Arista brushes soil from the tarnished dagger and the brittle little journal, a wry smile tugging at one corner of her mouth. “Was hunting for trouble, found coin instead,” she mutters, passing the purse to Asariel for the cart ledger and laying the dagger beside Brekka’s spare shield. Then she eases the journal open to read its content. If it contains language she doesn't understand she invokes a runic charm to render the faded script intelligible (casts Comprehend Languages if needed). She scans the brittle pages in silence, and finally holds the book out for the others to examine. 

(@Asariel: 5 gp, 14 sp, and 30 cp, and the dagger to the cart tracker, please.)

Mathias takes the offered journal and carefully opens it, hoping not to damage the small book as he examines it. 

Kaelen steps over, eager to hear what the journal says.

Arista needs to make a sleight of hand check to avoid damaging the book.  (Anyone handling it needs to, it's quite fragile.)

[[I was gonna roll for Arista to keep the game moving, but I got near the 'book crumbles to dust' DC so I'll give the player's the agency.]]

((Hm, Kaelen can't help with that.))

Quote from Charwoman_Gene >>

Arista needs to make a sleight of hand check to avoid damaging the book.  (Anyone handling it needs to, it's quite fragile.)

 

[[I was gonna roll for Arista to keep the game moving, but I got near the 'book crumbles to dust' DC so I'll give the player's the agency.]]

 Sleight-of-Hand: 7,19 (Using Heroic Inspiration for a re-roll)

[[Sleight of Hand 21]]

While the others search the cave, Brekka stayed near the entrance and kept watch for any uninvited guests.

When he hears the discussion echo to his ears, he rumbles back to his companions, "What did you find?"

[[Peek Behind the screen,  DC less than 5 , crumble to dust, DC 5-9 bad damage, loss of much info, DC 10-14 minor damage,  DC 15+ ok.]]

Arista realizes just in time just how careful she needs to be with the pages. [[Spoiler for Arisinbdicatedta only.]]

 After turning a few pages, she hands the book to Mathias: [[Spoiler for Mathias only.]]

 Neither Mathias nor Arista have indicated sharing their findings so Kaelen hears nothing.

Arista inhales the dusty musk of old ink as she eases a page open, her eyes dancing over its cramped lines until a spark of interest flares. She snaps the cover nearly shut, thumb pressed gently against the fragile edge, and hands the journal to Mathias with an urgent lift of her brows. Rapping her staff once against her palm, she relays in hushed, eager tones the fragments she caught—supply stocks, and a woman’s terse gossip from life inside the Old Keep—then steps aside, inviting the others to pore over the relic while she keeps a watchful eye on the cave mouth, wondering out loud why someone who worked at the Old Keep would bury a journal here of all places —had they fled from something? Perhaps this night, they should study more carefully the latter entries of the journal. 

After scanning the journal, Mathias reads what he has seen aloud, telling the story of personal journal of a woman involved with the upkeep of the old keep. Some dry passages about some personal stories, labor struggles, and a brief sense of mystery and horror regarding weird occurrences.  "It would seem that the journal became more hasty toward the end...something about escaping some sort of unnamed them..." the druid says.  "I would have to spend more time with the journal to get much more out of it, but that would be risky for the journal itself, it is not in particularly great shape."

"My first thought is that they were escaping the same creatures we fought. If I was a worker and they were appearing in the keep, I would want to flee too."

Kaelen nods. "That or something worse."

[[For game purposes, getting more information will require an investigation check, requiring at least an hour of study, more time and note taking materials and a stable environment out of the wilderness could lower the DC, improve the insights into the events, and/or provide advantage. Sleight of hand rolls would still be required but better circumstances would render them fairly trivial.]]

Does anyone have specific plans as I describe the rest of the night?

((Kaelen will ritual cast alarm at the cave entrance in case someone/something tries to get in there. It will be an audible alarm this time. I assume we're doing the same watch schedule as last time? For his, he will position himself in Darkness to take advantage of his Umbral Sight features: 

 ))

Arista brushes the dust from her gloves and nods toward the fragile pages. “Best we tuck it safely away— a town scholar with steady hands might tease out its secrets without crumbling it to powder. It could tell us exactly what drove those keepers to flee.”

(if there's an hour of spare time before the rest: )
Arista strides a fifty-foot arc before the cave mouth, pacing off distance with her staff; she knifes its iron tip into the soil at intervals, invoking runic power in her staff and commands the soil to move (Mold Earth). The ground shudders and dips, scooping a shallow trench, while each scrape of her staff pulls the loosened earth inward to form a low, protective berm that rings the entrance in a crescent of fresh, up-thrown dirt. (Survival: 15)

[[Brekka will keep watch when it's his turn, except this time he has advantage on Perception from the shield. He will also volunteer to sleep outside in a tent so the cave can fit the cart etc]]

You all settle in for your night. Kaelen, you need to be on the other side of the earthen berm to really be in darkness. I assume that's fine with you, just clarifying my mental positioning.

Nearing the end of Kaelen's trance, with Mathias awake, something stirs at the edge of Kaelen's darkvision.

Kaelen, Mathias, make perception checks. 

((Yes, that's fine.))

Kaelen perception: 22

[[Mathias Perception 19]]