Help with bird thief spell

[krikkit war robot]

I have the bird thief quest and have completed most of it: found the trapping site, brought a bird to the old man, etc. The old man told me how to cast the spell. The guy who gave me the quest lives at a small settlement with no sauna, so I went to the nearest village, lit a fire in the sauna, then threw the three feathers from the trapping site in the stove after it burned out.

Several days have passed since then; I would estimate a week and a half or two weeks. The bird thief still hasn't confessed. Did I do something wrong? Does the spell have to be cast in the same village if you do it in the sauna? I can't cast it on base rock because the ground is hidden by the snow.

[PALU]

You don't have to cast the spell in a sauna in the same village. Another village works, but I haven't tried the new player built one.
It takes an annoyingly long time for the bird thief to confess, so a week wouldn't surprise me, but longer than that is suspicious. After that much time I'd try to perform the spell again at another site if I had enough feathers (or could recover the ones used). I also read and re-read the casting instructions to make very sure they're performed correctly when I have to repeat it.

[JP_Finn]

I have inconsistent results using sauna stoves. Whenever I get this quest, I'll travel to a closest mountain and build small fire on bare baserock. Has worked without a fail for me.
(village sauna is bad choice anyway. The villagers must have propane torch for fire lighting: it's instant. No loading firewood, not 2min+ long lighting procedure. In short, you'll risk losing the feathers with no warning)