Because the tower's arrowslits don't filter much sunlight in, the adventurers don't awaken until much later in the morning. That, despite the area not being traveled at all.
"We'll need to rent a healer, now!" Nyagullah shouts in Seloniel's direction.
"You'll get to the nearest town and try to get a rental healer. Unfortunately, I can't do it myself" Seloniel retorts, while Janick is still unconscious from the sheer amount of alcohol magic she cast killing the electricity-stealing dragon.
Janick might be good for healing flesh wounds with alcohol magic, but what we need in a rental healer is about burns like Seloniel's, Nyagullah starts wondering about what he feels is needed in a rental healer. The first place he would look for one is at the nearest church, maybe some priest.
"Here, Nyagullah, some gold to pay for a rental healer for the day, and maybe for a cart, too. However, I don't expect people to give discounts for either one just because it's about treating their heroes" Seloniel gives a small purse containing some gold to Nyagullah.
Nyagullah runs off the tower and to the nearest church on their own side of the border. Across the woods they tramped through the previous day, he returns to the church that he believes might provide a starting point for getting a rental healer. Or renting the priest to heal both Janick and Seloniel.
After spending a few hours across the woods to get to the church, Nyagullah then arrives, knocking on the church's door.
"Come in!" the priest asks Nyagullah to enter the church, which he then enters.
"So while we killed the electricity-stealing dragon last night..." Nyagullah starts talking about last night's battle, before being interrupted by the priest.
"What do you mean, we killed the dragon? You're saying that you weren't alone"
"The problem is that two of the warriors got severely injured fighting it. They are pinned in place in a forest tower until we can get a healer to them" the bard answers the priest's question, revealing why he came to his church during the day.
The priest is interested in getting more information about where they are, as well as how they fought the dragon, believing that it will affect what he could do for the two witches. Especially since there are two common ways to rent healers: fee-for-service and on an hourly basis.
"How much do you charge?" the bard asks him, wondering if he should take the fee-for-service or hourly payment schedule.
"How far away is the tower from here?" the priest asks him for distance, believing it will change how much he would charge for renting him to heal the two witches.
In this complicated rent-a-healer world, there were plenty of ways to get discounts: bulk discounts when you had either several patients for the same condition, or, for the hourly rental healers, if you could pay for transportation and escort, and sometimes for the same gender as the patients, Nyagullah tries to determine what could go into the price he'd be quoted by the priest. Also, some guys seemed to prefer female rental healers when they go on a multi-day quest, or on a campaign, which is why they tended to command higher prices if you needed to rent one for more than a day.
"Here's your quote" the priest tells him.
The bard then imagines the face of Seloniel and the other two people left behind at the tower if they find out that he has been shopping as methodically for a rental healer as he would have a major purchase.
Based on the bard's recollection of the village, there's another rental healer in the village, who, rather than to run a church, instead operates from her home. A home that has no special signage, and her husband tended to the field in the meantime. After knocking on her door:
"What can I do for you?" the other rental healer asks him.
"Even though we killed the electricity-stealing dragon, two of my companions got severely injured when fighting it" Nyagullah then re-tells the details he believes are relevant to getting a quote from her.
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Meanwhile, back at the tower, Seloniel is worried for Janick, as Janick, while still alive, is still in a state that makes her worried that the alcohol witch might not survive much longer. On top of that, she is worried that her burns on her arms might force an amputation.
"I really hope that medical help arrives in time to save both her and me!" Seloniel starts crying, while Sulivac is standing guard on the top floor over the region.
"I hope that Nyagullah realizes the urgency of the situation!" Ucry laments, harboring doubts that he would be able to know who to hire as a rental healer, given what's available in that area.
Both keep crying, while Seloniel makes an estimate of the amount of work she would need to do to get the weapons and armor in the no man's land around the toll station to working order, and how much fire magic she would need to cast to do so.
And, of course, rebuilding the tower's door. And all the other work needed to make the toll station livable again, such as an outhouse. We killed the electricity-stealing dragon, only to inherit a burdensome toll station? Seloniel starts secretly regretting having taken part in this quest to kill the electricity-stealing dragon.
Especially when she realizes the financial burdens of its aftermath. And that's assuming no one in the party would be knighted: knighthood comes with its own set of financial burdens. Yet, the tower is still in a decent state of repair; past failed attempts at killing the dragon usually spared the tower beyond breaking its door.
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Back in the village, Nyagullah enters a verbal joust over various aspects of the costs before he could get the quote he desires, and subsequently choose who to rent out.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
"Are you going to give us a discount if we provide our own transportation and escort?" Nyagullah argues with the female rental healer.
"I had my share of bad experiences with male escorts, so the discount for providing your own transportation may not be much!" the female rental healer answers him.
"How much of a discount can you then give, if we provide our own transportation? Also, can your broomstick carry two people?" Nyagullah asks her with vehemence.
"If you want to use my broomstick to get to your patients, then it will cost you extra!" she shouts at Nyagullah.
"How much of an extra? If you go the airborne route, it shouldn't be as expensive as renting a horse-drawn cart for a day because then you wouldn't need to pay for the horse's feed!" the female rental healer then quotes him not a single number, but a base fee plus extras or discounts.
Nyagullah's head is spinning when he tries to compare which of the two healers would be less expensive to hire, transportation included. However, he's confident either one could get the job done.
Some previous people who used my services were people who used my role to make me feel inferior, that I owe them some unsavory favors of a non-medical nature because they paid for my services, the female rental healer keeps to herself, realizing that, while she is able to make a living as a rental healer, she also realizes that some assignments have some darker aspects to these, too.
