🏙 UrbanPact

The realm's building yards were quiet today save for one, and Skillzville made the most of it. Ground was broken on a Falconry Mews and the doors stood open before the day was out — the only project finished anywhere in the realm, and a landmark of its own to put on the visiting map.

The honors ran the same way. Every medal earned in the realm today went to bradskillz: Cornerstone at Platinum, and Line Caller and High Roller both at Gold. He also had the day's only first meeting out in the wilderness — a Muskox Calf at 159 pounds, a slot filled in a passport that can only ever be filled once.

Elsewhere in the camps, trophy boards moved and every single one of them stopped on the same figure: 242 pounds. Karen and ☃ each hung an Elder Ice Bear, PlasmaEddie an Ice Bear, and Jensen DisasterCthulhu Ԙ: ⚔️🏹 and Jörg both a Great Aurochs — five different camps, five different beasts, one number.

Purses ran the other way. The vendor took 107,904 gold out of the realm's pockets — more than the shop counters paid in, more than wages — with Buzzaroo and ʂɧąŋɛ (Ɩąʂ ۷ɛɠąʂ) 🇺🇸 making the heaviest trips, and Invitations to Mr. Crane's Reserve going off the shelf again. Bigger still was David (davesnothere) AZ-USA, who put 90,000 gold into his Estate in one movement. And for the gamblers, 10,000 in bingo cards came back as 57,000 — a good night at the hall, and five cheers went out over it.

At the close, both leaders had fallen a long way and only one of them noticed. Crimson's City settled at 10,874, down from 14,507, but 🏗 Build came down too and finished just 454 behind — closer than yesterday's 680. Against the tide, Wierdoton and Smurftopia both climbed. XM Nexus drew 493 prestige through 25 visits, the busiest gates in the realm, while the trade roads ran yesterday's tonnage exactly, unit for unit. Nine days sit on the board; all nine of them carry Crimson's City's name.

There is a new name on the map. LordTrolldemort founded Paradise today, the realm's twelfth city — and rather than spend the day surveying, broke ground on a Coal Shaft and had it finished before dusk. Two medals came with it, Foreman and Builder, and four cheers arrived from elsewhere in the realm to mark the founding. Every building raised anywhere today was that one shaft.

Higher up the board, two cities put their shoulders into it at once. Crimson's City closed the day at 14,507 — it has now led every one of the last nine closed days — but the gap behind it very nearly shut: 🏗 Build came up from 5,249 to 13,827, finishing just 680 short. Build's pitheads did most of the talking, with 9,596 coal, the largest single haul in the realm; Crimson's fields answered with 8,808 grain.

Out past the last road, Abolfazl provisioned a party and went — taking Packed and Ready and First Expedition in the same trip. Eight players are living in the wilderness at the moment, and a first expedition is how most of them eventually find their way to a gate. They were two of the realm's five medals today; PlasmaEddie claimed another, carrying Hauler up to Obsidian.

In Skillzville, GrumpyGecko opened a Confectioner and put sweets on the shelf. Elsewhere the Trading Post did brisk business — some 83,461 gold crossed the vendor's counter, with David (davesnothere) AZ-USA walking out under an armful of hired help and a rush token, which is what a long night at the workbench looks like when you plan ahead.

The roads ran a touch quieter than yesterday — 198 wagon legs against 208 — and XM Nexus remained the realm's destination, drawing 485 prestige from twenty-one visitors come to see what it has built.

Count the day's money and the shape of the Age of Commerce is plain to see. Across the realm's zoned streets, 4,361 sales put 96,412 gold into players' purses — more than the 77,898 paid out in wages over the same day. Twelve of the realm's twenty-four players now trade as Tycoons, and today the shopkeeping half of that trade earned more than employment did.

The shelves held up well under it. Only one shop anywhere ran its stock down to nothing — the Victualler in SpudVille, bare counters and a queue of disappointed families — and just seven Supply Runs went out all day to top anything up.

One medal went to a player and one to a city. Jensen DisasterCthulhu Ԙ: ⚔️🏹 took Trapper to Mythic, a reward for pelts hauled home in quantity over a long stretch of hunting. Double 0 Training Ground took Commerce at Bronze, stepping onto a ladder its builders have been laying the ground for. Somewhere in the realm, a tool went up a level too.

The vendor had a busy counter of his own: 50,929 gold crossed it over eighteen purchases, five of them Invitations to Mr. Crane's Reserve — bought by Buzzaroo, Jensen DisasterCthulhu Ԙ: ⚔️🏹, ʂɧąŋɛ (Ɩąʂ ۷ɛɠąʂ) 🇺🇸, Karen and CrimTest1. ʂɧąŋɛ made the day's single largest movement at 7,888, while David (davesnothere) AZ-USA bought rested potions five at a time. Fortune was kind besides: bingo paid 21,000 back against 6,000 spent on cards. And out in the country bradskillz met a Desert Bighorn at 196 pounds — the only first meeting anywhere in the realm today, and a new page in his Passport.

