To make a long story short (because I know that I said this) in previous threads, the party decided to hire Sanvil Trett on the spot for their mission to rescue Khonnir. As a result, Sanvil was able to explore up to the entrance of the Engineering deck, he had access to Khonnir's notes, and his share of the treasure included a handful to technological artifacts that the party looted. At this point, Khonnir has been brought back to the temple, while party and Sanvil went their separate ways.
As far as I'm concern, Sanvil has more than enough information to present a glowing report to the Technic League in Starfall, and is packing up to leave. I also estimate it would take about a week for the Technic League to organize a garrison to occupy the town.
My question is this: if the Technic League takes over Torch, how will that play out for the rest of the adventure path?
I don't think it makes an difference to the material as presented . However it has the potential to completely derail the plot making the rest of that material irrelevant.
If your players decide that they need to liberate Torch from the oppression of the Technic league then you are going to have to work hard to get them to move on with the plot. So if your players care about Torch and it's fate and you do not want to run an improvised guerilla campaign then the Technic league is too busy to move in. If your players won't care much or the guerilla campaign sounds fun then the technic league moves in
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Easy fix: the innkeeper where Sanvil was staying found something in his room after he left indicating he's TL. The innkeeper is a smart man and realizes the implications, and also knows that the PCs are the new happening thing in the community, so he comes to them.
New sidequest unlocked: apprehend Sanvil.
Sanvil ambushed my party -twice!- it's really hard to get the drop in a Android Diviner with Color Spray :-)
The second time they agreed to let him live and cut him in on the tech as long as he fed the Technic League disinformation, considering they could've killed him either time he thought it more then fair.
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Hold off on the Technic League's occupation of Torch until the party is deep into book 4, Valley of the Brain Collectors. This way when they finish that book and go back to Torch you have an excellent hook to push them into book 5, Palace of the Fallen Stars, to try and destabilize the Technic League.
This makes sense too, because of the infighting and disorganization of the Technic League (a downside of CE) means that it would take time to put the needed forces together.
You could also tweak Sanvil's motivations a bit. He might prefer to hold off on reporting anything to the Technic League, at least right away, in order to hang back and explore underneath Torch some more by himself or with a small team. There are several blocked tunnels that he might want to excavate after the party moves on.
In my game, I plan to have him try to convince the party (and Khonnir) not to tell anyone about what they found. That way, there would be less chance of word getting back to the Technic League until he wanted to do so.
I see several points in this thread. Thinking on it, I believe that the Technic League's takeover being gradual since they won't be interested in the town itself, they just want to excavate the ruins. It can start with the TL sending a small force to occupy the dungeon while the town goes about it's business. This will make things uneasy for the people of Torch for awhile, but they're afraid of the possible retaliation if they outright oppose them. However, things can escalate while the party's away. :-)
I think it might minimize the chances of the party to start any liberation campaigns. Not that I'm opposed to that, but I doubt they'll bite. They're all hardcore LN mercs who are only looking out for they're own greed.
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Having the League cometo Torch was something I did just as they PCs had returned to Torch after returning from book 4. Zaidow sent several remote-controlled Myrmidons, one with a hologram projector with Zaidow broadcasting, to ask the PCs to publicly swear allegiance to the League for all of Torch to see.
This event came on the heels of the PCs finding the organization that they had built (called the Torchbearers) was being divided into two factions: those who think that the League is too powerful to oppose right now and should be at least appeased if not outright supported by the Torchbearers and those who have either lost property, homes, friends, or family to the League's depredations and had had enough of their tyranny.
The PCs managed to placate the mob just in time for Zaidow to sent a flight of Myrmidons to strong-arm the PCs publicly. Unfortunately, the PCs did not roll high enough to keep the crowd quiet, and one soldier threw a spear at Zaidow's hologram.
Zaidow was about to order the Myrmidons to attack the crowd when my wife's character offered herself as a kind of "prize" (she was a member of the White Scar tribe, and had been offered to Zaidow as a potential wife in the past). Zaidow, enjoying the idea of having one of Numeria's up and coming heroes as a personal thrall proved too enticing, and Zaidow took her with him.
One PC defied her decision and tried to attack the Myrmidons, only to have his weapon bounce off the hardness and Zaidow order one building be made example of. After my wife's character was taken and they had retrieved any innocents in the burning building, tensions got hot between that PC at the soldier who threw the spear. He took blood from one of the dead and rubbed it on the face of the soldier, calling it the blood of those who died because of you. When the soldier tried to fight back with punches, the PC made an effort to not only block the attacks, but break the hands that he punched with.
The players then began book 5 from within and without Starfall, and things only got more interesting as the PCs in Torch tried to reach Starfall and gather info, and my wife's character made her escape from the Technic League compound.
The League adds drama, suffice to say, but be careful where you put them...