well I had an all good party headed by a paladin with impeccable charisma and well skilled in the diplomatic arts, and the ranger people took an attitude with me so I slaughtered them all. I figured they were bad guys, besides, they're in league with werewolves. I also managed to loot the werewolves cave without them turning hostile (do it first time, pause as soon as you open it and you can take everything out while paused, then unpause to be warned off). I didn't kill the werewolf leader, because he was polite, and he has a store (and I never kill storekeepers if I can help it).
I also managed to find all ingredients and get the airship repair spell started before leaving the area at all. In fact I didn't even realise there was another way out until Oswald told me I wasn't going to ride in his lovely baloon again.