Crimson's City closed the day at 8,776, up from 7,374 and an eighth straight day at the head of the board. What's notable is the company: all five leading cities finished higher than the day before — Smurftopia to 5,655, 🏗 Build to 5,249, Wierdoton to 5,100 — though XM Nexus barely stirred, gaining under fifty. The wagons ran heavier too, carrying 8,200 units over the same 108 routes against yesterday's 6,200, and Crimson's fields brought in 4,899 grain. All of it needed: XM Nexus currently has 47,275 families still waiting on a cottage.

Every first meeting recorded in the realm today belongs to one hunter. bradskillz went out into the wilderness and came back having met six species he had never laid eyes on before — a Mule Deer, a Feral Hog, a Pronghorn, a Feral Longhorn, a Barbary Sheep and an Old Longhorn, the last of them a 233-pound animal. Six slots in a Wildlife Passport that only fill once, all stamped in a single day.

The rest of his day matched it. The realm struck exactly one medal today, and it was his: Naturalist to Diamond. Then he went home and spent 175,000 gold on his Estate — the day's single largest movement of gold by a wide margin, and rather more than the vendor took from the whole realm besides.

Two towns worked with unusual speed. Skillzville broke ground on a Cartographers' Guild and a Clockmaker's Tower and had the roofs on both before the day was out, while Double 0 Training Ground did the same with a Grand Theatre — three buildings, start to finish, in a day, and not one project left standing half-built anywhere in the realm.

At the top of the board, Crimson's City held on for a seventh straight day at 7,374 — but the day before it had closed at 8,500, and the field is closing. Smurftopia climbed from 3,982 to 4,770 and Wierdoton from 4,180 to 4,695, both hard on the heels of XM Nexus at 5,124. Buzz Hollow 🏘️, meanwhile, finished within two points of its own previous day — 4,817 to 4,819.

Elsewhere it was a day of small errands. The Victuallers in Crimson's City and Smurftopia sold their shelves bare, and only a dozen Supply Runs went out to answer. Four more Invitations to Mr. Crane's Reserve left the Trading Post, David (davesnothere) AZ-USA laid in rested potions by the handful, and the bingo hall ran blackout after blackout — with ten cheers passed between players for the wins.

Two purses opened very wide today. Karen spent 350,000 gold on her Estate. GrumpyGecko spent exactly the same, on hers. Between them, 700,000 gold left the realm's pockets in a single day — set against the 96,334 that every shop counter in every town took in over the same hours, it is the kind of sum that makes the rest of the ledger look like small change.

The Trading Post had a day of its own. Six players — Karen, CrimTest1, Buzzaroo, Jensen DisasterCthulhu Ԙ: ⚔️🏹, ʂɧąŋɛ (Ɩąʂ ۷ɛɠąʂ) 🇺🇸 and AMKS — each carried away an Invitation to Mr. Crane's Reserve. The vendor's stalls saw 130,188 gold across thirty-one visits, with Buzzaroo, AMKS and Jörg each dropping over 7,000 in a single trip, while David (davesnothere) AZ-USA quietly stocked up on rested potions instead.

Fortune was in a generous mood. The realm laid out 9,500 gold on bingo cards and the prize containers handed back 78,000 — and the day's only two medals both came from that same corner of the world, bradskillz taking Fortune to Diamond and David (davesnothere) AZ-USA to Platinum. Four cheers went out across the realm for bingo wins, which is a nicer way to spend a day than most.

In Double 0 Training Ground the masons broke ground on a Marble Bathhouse and had it standing before the day was out — the only building the realm finished anywhere. Its sawyers brought in 2,881 timber besides, and the town closed 4,524 against the previous day's 3,350, one of the sharpest climbs on the board.

At the top, Crimson's City closed at 8,500, a sixth straight day leading the realm. 🏗 Build made the biggest jump of anyone, 5,138 to 6,572. And XM Nexus — flat on the board, at 5,051 against 5,059 — was nonetheless the realm's busiest doorstep, drawing 610 prestige across twenty-eight landmark visits with four separate importers carrying silk and diamonds through its gates. Four counters elsewhere stood bare by dusk, and only eighteen supply runs went out to answer them.

