A Story is the thing every prayer is written on top of, and the game introduces it by dropping one in your bag during the opening and then never explaining it. There are three grades and they are not interchangeable.
The grades are also where the money is. Each step up doubles the material and multiplies the value by ten, which is the widest gap between cost and price anywhere in the game.
Forty one recipes want a Story, and most of them are prayers
Every prayer in the game is a 
Blank Softcover Notebook plus 
Ink plus a Story, so the entire church economy runs through this one item. The grade the recipe asks for is what decides whether a prayer is available to you.
| Any grade | 15 | The starter prayers, the Combat, Harvest and Combo prayers, Repose, Excellence, Storms, Likes, Hypno, Old God, both written books and the Newspaper |
| Story I | 2 | The Primer, and the first Improve craft |
| Story II | 19 | Protection, Imagination, Insanity, Prosperity, Purity, Consumption, Demand, Speed, Obedience, Repentance and Music, plus the Dictionary and all three Techbooks |
| Story III | 7 | The Glossary, both Techbook IIs of each color, Printed Poetry and the Trilogy |
The second row is the one that catches people. 
Primer, 
Dictionary and 
Glossary are the Book writing mastery tools, and each one sits a grade higher than the last, so climbing the mastery ladder means climbing the Story ladder first.
Writing one, and the failure nobody mentions
A Story is written at the 
Writing Desk for three 
Faith, two 
Clean Paper and one Ink. It takes ten seconds and two energy, it wants Book writing of six, and it is a graded craft, which means it can come out of the desk as nothing at all.
The one genuinely pleasant thing about it is the insanity. Writing a Story takes a point of insanity off rather than adding one, so it is one of the few benches in the game you can sit at to calm down.
A graded craft started below its mastery can produce nothing while still charging you the paper, the ink and the Faith. At Book writing six it is reliable, and below that it is a gamble with three Faith on the table.
The two Improve crafts are not graded, so once you have a Story in hand upgrading it never fails.
Two Story I make a Story II, and the price goes up tenfold
Improve story I takes two 
Story I and returns one Story II. Improve story II takes two Story II and returns one Story III. So a Story III is four Story I, and neither step can fail.
| Story I | 3 Faith, 2 Clean Paper and 1 Ink | 6 | 50 |
| Story II | 2 Story I | 7 | 500 |
| Story III | 2 Story II | 8 | 5,000 |
Four Story I are worth 200 coins as they stand. Combined into one Story III they are worth 5,000, and the only thing between the two states is two crafts of twelve and sixteen seconds that cannot go wrong.
Buy four, improve twice, sell one
The Tavern stocks ten Story I from its first tier, ten Story II from its second and ten Story III from its third. That means the shop will sell you the bottom of the ladder and buy the top of it.
Buying pushes the price up as the shelf empties, so four Story I off a full shelf cost 50, 53, 56 and 60, which is 219 in total. Two Improve crafts later you are holding a Story III.
| Buy 4 Story I from a full shelf | 219 out |
| Improve twice, 28 seconds and 4 energy | No coins |
| Sell 1 Story III into a full shelf | 3,750 in |
| Net | 3,531 |
A shop pays three quarters of the listed price, and then moves that figure by how many it already holds. The Tavern opens with ten Stories of every grade on the shelf, so the first one you sell lands at the bottom of its range.
Selling into a shelf you have already emptied pays more, up to the full base price. The whole rule is on the trading page.
The three places Stories turn up without a desk
The opening hands you one. The quest that wakes you at the Inquisition Base drops a single Story I along with the technology tabs and the first wood node, which is why one appears in your bag before you have built anything.
Looter chests are the second. The three sizes carry two to five, one to three and three to six respectively, with extra chances on top, and they are the only source that hands over several at once.
The Tavern is the third, and it is the one worth planning around. Buying a Story II for 500 rather than writing two Story I and improving them is often the right call when the Faith is the thing you are short of.
Questions about Stories in Graveyard Keeper 2
What are Stories used for in Graveyard Keeper 2?
Forty one recipes need one. Every prayer in the game is a notebook, an ink and a Story, and the Primer, Dictionary and Glossary that raise Book writing mastery each need a different grade.
How do I make a Story?
At the Writing Desk, for three Faith, two Clean Paper and one Ink. It wants Book writing mastery of six and it is a graded craft, so below that it can produce nothing and still charge you.
How do I get a Story II or Story III?
Improve story I turns two Story I into one Story II, and Improve story II turns two Story II into one Story III. Neither can fail. The Tavern also sells all three grades, one grade per shop tier.
Are Stories worth money?
The grades are 50, 500 and 5,000. Four Story I bought from a full Tavern shelf cost 219 and become a Story III that sells back for 3,750, which is the widest gap between cost and price in the game.
Which prayers need a Story II?
Nineteen recipes do, including Protection, Imagination, Insanity, Prosperity, Purity, Consumption, Demand, Speed, Obedience, Repentance and Music, plus the Dictionary and the three first-tier Techbooks.
Does writing a Story raise insanity?
It lowers it. The craft carries minus one insanity, so the Writing Desk is one of the few places you can work to calm down rather than wind up.
Where else do Stories come from?
The quest that wakes you at the Inquisition Base drops one, and looter chests carry between one and six depending on size. Everything else is the desk or the Tavern.
Needed By
Reward from
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MaterialAcid
Building MaterialAdvanced Detail
ToolAdvanced RodAlchemyAlbedo Tear
AlchemyAlchemic Powder (Blue Rune x2)
AlchemyAlchemic Powder (Blue Rune x3)