"How fast is flying to the electricity-stealing dragon's lair on your broomstick if the two of us are riding it?" the bard asks the female rental healer before making a final decision of which healer to rent.
Maybe paying a little extra for flying on her broomstick back to the toll station would be well worth it if it's faster than going there on a hand cart! Depending on how much faster I can get there on the healer's pack broom, Nyagullah is a little concerned about spending too much money on renting a healer vs the potential savings of getting the witches back to health faster. Even though it definitely happened in the past, neither one was willing to give a discount based on the deeds of the patients giving rise to the need for medical attention.
Also, the question of how fast they would get to Janick on the healer's pack broom gives her pause. Once she feels able to formulate an answer, she gives it to him:
"Even with two people on the broomstick, we can still get there several times faster than on a horse-drawn cart!" the rental healer tells the bard.
"I accept, and payment will be made now" the bard then reaches for his purse.
"That will be seventy-five gold" the female rental healer counts the coins to ensure that Nyagullah has paid her properly, before preparing her pack broom.
And getting from the village to the toll station on a pack broom is fast enough that they could feel the clock ticking on them as soon as they arrive to the tower. Once she lands her pack broom:
"Please, lead me to the patients!" the female rental healer asks Nyagullah to guide her inside the tower.
Janick and Seloniel are still inside a room on the third floor, with Seloniel being a little concerned about her burns. When the rental healer arrive, it's not one moment too soon.
"Please take her sleeves off from the burns" the female rental healer addresses Nyagullah.
The bard then rolls Seloniel's sleeves up to her shoulders, revealing that the burns incurred by casting three fuel bomb spells in rapid succession burned almost the full length of her arms to the third degree. And he does the same on Janick before doing it on himself. Once all three are done with their sleeves, the rental witch starts casting her first sequence of spells:
"Holy Nova!" the rental healer screams, while the whole room fills up with yellow light.
"Oh, God, damn it!" Janick groans as the spell hits her and regains consciousness, with her surroundings apparently being too bright for her addled senses to handle.
"Good, Janick has regained consciousness, but she's still hung over somewhat" Nyagullah comments on her health condition.
And Seloniel's burns have healed somewhat, but not completely. However, Nyagullah's stress fractures, which he was able to keep hidden, are completely mended. He steps out of the floor and keeps tabs on the other two.
"Holy Nova, Holy Nova, Holy Nova!" the rental healer keeps screaming, and the room fills with three flashes of yellow light in rapid succession.
"What's going on here?" a confused Janick asks, while her BC is lowering with each flash.
With each of these hits of Holy Nova, the two witches' health conditions improve noticeably. Seloniel's burns gradually get better, until by the end of the fourth use, Seloniel's burns go away completely.
"Your last alcohol spell killed the electricity-stealing dragon, but it had the effect of making you absorb several glasses of wine at once, when you already appeared to have drunk a lot because of your previous spell" Seloniel explains to her.
"We... did it?" Janick has difficulty processing her emotions.
"Yes" Seloniel answers the alcohol witch.
"I apologize for the rental healer I got healing you, but it was practically a "beggars can't be choosers" kind of thing" Nyagullah returns to the third floor. "So it was a choice between two holy wizards"
"I'm not complaining about that. I'm happy to meet with you since it's not every day I can meet with an alcohol witch like you" the female rental healer comments on Janick's use of alcohol magic.
"I knew that girls with magic abilities are often pushed towards either holy or life magic. Or fire magic if a girl can't use either one. I only seem to get recognition on market days" Janick is referring to the magical wine she's selling.
"In the world of rental healers, the most common that had any magical ability used either holy or life magic. Holy wizards are often clergy, and holy magic appears better when you need to cure multiple patients at once, while life magic is less mana-consuming, but is more for finesse healing" Nyagullah tells both patients, since he feels like neither one used rental healers much.
The rental healer turns to the bard. "I see that you used rental healers a lot on your travels, Nyagullah" She then turns to Janick. "What do you mean, you get recognition only on market days? Please forgive me for not knowing anything about your non-combat use of alcohol magic"
"I use alcohol magic to conjure barrels of magical wine" Janick tells her, while she still reeks of magical wine, albeit less than before. "I also use alcohol magic to heal flesh wounds and pestilences, but no more than that"
"Thank you" The rental healer then gets down to the lowest level to leave.
They then return to the roof of the tower. The two witches then dispense advice to the people standing guard on top of it:
"If our lord allows you to live freely after this quest, you can always try your hand as mercenaries. While you may not necessarily command that much of a salary, having killed the electricity-stealing dragon should be enough for you to get started as such" Janick tells them.
"To add to what Janick said, you might want to consider a better suit of armor, Sulivac. A gambeson is not going to work as a mercenary if you want to do so as a halberdier" Seloniel comments on the armor. So please come down to the no man's land and pick a suit of armor that you feel comfortable wearing into battle"
The no man's land contains a wide variety of styles of armor, reflecting the sheer number of attempts made to kill the electricity-stealing dragon. The electricity-stealing dragon drew a wide variety of adventurers of various social classes, ranging from those who struggled to pay for the equipment required for garrison duty in a levy to lords wealthy enough to field a ballista against it, Seloniel leaves Sulivac to inspect what's available, if a little worn down.
Once Sulivac has made a choice, Seloniel wastes no time using fire magic to repair and reshape the suit of armor he picked to his specifications.
Ucry, on the other hand, rushes out of the tower in search of a mercenary company or guild to serve, believing that he could get in that capacity what he didn't as a bandit.
"I'll going to get some planks of wood to rebuild the door" Janick then flies off the tower to get to the nearest lumber mill to get enough maple or birch planks to rebuild the tower's door.