I think the vinegar thing is spelled incorrectly bc its the name of a cipher code.
vigenere cipher. But I'm not really sure if that's it. I figured I would share what I found if it'd be helpful
"five children locked away
some come in, now eight remain
four are gone, what have you done?
now you are the only one."
I tried 5841 but the code didn't work so I'm not entirely sure. I hope it helped at least a little :O)