution would cost
at least what a more mundane, technological solution would cost.
And that would probably be a design of landmine known to German engineers who left Earth for good at the end of WWII, either triggered by a typical mine detonator or command detonated by a nearby soldier by pulling a wire, as the first step of an ambush.
Kadavergehorsham stormtroopers can be assigned to permanent sentry posts, with occasional patrols, and they ought to be able to handle pulling a wire, as long as they are allowed to charge afterwards.