Thanks for the hints, completing the witch quest was quite helpful. Now I'm trying to fight the wolves near the village, though I can't seem to manage without having the either witch or the archer-woman die on me. I'll work on it some more.
Edit: I did it!
![Smile](images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
I found an easy-ish mob protecting an altar, beat them and got enough authority from the altar to be able to hire enough peasants to complete the wolf-quest.