Old characters making trips out east (5)
I believe the answer is:
runes
'old characters' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'trips out east' is the wordplay.
'trips' becomes 'runs' (run is a kind of trip).
'out' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'east' becomes 'e' (synonyms).
'runs' enclosing 'e' is 'RUNES'.
'making' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for runes that I've seen before include "old characters" , "Old letters" , "Small stones bearing symbols with magic significance" , "Mysterious letters" , "marks on old tablets" .)