Almost nothing changed about the realm's roads today. A hundred and eight routes ran, against a hundred and six yesterday; the same wagons, the same yards, the same drivers. And yet 222 legs came home carrying 11,700 units where yesterday the identical machinery moved 5,700. Two fresh deals were struck on top of that. It is rare for a fixture to simply decide to work twice as hard.

All that freight met a realm whose shelves were already emptying. Grocers sold clean out in Buzz Hollow 🏘️, Crimson's City, Smurftopia, SpudVille and 🏗 Build; SpudVille's Confectioner and 🏗 Build's Toymaker went the same way. The counters took 96,225 gold across the day for their trouble — and only five Supply Runs went out to answer it. Somewhere tonight a lot of merchants are looking at a lot of empty wood.

Out in the wilderness, six trophy boards moved, and every single one of them stopped on the same number: 242 pounds. Elder Ice Bears for Karen, CrimTest1 and ☃; an Ice Bear for PlasmaEddie; Great Aurochs for Jensen DisasterCthulhu Ԙ: ⚔️🏹 and Jörg. Different hunters, different grounds, different beasts, one identical figure on the scales. The city lodges ran their own parties besides — Davetopia and Smurftopia each dressed 117 pelts.

Buzzaroo had the day's loudest purse again: the largest single movement in the realm was 8,930 gold over the vendor's counter, a 2,000-gold Invitation to Mr. Crane's Reserve went into the pocket, 64 prize crates paid back 1,552, and a jackalope trophy now hangs somewhere in the Estate. Jensen DisasterCthulhu Ԙ: ⚔️🏹 turned a 250-gold scratch ticket into 564 — the only lucky one all day — while AMKS quietly bought five rested potions and, one assumes, a plan.

Wierdoton broke ground on two neighborhoods at once, a cottage row and a merchant quarter, while Double 0 Training Ground made it three days running as the only yard in the realm swinging a hammer — a Bank and two Hunter's Lodge levels, all started and finished today. XM Nexus drew 19 landmark visits for 374 prestige. And at the top of the board, Crimson's City closed at 1,129 — a fourth straight day in front, and the best of the four.

Some days the realm's money moves in a thousand small trickles. Today most of it moved through one person. Buzzaroo opened an account at the vendor's counter and left 8,700 gold behind — the single largest movement anywhere in the realm today — then spent 2,000 more on an invitation to Mr. Crane's Reserve, took 905 gold back out of the prize crates, and had a bingo card come home a blackout.

And then, with all that trading done, Buzzaroo spent 5,000 gold on a dog. Her name is Tippy, she is the realm's only new resident of the Estate today, and she cost more than most tools. Between times, Buzzaroo also kept the importer's hat on, shipping diamonds into XM Nexus — where PlasmaEddie and AMKS were landing diamonds too, three caravans of the same stone into one town.

The counters, meanwhile, told a sweeter story than usual. The Toymaker sold down to bare shelves in Buzz Hollow 🏘️, Crimson's City, Smurftopia, SpudVille and XM Nexus, with the Confectioner following it into emptiness almost everywhere — and in XM Nexus the Grocer and the Victualler went with them, four counters bare in one town. Across the realm the shops took better than 96,000 gold today. Somebody is going to need a Supply Run before morning.

In the youngest city the hammers have not stopped. Double 0 Training Ground broke ground on three projects and finished all three in the same day — a Textile Mill twice over, to Level 2 and then Level 3, and the Craftworks up to Level 2 behind it. For that the city took the Masterworks medal, the only medal struck anywhere in the realm today, and second place on the board at 608.

Above them, Crimson's City held the day at 945 — a third day running at the top, the longest run any city has put together this week. XM Nexus was the place everyone else went instead: 22 callers at its landmarks and 481 prestige for the trouble, more than any other city drew. And out past the last fence, Davetopia's lodge came home with the heaviest animal taken anywhere today, 212 pounds of it. The trade roads, for their part, ran exactly as they ran yesterday — 198 legs, 5,700 units, to the crate.

Anyone walking the realm today looking for scaffolding had exactly one place to go. Double 0 Training Ground — barely a week and a half old, and a day past pushing its Town Hall into the Industrial era — spent the whole of it in the dirt. Sawmill, Clay Pit, Mine and Coal Shaft all climbed to Level 3, and a Textile Mill opened its doors for the first time. Ground was broken and the work was finished inside the same day, over and over, in the same yard.

Elsewhere, David (davesnothere) AZ-USA was having the kind of day players remember. He closed out a trade route — the realm's traditional proof that you are running the economy rather than merely working in it — and rose to Entrepreneur, the only promotion anywhere today. Trapper went to Diamond and Renown to Platinum alongside it, and he laid in five Rested Potions at the Trading Post, which reads a great deal like a man who is not finished.

