Monday, March the 1st was a big night for PaxLair, Silvervale and Mythndale!  While two new political institutions were being opened in either of the Sister Cities, a Bagball Game between the same two cities was getting underway!

Two New Embassies Opened, Ambassador Named

At roughly 8:30 PM, the Embassy Ceremony began at the Order tower in Paxlair with Mayor Minsk announcing the new PaxLair Envoy, Neo Of Lothlore.  The new Envoy proceeded to make a speech, concerning the two new embassies:

Aye, thank you Mayor Minsk. The opening of these two new embassies sparks a wave of renewed inter-city co-operation, something the former mayor of PaxLair, Lord Winfield, worked hard to achieve. This day in-age, the citizens of the Chesapeake Community are vastly spread out, among many towns, and many associations. The goal of such institutions, like an Embassy, is to promote more active participation between everyone, friend, and foe. Furthermore, working with our sister-city so closely, should even better our odds at establishing a very successful community! I'd also like to express my thanks to Mayor Eve and Luthien, for constructing these two fine embassies. May PaxLair and Mythndale be able to work more closely, and provide great events and successful co-operation from now on! Huzzah!

Due to the fact that time was running late, the ceremony adjourned, and everyone made their way to the Bagball game.  Visits to the Embassies were made after the bagball game.

Mythndale Takes Home the Shines

The following was written by Koranos of Silvervale, and can be found here.

The Silvervale bagball arena got a good workout tonight, in its first match ever-- a rousing clash between the Paxlair PeeKayS and the Mythndale WhiteWyrms! Pax's roster consisted of Cross MacLeod, Zog, and Neo of Lothlore, and Myth's was Gipik, Sagwa, and Zeddicus. Ga'kuct was presiding referee.

Overview of the Bagball Game

I was able to get into the Mythndale locker room prior to the game, and watched as the team joined hands and Eve led them in an inspirational speech. Zed was in high spirits, and met Eve's question of, "WHO IS THE BADDEST THOUGHEST BAG BALLERS EVER SEEN?", with "Paxlair!" His first-quarter performance seemed to support the notion, but his and Gipik's offense pushed through for a huge scoring rally towards the end of the first half. Also spotted in this exclusive interview was a revealing of a bet by Eve to her team, wherein she said the losing town would supply prizes for a poetry contest to be held in the winning team's town. No confirmation on this from either Minsk nor Eve as of yet.

I will not commit more than a sentence here to the half-time show, for it would better be forgot-- as Mariel once told me, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all!" And then she gave that horse-laugh of hers, so I really don't know if I should've taken it seriously-- nevertheless, I'll say no more except to offer my heartfelt condolences to Wizzie and Saturn Tritoch. I hope the humiliation doesn't leave a scar.

Scoring flip-flopped during the second half, as Paxlair led a long and fruitful rally of three points, bringing the score up to 5-4 where a long volley ended with them making the final point and tying the score at 5-5.

Almost spontaneously, then, Samuel came onto the field and stated the game was to be started over due to contingencies over the 'goal line rule', as well as stating that rule in question was no longer in effect for the new game. First team to five points would be the ultimate victor!
 

The Crowd and Referee Ga'kuct Pause to Examine the Bagball's Weight

There were, from the onset of the game, complaints from one woman in the audience that the bagball was too light. I managed to snag an interview with that audience member, CourTesan Doll. "You can walk with the ball", she said, and reaffirmed her statement with a testament from the referee stating he could walk 4 paces with the ball before running out of stamina. Neither Gak nor Samuel was able to remedy the situation at the time, as CourTesan said in her experience a minimum of 4000 stones was necessary.

Myth was the first to score in the new game, and shortly thereafter, Pax called a time out, and the weight of the ball was increased to 2160 stones rather than the previous 1600. Gak, the original referee, left, and was replaced by Trenton. Myth held the lead at 2-0, and with time running out, was ready to make the push to 5 points.

The points came quick for Myth, the bewildered Pax defense unable to stop the driving offense of Gipik and zeddicus, backed up by the impenetrable Sagwa a tile or two back. "It's already over", said Zog, as the score hit 3-0, and congratulated the Mythndale players on a good game. Trenton, however, to the dismay of the announcer Mariel, reset the score to 1-0, soon pushed up to 2-0 once again. The crowd, more than a bit confused, was helpless to argue the calls of the referee as he shook his head and muttered to the Paxlair team, "It's trammel fever tonight."

 

PaxLair Team Getting Ready to PK

Nevertheless, Mythndale dominated the rest of the game, closing the final score at 5-1 after Paxlair put up a solid wall formation in a desperate defense.

Both teams were more than a bit exhausted, and after nearly getting myself banned from the Paxlair locker room, the only comment I was able to obtain was from Neo Lothlore, and I feel it sums up how just about everyone else felt after a night of rules discrepancies and bad calls-- "I need a drink!"

I think I'll be taking that advice now. Cheers, Silvervale, and congratulations to Mythndale and Paxlair on a fine night of bagball!

 

Overall, it was a great night, despite a few problems, and Mythndale can surely be expected to be challenged to a rematch, sometime soon!

Safe journeys my friends.

Neo Of Lothlore