So where are we at? Jones got a 24 on his Fort save (which I think passes, since the scream was DC 23).
That means the rest of Hetna's turn?
Hetna, seeing the main threat is unfortunately still breathing, waves her rod again and disappears.
"Sledge, tie up one of these men and leave the rest unconscious."
"Osric, see if your Magic Circle can free him from his enchantment. He might know what happened here."
Osric will move forward so the Magic Circle catches all of them. They get new Will saves at +4.
He'd rather save Dispel Magic for counterspelling, but if we need it that is an option.
"You'll never get us to betray the mistress! Not even if you inflict heinous tortures upon us!" three of them shout in unison.
The fourth looks at you pleadingly.
"Please, help us! The witch has had us ensorcelled for gods know how long!"
"Traitor!" the others shout.
"Loud."
Zone knocks the other three out and left the fourth one conscious.
"Mind telling us more about yourselves and how you cross path with the witch?"
"We were mercenaries, at first. We were hired to guard the abbey, it was an easy gig, or so we thought. Then we found out she was working with vampires, making some kind of weird elixir in that cauldron to feed to them. We tried to leave that night but she caught us and...well, you can guess the rest."
"Where is the cauldron?"
"Right over there." he points, at the fireplace.
A blood red elixir bubbles slowly there.
"I can identify potions by taste."
"I don't even need to taste it."
Jones takes out a vial from his alchemy kit, scoops up some of the liquid, and studies it for a few seconds.
Jones is flummoxed...he's never seen this mixture before. Apparently it's a mixture of Hetna's own devising, since Jones has memorized even many obscure texts full of alchemical formulas and this bears little resemblance to any of them. He can make out the faint traces of a spell resembling False Life, but also hints of bastardized, twisted forms of Protection From Evil, Awaken, and Poison. Also scarberries, presumably for flavor.
"Hmmm..."
Jones turns to the mercenary.
"You say you saw her feeding this to the vampires. Did they seem to behave differently after they drank it?"
Meanwhile, if the unconscious guards are sufficiently restrained, Osric will channel to heal.
Followed by a spell on himself, burning Sure Casting .
"Hmmm..."
Jones turns to the mercenary.
"You say you saw her feeding this to the vampires. Did they seem to behave differently after they drank it?"
"They seemed really happy. And...clear? I don't know the word for it. They acted kinda like us under the spell before they drank it, and then acted different after. Seemed addictive too, they kept coming back for more, more and more desperate every time."
"We can take it back to the vampires in that city, test it on some of the peons."
"We can come back and analyze this after we have dealt with the witch and the vampire."
"We can leave the witch alone as long as she does not shows her face. I think there is a lesson to be learned. That is to let the smooth talkers smoothen out the conversation first before clamping on them with our fangs. Sometimes, having some information is better than letting a slippery eel out of your grasp. Still, interesting viewpoint of vampires. Raising an undead army or making more servants by having the vampires ingesting the contents of her brew. Looks like she has an agenda of her own."
Zone looks into the cauldron and back at their captive.
"How many vampires did she fed this liquid?"
"I'm not sure. At the time, they didn't really seem relevant through the fog. I didn't keep count. A lot though."
"We should bottle some samples now, in case they try to get it out of our grasp while we clear the building."
"Also..."
Sledge searches the room for ingredients or notes that may be related to the brew.
Sledge finds a small wooden box, closed and locked with a simple latch, and copious amounts of detailed notes in one drawer. There are also four scrolls of Protection From Evil and a small vial of golden liquid in a lined subsection of another drawer with its own set of notes tucked beside.
The potion in the cauldron is Bloodbrew Elixir. Looking at the notes the brew in the fire i actually only half finished, and needs a few more ingredients and a few more hours to brew by the looks of it.
The elixir is quite interesting. On the surface, it's merely a bottled False Life potion with some minor downsides to the drinker (1d10+3 temp HP for one hour, but a -2 on saves against energy drain and negative energy effects). However, that is only its effects on LIVING creatures. A vampire that drinks it gains the benefits, ignores the downsides, and is freed from the control of its master (if any) for the duration. This would allow a Vampire Spawn to move freely and act independently from its progenitor for an hour at a time...which answers quite a few mysteries with your investigation.
However, it has one further effect on the undead drinker: it is HIGHLY addictive. Any vampire that drinks it is instantly hooked, and it is incredibly difficult to shake the addiction as well.
-----------------
The other vial is even more interesting. This is a (mostly depleted) vial of the fabled Sun Orchid Elixir, an incredibly valuable substance that restores the drinker to the prime of their youth. Six doses per year are auctioned off from the city-state in Thuvia where it is manufactured. People come from the world over in hopes of getting the elixir, and the auction is a source of great wealth for the nation: Even losing bids are forfeited to the auction house.
The notes detail how the countess Carmilla Caliphvaso (owner of this abbey) secured a vial many many years ago, and has been using it one drop at a time to artificially extend her life (while merely seeming to age incredibly gracefully). However, her bids to claim another vial have all been failures over the years. She hired a famous alchemist, who sent his head researcher, Ramoska Arminos (the nosferatu you met who was being held prisoner) to aid her in using what was left to craft anotherlife extending elixir. After years of failure, however, she replaced him with the witches of Bartoi, Aisa and Hetna Dublesse.
The current experiment involves using vampire humors, an idea that Ramoska was toying with before his replacement. The idea is to mix immortal, undead flesh with the elixir to create a bastard immortality, leaving the countess unaging but not QUITE undead. This requires enormous amounts of raw materials however, so the witches, through their connection with the Whispering Way, contacted Radvir Giovanni to provide the vampire corpses for their research.