PlasmaEddie took Ambassador to Gold — five player medals were struck across the realm all told — and stocked up for the days ahead, an invitation to Mr. Crane's Reserve among his purchases. Jörg went back to the vendor's counter again and again, better than six thousand gold a time. The realm's shops took 96,176 gold over their counters; the vendor drew 60,640 of it straight back out. That is roughly how the money moves here.

Good trade leaves bare shelves behind it. In 🏗 Build, the Horologist, the Tailor and the Grocer all sold down to nothing — three empty counters in one town, and three Supply Runs owed before any of them can trade again.

At the close, Crimson's City stood at 1,018 and held the board for a second day running, nearly three times Double 0 Training Ground's 363 — the young city's reward for all that digging, and still a long way short. XM Nexus, meanwhile, remains where the realm goes visiting: 402 prestige off its callers, more than anywhere else.

Somewhere between one town and the next, the realm ran out of clocks. The Horologists in Crimson's City, Smurftopia and SpudVille all sold down to a bare shelf today — two days after Buzz Hollow 🏘️'s did exactly the same. SpudVille's has rung up better than 39,000 gold across its whole life, and tonight it has nothing left to sell. Business was good; that is the whole problem. Three Supply Runs are wanted, and the realm's counters took 96,393 gold between them this past day regardless.

At Double 0 Training Ground, the youngest city on the map, the Town Hall rose to Level 4 — the Industrial era — and the city took the Industrialist medal for it, the only city honor awarded anywhere today. A Sawmill stands where there was none this morning, and ground is already broken again. It was the realm's only working yard, as it was four days ago; whatever else the realm was doing today, only one town was building.

Crimson's City took the day at 795, better than three hundred clear of Wierdoton's 476 — the fourth different name at the top of the board in five days. Its lodge had the heaviest catch of the day too, a 220-pounder, though every lodge in the realm brought home a tidy four animals apiece. The visitors, meanwhile, went where they always go: XM Nexus turned 23 callers into 494 prestige, up from 415 yesterday and 405 the day before.

Fortune had a generous afternoon. CrimTest1 took High Roller to Platinum — the realm's only player medal today — on a run of blackouts, and across the realm 9,000 gold spent on bingo cards came back as 45,000. Buzzaroo shook 2,854 gold out of prize crates, and David (davesnothere) AZ-USA scratched 434 and then 255 in the same day. The vendor, as ever, took his share: Jörg left 6,472 gold on the counter, the single largest movement of the day.

And then there were the cats. Jensen DisasterCthulhu Ԙ: ⚔️🏹 spent his gold not on tools or credits but on the Estate, and named what arrived: Carolina, Spryte, Jack, Sam, Bowie, Hobbes. Over in David (davesnothere) AZ-USA's house, a cat called Fred moved in beside a new sunflower. The clocks may be sold out, but somebody in this realm is having a very good evening on the sofa.

It was a day for the counter rather than the yard. The vendor's till took in 72,797 gold across just thirty-seven purchases — players trading a day's earnings for better steel and sharper tools. Jensen DisasterCthulhu Ԙ: ⚔️🏹 laid down 7,294 in a single stroke, the largest movement the counting house recorded all day; Buzzaroo came within eighty of it, and Karen crossed five thousand twice before the light went.

At the Trading Post the shopping was more particular. David (davesnothere) AZ-USA bought hunting parties three times over, a pair of rush tokens and a set of hired hands. PlasmaEddie took a second shift and a gamekeeper's party. And both PlasmaEddie and GrumpyGecko paid two thousand apiece for an invitation to Mr. Crane's Reserve.

The wilderness answered. Three species were met for the first time today, between two hunters: David logged a Badger at 33 pounds and a Lynx at 43, while bradskillz came face to face with a Marsh Stag of 170. The city lodges kept their own steady pace beside them — XM Nexus's parties brought home 158 pelts, the deepest haul of the day, and 🏗 Build's the heaviest animal at 197 pounds.

The board turned over again. Buzz Hollow 🏘️ finished on 780, its first turn at the top this week, with Crimson's City at 697 and yesterday's winner Double 0 Training Ground close behind at 678. Three days, three different cities holding the lead — the realm has not had a settled champion since Smurftopia's run ended.

The roads stayed busy: ninety-three calls on other cities' landmarks made visiting the realm's most-run action for a second day, and XM Nexus turned eighteen of them into 415 prestige. Its Horologist sold the last piece off the shelf and now waits on a supply run. AMKS took Ambassador to Gold — the only medal earned anywhere today — alongside four players leveling a tool, and fifteen bingo cards bought for 7,500 gold paid back 33,000.