Written clues, in the form of documents, have been important to me in helping to communicate the back story of the dungeon, as well as the current happenings among the dungeon inhabitants. Sometimes this seems to work and sometimes it doesn't. It is hard to tell how important this has been to the players.
Here are the key documents found in the dungeon and I have placed them in the order they were written by the original authors. While this will be of little interest to random blog readers, it might be helpful to the players of Montporte (given that we have been playing for two years but have also had significant breaks along the way). The links will open a PDF file for each document:
Dwarven Construction Record: This document, part of a larger record of dwarven construction, dates back to the original construction of the Elementalist Monastery that forms the core of the Montporte Dungeon.
Elven Scroll of Pliny the Aldar: An except from a book that has since been lost. Pliny cataloged much of the ancient world and in this fragment tells his readers about the inhabitants of the Elementalist Monastery.
Elementalist Administrative Journal: This fragment belongs to a much larger journal, now lost. It details daily life in the monastery and also hints at some of the problems that eventually led to the monastery's demise.
Dwarven Letter: A portion of a letter, written by a dwarf, during the dark times when the Elementalist Monastery was dying a violent death from within.
Brother Kepler's Letter and Brother Kepler's Note: These two documents are very recent, unlike the rest of the documents above. They were found on two dead bodies and give some background regarding a mysterious "SBF." SBF may be a vampire and may be living in the Montporte Dungeon area.
In addition to the documents, there was a conversation with an NPC, Allindrihl the elf, where the party discovered a lot of background information about the dungeon. This information can be found in the notes for Session 10.