"Your woman Dietlinde already inkled such. But she was rather vague as to why. So I ask you. Why?"
Japik walks in alongside Quercus a step behind Prochorus. He smiles and greets the villagers inside the building but lets Prochorus do the talking. As they offer them food and drinks he takes some cheese and a goblet and sits on the bench.
He looks around the room a bit impatiently as the talks starts but he smiles and does his best to reinforce whatever Prochorus says with nods and hummings.
Japik looks around the room, noticing that this looks like just an ordinary common room for a peasant's house, although made of stone. There are small bundles of herbs tied up in the kitchen along with a few pots, as well as shelves of ceramic jars. He cannot see the rest of the room clearly, the glimpses he got were of a simple abode.
Just then, he then realizes that the cheese he just sampled is particularly tasty. It has an undertaste of fresh herbs and a hint of smoke, at the same time literally melting in his mouth.
Japik suddenly makes a facial expression of surprise and pleasure.
"Mmmm wow! This is why!" he exclaims to answer the village elder, without thinking. "What a fabulously tasty cheese this is!"
Then he looks at his sodales, first with a smile then he realizes his rashness and gives them an apologizing gesture while putting another piece of the cheese in his mouth to shut it up.
As my companion so aptly demonstrates, we all have different reasons for being here. We share, however, a wish for peace and quiet to conduct our studies in. That is in supply here, is it not?
"Quiet? Not for simple folk like us. We make a living out of a land that isn't forgiving," states another of the men, a gnarled patriach who seems a bit angry at you.
The first man nods, "Indeed, life here is difficult, while there is quiet aplenty elsewhere on the island. Plenty of monasteries around to demonstrate that fact. Didn't see none of them wanting to build one up here." There is some grumbling from the others, and nods of approval.
"So I ask you again, why?"
Well, to be perfectly honest with you,
Prochorus leans in for an aura of confidentiality
it's the tree. We have heard the stories: the moss is strongly poisonous. But this isn't any poison the literature recognizes. We might be looking at a botanical breakthrough, a moss unknown to Aristotle himself!
He pauses for dramatic effect.
And you know how it is. The strongest poison is often the strongest remedy. With appropriate treatment and dosage... who knows! We might be looking at a powerful tonic indeed. Or an aphrodisiac.
Prochorus winks at the scowling man.
This is my main interest, at any rate. Some of the others have different ones.
He gestures at Japik, who is busy stuffing his face.
The angry man explodes, "Do you think your lies can fool us! You're just like those dogs, those whoresons of Da..." the woman who isn't spinning grabs his arm, interrupting his tirade. But there is a lot of unintelligible grumbling at this, not only from the man but from the others as well.
The first man turns back to Prochorus and the magi. "Forgive my cousin for his outburst. But he has a point. We have been lied to often enough in the past, by outsiders like yourself, who made promises that they broke when it was convenient for them to do so. We are simple folks, who work our poor land and make a living of it. Simple, but hardworking and honest, so we are untrustful of (he uses an unfamiliar word) tongues who bring wild tales and make tall promises."
His tone changes slightly, as if this was some kind of formal question. "So I ask a third time. Why?"
Quercus leans forward and whispers to Prochorus.
Remember that we can offer to pay them for their work and offer improvements to their standards of living through cheap firewood, access to running water and other minor magical services. Consider making the kind of stuff we study clearer, we do not want to antagonize them.
An irritated look flashes across Prochorus' face, but immediately disappears.
If I have offended you, I offer my apologies. I am not sure what more I can tell you, however. We want to live here. What is there to fear? We are innocent of any harms the Danish lord has inflicted upon you; we can only promise that we will do what we can to help. We may be able to supply you with some amenities - firewood, water, perhaps. Time will prove our sincerity.
"Offend us? No," says the apparent leader of the elders. He sighs, "But you come to our village telling us you want to settle on our land, offering scant reasons for it. We ask you why, but you instead of answering simply, you weave and swerve." He shakes his head. After a moment, he gestures toward the other elders. "Do you really think us fools? We may be simple lead a simple people now, but you are not the first foreigners to come here."
He then looks at the three of you in turn.
Even to the other two magi, the way that Prochorus couched his explanation as to why you wanted to settle on Oberland sounded... very much like a dismissive excuse, with very little credibility.
((OOC: When I rolled for Prochorus' Guile, the result was a botch. 
It is not something that Prochorus himself will realize, but both Japik and Quercus may recognize that this is going badly. I am letting the players know, so that the other two magi can try to salvage the situation. It just took your magi a few moments to realize it.))
Japik suddenly stops chewing his piece of cheese and looks strangely sideways at his companion. "Wait" he says rising up and moves to the table with cheese, cutting a slice that he splits in two while he goes back to his seat. "Here take this and stay quiet for a while." he tells Prochorus with a smile and hands him one of the pieces of cheese while he keeps the other.