The notes end here. Apparently they've not yet had success with the mixture.
As for the remaining elixir, while not a full dose it is enough to trim add some years to the drinker's life, should anyone wish to partake.
"So this little bottle is worth literally thousands of gold?"
"Yes, though it depends on the buyer. I imagine someone in their prime wouldn't appreciate the benefits as much as someone nearing the end of their life. I also wonder if it would grant the drinker a proportionate number of years based on the typical lifespan of their race. If so, it would be an enormous boon to, say, an elf or a tiefling. But we can worry about that later." Jones puts the elixir in his haversack.
"For now, we should think about this Bloodbrew elixir. We know that a number of spawn had been taken from the more powerful vampires - behaving as if they were controlled by someone else, rather than freed of control. Now we know who is controlling them, and how. More importantly, it seems that Radvir is one of her pawns, and is providing vampire corpses in exchange for Bloodbrew."
"Perhaps if we keep an eye on this room for the next hour, Radvir will come right to us, seeking his next dose."
"Or we bottle as much as we can and ruin this batch, and use the leftover bits to blackmail him."
Jones grimaces. "A bit cruel...but I suppose he won't suffer for long after we bring him to Luvick. And he may be the only one who can tell us where the witch has gone."
"I am up for whatever we plotted. There is a question of finding him among many vampires lurking here."
"I am quite willing to kill any vampires we find lurking in this place; if one is this Radvir, we will capture him and bring him to Luvick of course.
If the witches are allied with the Whispering Way it would be best to face them now rather than when they have more of their foul cult backing them up. If we let them live we will have to face them later with more allies."
Zone raises an eyebrow when his ears caught the mention of the witch being a follower of the Whispering Way.
"She is?"
The xeph ruffles the papers.
"She is. Hetna Dublesse. One sounds witchy and the other noble. Pretty sure I nicked her good. I am not going to give the benefit of doubt and say that she is around, licking her wounds. Let's assume she is already moving to inform her allies and finding a sanctuary to heal. She might still be in this location, only a different section. If we needed to track her or she is far away..."
He reveals a dagger with the blood of the witch dripping from it. Scouring a vial, Zone lets a drop into the container and flicks his dagger to get the blood off. He then hands it to Osric.
"We can use that vial to scry on her."
He frowns as he looks at the cauldron again.
"Now that I think of it. Radvir won't fall for our plots. He's kind of a big shot so he won't be needing this formula. He is probably holding up somewhere and letting his underlings doing his dirty work to soften us up before we face him. Whether or not he is working with the witch or against, there is still a way to blackmail him although our cleric may not like it."
"I have not prepared spells of Scrying. If the witch escapes us, we can try that tomorrow."
Osric pauses, then looks at Zone.
"I fought the Whispering Way, nine hundred years ago with the Shining Crusade. I fought along General Arnisant and General Iomedae. I destroyed more undead than I can count. And, yes, we used strategems and ploys. I understand the necessity of such things, as well as alliances with unsavory elements. So do not mistake this for naivete or squeamishness.
But clever tricks take time to set up, specialized skills, magical countermeasures, and a great deal of patience. I am more suited to the direct approach. So no, I do not wish to try to blackmail Radvir.
I imagine the witch went to gather her sister and other forces in this place. They can ill afford to lose the contents of this cauldron. We could await them here or pursue them, but I don't think Hetna has gone far."
"Wait, if you're planning to search the abbey, beware of the catacombs below it. There are all sorts of things down there. At least one vampire knight the witches made to feed on us, and other things besides. Please don't die down there and leave us in their control."
"We can force him to drink some and use that as leverage."[b/]
[b]"Y'all should go."
Sledge pulls out enough rations for them to reach the nearest town, and 10 gold.
[b]"Find a church and tell 'em what happened. They'll know if any magic is necessary to make you safe, probably."[/
"I think binding him in the enchanted chains from Luvick will be all the leverage we need. When we are ready to move on the catacombs I can cast Death Ward on myself and one other, but it will not last long. I also have a spell to block teleportation if we run into that witch again."
Zone shrugs as he fills a container he takes from the room with a large dosage.
"We don't even need to force it down his throat. We let his minions do the work for us. Whatever setup is already done for us so no need to waste our time thinking. The substance here and the spawns are our leverage and assurance. Remember the way I mentioned that our cleric might dislike or disapproval? We indirectly controlled the spawns who drank the stuff that lies in this pot. Find them, have them follow us, threaten Radvir when we find him and if he doesn't let us arrest him, we splash some of this on him and sic his creations at him. No fear of adding the chain to increase our chances to persuade him if it increase our chances."
"A visual demonstration of our control over the elixir could help with...negotiations. Sledge, do you think you could carry the cauldron on your back without being slowed down? It wouldn't need to be full - we could bottle a large number of doses' worth, and dump the rest."
"And I can give Death Ward to the two of us that Osric does not."
"Hey, Jones, do the trap-checking and unlocking thing on this box."
Sledge covers the cauldron , and easily hoists it and ties it to his back. He will also tie the lid shut.
He'll make sure there's plenty of padding so he doesn't get burned if it's still hot.
Interestingly, the cauldron isn't hot at all. Curiously, on second glance, the fire in the fireplace is a Continual Flame, and is purely cosmetic. The Elixir bubbles and radiates heat, so there is clearly magic involved.