[Spoilers?] Bird Thief Quest question

[Arsenic]

Hello, Ive got another quest question.

I've heard about this quest being a bit of a pain but this is my first time getting it. I threw the three feathers onto the burnt out fire on a base rock tile, but I only have five total feathers from the theft.

Can I pick up the feathers I used in the spell in case I need to redo the spell, or should I leave them there and hope it works the first time?

[PALU]

If you did the ritual correctly you shouldn't have to redo it, but I would expect that you could reuse them if it came to that.

As far as I have seen, there are typically two snare locations in the trap tile, so there might be additional feathers to pick up if needed (and another snare), which is what I would look for in case of a new attempt.

It can be noted that it can take a surprisingly long time for the ritual to actually advance things (5 or so days, at a guess), so patience may be needed.

It can also be noted that you've already passed the tedious parts of the quest at this point (managing to get the old bugger to talk about the ritual and finding the trap location).

[Arsenic]

thanks for the info, I didn't realize it could take that long for the spell to work.

[Arsenic]

I completed the quest! and I got a lucky hares paw as a reward.

I actually have a follow up question; I found the bird thief and the game gives me the option to confront him and tell him I was the one who put a spell on him. I feel bad being mean in the game and I don't want to harass the guy about it and get negative rep with the villages. Is there any point to telling him what I did, or is it just some flavor text?

[PALU]

My experience is that it's bad for you to reveal yourself, so I've refrained from doing that. As far as I can tell, all that happens is that the perpetrator gets a low esteem of you, but there's no indication anything else happens, so just keeping it vague seems to be better.

One might have hoped that the perpetrator would have seen it as a lesson to be learnt from, but he acts like most criminals, i.e. blames those catching them rather than their own behavior. Thus, he acts in a realistic manner.