So my players looked at the route, looked at me, and then said, "Yeah, we want to teleport there." What keeps them from doing that? I mean I could come up with some Deus ex Machina but I would like a logical reason.
Teleport is a 5th level spell. How are they getting access to this spell as 4th level characters? There is no way for them to get ahold of it without you giving it out. So just don't give it out. I don't think it's very Deus-Ex-Machina to say "there are no scrolls for sale right now." And if the party wants to leave to go to some other city where they know they could purchase such a thing (say, Absalom), well, look at the map: there's no large city nearby: by the time they reached Absalom (or whereever) the other factions would have already reached Tazion. Remember that the module is on a timer.
Second, Tazion is about 1800 miles away (going off of memory, forgive me if I'm wrong). That means you'd need multiple casting to get there. It is beyond the ability of the spell to say "take me to the midpoint." If the destination is out of range, and you don't know of a specific midpoint, then you're out of luck.
Third, the spell states: "You must have some clear idea of the location and layout of the destination." Noone is Eledar has been to Tazion in recent memory. Nobody has a "clear idea" of its "layout", thus teleport cannot help you. See Spell Description
There is also the fact that even if the players some how managed to teleport to Tazion, how will their faction get there?
If they don't have/want a faction, how will they resupply once they get to the City of Seven Spires?
Had a similiar situation with my group as well. First thought - get there fast! I had to emphasize to them that while they could get to Saventh-Yhi first as a small fast moving unit, they won't be able to hold it. A large expedition force is needed and for it to move faster it needs trailblazers they can trust.
I ended up having the faction leader explaining to them that its important that they be trailblazers as they need someone they can trust to clear the way to make it easier for the main expedition. Clear out the hazards, scout the area and ensure that there is a path for a large sized group to move through.
Teleporting straight to Tarzion doesn't do that. I guess you could have the PCs teleport there, scout it out and grab the info for where Saventh-Yhi is before teleporting back to trailblaze. Emphasize that its a gamble and if they come up with the idea to set up traps and attempt to sabotage other expeditions let them. It would be a good change of pace for everyone to have players setting the traps and ambushes.
If your group says "hire someone else to trailblaze", I'd have the faction leader say he/she fears plants that could lead the expedition into death traps and delayed routes. I'd resist the temptation to have your faction leader to force your group to trailblaze and go with a financial incentive instead. A pitch of "you could spend XYZ on various scrolls to race ahead or keep that gold and earn an extra 500gp each to trailblaze".
You could have market forces come into play with scrolls for transportation based magic being in hot demand. The spellcasters might raise thier prices after hearing of Saventh-Yhi expeditions and that there is something of a race to get there. Plus the various casters might be aligned to the factions either and might refuse to sell teleport scrolls to non-members or even worse they might set bobby-trapped scrolls that explode or send them elsewhere.
having not used an arcane spell caster in pathfinder, i'm not sure if this is still correct, but in 1st and 2nd edition d&d if you teleport somewhere you're not familiar with you're just as likely to end up dead half in a wall or floor or something.
i'm having a similar issue with my group, i'm only allowing them to teleport to fort bandu or freehold, they decided for how far you get its pretty cost prohibitive and are looking into taking a ship up the coast to crown's end then traveling north of the bandu hills and crossing the vanji south of darkreach it saves like 400+ miles and i'm pretty sure i get to use most of the encounters still along the way as well as a few to make up for the fact that they totally skipped nkechi ("we have a druid AND a ranger, we don't need him")
Yea, the trick isn't just getting there, the trick is getting there with 100+ 1st level commoners and troops to claim it, hold it, and resupply while there.
If they want to teleport there, they have to figure how to teleport what basically amounts to a whole town there (which is something the government of Sargava, or even the Aspis Consortium, can't afford to do, or else they'd blow off the PCs and just do it themselves).
The AP does mention, though, how teleportation back and forth to go shopping after they've established their basecamp is the something they might have to do to buy high priced items fast.
I remember there being a lot of arguing over teleporting on some other threads on this board. My position is still that this is best handled by the GM and players through agreement. Having teleportation in this campaign is something like having mind-reading in a murder mystery. It can be cool, but all parties have to agree on limitations and availability. I don't think strictly following the RAW will resolve the issue, players are tricky beasts and will always find some way to beat the system.
I'm the guy who proposed it in the OP's game. We eventually settled on not doing it, but the thing that was most emphasized to us was that it was a race to get there.
I can see that the AP may make some allowances for teleporting, or even rely on it in the case of some NPCs. (I haven't read it, of course.) Enlisting a low-level party for a "race" really seems like an oversight in a world that has powerful teleportation magic, especially sanctioned by groups that seem as powerful as the Aspis Consortium or the Pathfinder Society.
The fact that we're blazing a trail for the Pathfinders to come behind us is not something that was emphasized as much as the race aspect, so it didn't factor into our discussion. But looking at it like that, it seems pretty important, and a good way to discourage this kind of tactic.
It's a much better in-game reason than "Let's not drive Matt crazy by skipping his adventure," anyway.
Its easy to get caught up in the race side of it, but I think GMs need to make it clear that its not the PCs that need to get their first its the expedition. The actual race is between the expeditions of the competiting factions and not the trailblazers/adventurers. Shooting off well ahead of the expedition doesn't help speed up the expedition as any potential delays/hazards/threats you remove are likely to be replaced. Thats why teleporting isn't helpful. Its probably something that needs to be made more clear in the book.