I think the ideas that the gossip would be fairly minimal (or that it would have a hard time getting to Salem's ears) are valid. I doubt kath or anyone else would voluntarily go up to Salem and be like, "Hey, guess what happened!"

[@Lugubrious] I think that since Kath technically only gave a verbal description to Graft of what the local vermin looked like, there might need to be periodic updates to the 'look' of the vermin. Specifically, once a handful had been created and placed under Salem's control, Salem could sneak them into town at night, overpower a sampling of the vermin, and bring dead and living specimens back to the Chateau for Graft to make exact replicas rather than ones based off of a verbal description. I think this would necessitate Salem and Graft working together somewhat, so would Graft be loquacious enough to mention the incident, or at least be in a sour enough mood that Salem would notice something was wrong?