Then he looks quickly at Quercus before turning back towards the village elders.
"You ask us why we would like to settle here on the Oberland on your grounds, and the simple reason is that we are interested in studying the peculiar tree by the cliff and we have also found some interesting things buried in the sea bottom just outside the island in that same direction. It's a very interesting place for us scholars. However we don't want to disturb you in any way, quite the contrary we want to stay on friendly footing with you and therefore we have come here to ask you for permission to settle by the tree and see what you may ask in return if you gave us such permission."
He pauses for a short while and looks at the piece of cheese in his hand. "But primarily this is the reason why we want to stay." he says and smiles broadly at the hosts before putting the piece in his mouth.
There is a bit a grumbling from the elders, and a few quickly whispered words as they confer about Japik's words. Turning back to the magi (not that they know them as such), the main speaker asks, "When you say settle by the tree, what did you have in mind? Your community, how large would it be? And what would you expect of us?" His tone is still cautious.
Seeing that Japik is having a more successful run with the elders Quercus decides not to intervene. Seems that these people prefer direct truth over mild words after all. Maybe they will be able to reveal their magical powers soon enough without scaring them up. Or not too, much at least. Maybe they might ever be accepting them as magi, who knows. But that is all wishful thinking, and he is more grounded than to think this will play out very well.
The planned community will be around 15 to 20 people for starters. The magi have already discussed that Ober should be used as a resource for most mundane stuff and labour, as well as a source for potential recruits, guards and servants if they want to work with the magi. Not a large community, but with the potential of growth. A small covenant is less conspicuous after all than a large one.
"Well there are about 20 or so of us but some will be at sea most of the time. We have plans to erect a couple of buildings on the land immediately surrounding the tree, but then we also talked about excavating some of the cliff below. We don't really expect anything from you, other than being good neighbours, but if you allow us to settle we would be happy to pay for any manpower and help you could provide. Your familiarity with this island will also be an asset we would be more than happy to take advantage of, for recompense of course."
“What! Twenty? Diggin’ in the cliff?” explodes the angry man again, before he is reined in by the elderly woman.
The spokesman frowns, before elaborating. “It does seem like a lot of people, to simply study a tree...” There is sarcasm at the end of the sentence. Clearly, he doesn’t really believe your story about the tree. “Our small land cannot sustain a second village,” he explains. “Any grassland that you occupy will mean less fodder for our flocks.” His tone darkens, “Which could mean starvation for us. The best grass grows over there, which is why we still bring our animals there to graze despite the risk to them.”
He shakes his head, “I don’t understand what you say about digging into the cliff below. That’s stone, and there is nothing there, so why go to that effort? We lose a little bit of the cliff every year, to the tides and storms. Digging would seem to me as making it worse, would it not?”
((OOC: The village has about 50-60 people living in it, so if your covenant has 20+ people residing on the plateau, it may have a significant impact on them.))
Japik looks at his two sodales before continuing.
"You shouldn't worry about starvation and lack of resources because we bring more people to the plateau. As we have said we are scholars and some of us specialize in methods to increase the productivity of the land while others specialize in digging and excavating the ground and cliff. We will also make use of the sea to a higher level than you have done up here before. All this will come to your benefit if we can come to an agreement. The digging in the stone means we don't have to occupy as much of the precious pasture land. Don't worry how it's done and it won't make the effect from storms and tides worse, quite the contrary we should be able to hold that at bay when we are settled."
He takes a pause and moves over to the food table to cut another piece of cheese. Turning to Quercus and Prochorus. "You want some more?"
Quercus gets interested at the fact that the area around the tree seems to have better grass to the locals. He had noticed it as well, but given the influence of the Perdo vis in the tree he thought it was a temporal anomaly. This and the tugging towards communicating that the tree seemed to show (he curses himself for not being able to do that yet) rings a bell in his Herbam mind. Maybe the lichen's Perdo vis is not all that it seems. Maybe the lichen is a magical parasite feeding from an Herbam or Creo tree... He will have to share this thought and see if his sodales can help him in discovering the truth.
"There," exclaims the angry elder, addressing the other elders, "I told you! There they come, those strangers, to force upon us their way o' living!" He rises from his bench, shaking his cane at the magi. "I'll have you know, foreigners, that we have our way of living! What right do you have to come and tell us what to do, how to live! THIS IS OUR LAND!" He roars, then glares at you, still standing and breathing heavily.
For once, the spokesman did not interrupt him. He looks at the magi coldly. Of the other elders, only the woman spinning wool seems to be unaffected by the outburst. The others are frowning and look quite angry.
"So. You say that we don't have to fear a lack of resource, because you have ways to make sure there is no lack. In short, you are telling us that we should but our lives in your hands. That of our families, our children. 'Have no fear,' you say, 'we will teach you how to make better use of the land and provide you with riches from which to live.' It seems to me that you do indeed think us fools."