Chris wrote: ↑25 Jan 2018, 03:19
Jemolk wrote: ↑24 Jan 2018, 21:28
But the problem with that is, the Telvanni wouldn't do that.
They would if they had reason to. If you had something to offer them, like Divayth Fyr who would want to study your case of corprus, or might be interested in a Dwemer artifact you're offering. Surely they have to go down to the lower floors of their own tower sometimes, to talk to their hired help or get some stuff they have stored down there. Fyr goes to his Corpusarium on occasion, and even Mistress Therana has to go down sometimes given her decorative choices.
I dunno, maybe someone could lend you an enchanted item with Levitate or help you figure out where to find one, but your proposed solutions are totally out of character for, say, Master Neloth or Archmagister Gothren. They WANT it to be hard to reach them, and they're not going to coddle some pathetic (in their minds) non-mage who isn't even powerful enough to learn to levitate. They're elitist ancient wizards with huge egos, not elected politicians. If you can't get to them, you're not worth their time as far as they're concerned.
Master Neloth has a levitation pad in his tower in Dragonborn, to help people up to him if they don't know how to levitate. They don't expect a lot out of others, and recognize they have to occasionally interact with such peons, so it's not as if they never make any concessions.
Neloth has that stupid pad because there is no levitation in Skyrim at all. Basically, they needed levitation, but were for some silly reason adamant about not making it an available spell, so instead they made a device because game mechanics basically. Here's the thing, Neloth doesn't recognize he has to deal with peons, or at least not ones asking him for anything. He talks to you mainly because dragonborn ex machina and because you have a Black Book of Hermaeus Mora. Even then, the guy pretty near tells you to piss off. If he needs something, needs anything, he just orders one of his servants to take care of it. He makes that abundantly clear when you talk to him. He even pretty much treats you as one.
Most of the masters would occasionally be on the lower floors if they had schedules...but Gothren wouldn't. He has all he needs in his chamber at the top of Tel Aruhn. That's probably the biggest sticking point here. You have to deal with Gothren to become Hortator, and it would actually suit what he wants to give you further delays. See, he doesn't even give you a hard no until you've gotten his disposition up a bunch. His preferred method is to string you along. To become Hortator, you have to kill Gothren because he will otherwise never vote for you, and he'll never duel you honorably or something. He'll just string you along, never giving you an actual answer, and since he's got his bed, his servants and his projects available to him without ever coming down, there's no other reason for him to do so. As for getting stuff stored below or talking to their hired help...they'll just send a servant to take care of that.
When it comes right down to it, Aryon has no real reason to leave his utterly inaccessible chambers personally either. He'd probably be more willing than any of the others to meet you, though. And who the hell knows what Therana does. Probably sleeps on those pillows on the floor in her chamber or something, and she'd probably descend the tower occasionally, sure, but not in any kind of way that could be reasonably replicated by daily or weekly AI schedules. She also probably wouldn't agree to meet you. Remember, she's batshit insane. Dratha certainly isn't going to meet you if your character is male, since she's a hell of a misandrist, and you have to throw yourself at her feet and beg pitifully to get her to support you...which she likely does as much to get rid of you as to actually help. For becoming Hortator, that leaves Neloth, who will support you, but he doesn't exactly seem the type to go one step out of his way to do so. Telvanni Masters are among the few people on Vvardenfell who have little reason to actually fear Dagoth Ur. Unlike pretty much everyone else, they don't really give two shits about the Nerevarine. They respect your power, but that's about it, same as Neloth with the dragonborn.
Divayth Fyr might,
might descend his tower to check your case of corprus personally, and probably would for the dwemer gift you can hand him...but you have to deal with the others later on anyway, and only Aryon would be likely to actually be remotely willing to come to you. Dratha
might for female characters, but certainly not for males, and perhaps you could catch Therana in the lower tower if you're VERY lucky. But Neloth is still not likely to come unless you do some insane quest to impress him, and Gothren never would. And you need Dratha and Gothren. If you don't have access to levitation, where does that leave you?