If I'm correct, orcs won't attack you as a cat. So you can finish poison the well quest easier by simply going right past the orcs. You can come back later to kill them all, but at low level, you probably can't take them all on yet.
Then again, I haven't played DD in ages, so I don't really remember... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Tovi 
