As you walk in, you smell the beautiful crisp scent of burning wood.  This oak-paneled room looks like a hunter's den.  Mounted above the fireplace is a stag's head, and positioned around the outskirts of the room are three stuffed wolves, locked in pose.  They look life-like and have been meticulously kept.  Two padded chairs draped in animal furs face the hearth, with an oak table between them supporting a cask of wine, two carved wooden goblets, a pipe rack, and a candelabrum. A chandelier hangs above a cloth-covered table surrounded by four chairs.  Two cabinets stand against the walls, one to the west and one to the north.  
There is also an ornate chest next to the cabinet on the left side of the room (opposite the fireplace). There is a table to the south as well. 
You hear the fire roaring and a whining sound, almost like wet wood in the fire - a high -pitched, droning hiss....

Want to do anything in this room?

Map (let me know if you want to be somewhere else;)

Talion will move cautiously to examine the contents of the cabinets...

Sho Zuan does a silent facepalm as his companions helplessly making even more noises in attempts to hide, good thing he is well-hidden that on one notices him. After a somewhat anti-climatic reveal, he makes his way inside the seemingly empty room, glancing around at the decors and displays of triumph, and checks out the cabinets with Talion.

@Sho and @Talion - investigation check please (one with advantage or two separately)

Talion investigation (adv):19

Onyx stumbles into the room, tripping over his own feet as he too fails to step lightly. While the others investigate the cabinet, his eyes drift to the ornate chest beside them.  About to simply try and open it, he notices how carefully Talion and Sho are checking over the cabinets.

"Good idea, friends.  If this whole place is a trap, I should try to be as careful as you "

He carefully pokes around the chest, inspecting it for traps but stopping short of actually opening it.

Investigation (if necessary) 9

Erven joins Onyx, almost trips on the transition in the flooring leading into the room.  He comes over to look at the ornate chest, looking for traps and any locking mechanism, determining if it is locked or suspicious.  "Agree with you there, Onyx.  Let's be careful."

Perception : 23

@Talion and @Sho
You look closely at the cabinets.  Peering in the locks, you can see the locking mechanism on the eastern western cabinet is engaged (so locked), while the one on the northern wall is not (not locked).  

@Onyx and @Erven
With both of you looking you can tell that this chest, while ornate, is much older than the other wood in this room.  Moving some papers around that sit on top, you draw your hand back in surprise.  There is some sort of symbol crudely carved into the top, as if someone scratched it there with their fingers - and you do see a bit of dried blood and bloody fingerprints on the symbol and chest.  From what you can tell, it doesn't seem trapped or locked.

Working on the assumption that locked cabinets usually contain the more interesting items, Talion glances around the room, then at Sho, "You may want to stand back" he says to Sho, "there's no telling how our host might react..." he looks at his other companions, "You may all want to stand back....unless there's anyone who can help."

Open Locks: 17 (( I don't think there's anything that can be added to that can improve the roll ))

If he succeeds, he will usher everyone out and open both cabiets from the other room...

[there's no help for picking a lock]

Your mage hand opens the western cabinet - no vortex appears to suck you into oblivion.

You can't open the other because you can't see it from where you are.

Once the western one is open, he moves to the south-west corner of the room and opens the other from there.

Once the western one is open, he thinks about moving to the south-west corner of the room and opening the other one, but decides it's probably safer to have only one open at a time. He looks in the open one.

You open the lock with no problem using your thieves tools.  Your mage hand opens it and you look inside:   It holds a heavy crossbow, a light crossbow, a hand crossbow, and 20 bolts for each weapon.  You also find a crowbar, some beeswax, and a set of fine clothes.

Talion sighs in relief. No zombies, no astral vortex, no explosion, and more weapons -- things are looking up!

"Anyone want a crossbow?" he asks, a smug look on his face as he nods his head in the direction of the open cabinet.

He doesn't take anything yet, but instead looks in the other cabinet.

The north cabinet holds a small box containing a deck of playing cards and an assortment of wine glasses.  Rummaging a bit more, you find an intricately designed chamber pot (cleaned and unused luckily), some rope, and two pairs of leather riding boots, well-oiled and in great condition.

“I would like the light crossbow if no one minds.”  Erven picks it up and the bolts to go with it.  “Here is a javelin in case anyone wants it.”  

He walks back over to the chest, “Bloody fingerprints on the top of this, I have a bad feeling about this but I feel like we need to open it.  Everyone ready?”

Talion shrugs at Erven's question. Squirrel, that one. Just like me. "Let's get everyone sorted first."

He picks up the heavy crossbow and hands it to Onyx. "I guess that means this is yours, old man", then he turns to Bertolt, lifting up the hand crossbow, "Can you use one of these? Finnicky things. No range, but better than nothing."

He examines the clothes and, last of all, takes the Beeswax. The latter seems to please him greatly. He warms it in his hand for a few moments before flattening it out and sticking it in a pocket. When he is finished he looks up and smiles, then returns his attention to the chest.

When everyone has a weapon that they can use, he nods to the cabinet "Ammo's in there". Then he looks at the chest, "Everyone ready? Stand back and I can open...".

A phantasmal hand floats in the air near the chest, and Talions own right hand starts to glow with a purplish light.

(( He will open the chest when everyone is ready ))

@Talion
As you cast your mage hand again and the light from your own hand grows, the fire in the fireplace seems to dim a little bit.  The clasp clicks open and the lid is lifted by the hand.  A horrible wailing escapes from it as if bottled up.  The room grows quiet and as you creep forward, you see that the box has something inside of it.  You can see a blood-stained parchment, it has writing on it.  If you lift it up, underneath it you see two crudely extricated human eyes, the orbs still wet with blood and the tendons still twitching.  Below them lies a human tongue, wriggling gently in vain, trying to mouth words it will never speak again...

Erven looks over Talion's shoulder, in a slightly annoying way, "Whatcha got there?"  Then he sees the tongue and eyes, wiggling and feels disgusted, angry.  He gathers himself again to look at the parchment with Talion.  He is starting to become used to the steady stream of gore this house is providing..

The letter reads as follows: 

 Are you all in the room right now?