Petty War of Banská Niska

The **Petty War of Banská Niska** or the **Guild War of Banksá Niska** was a series of street skirmishes taking place in Banská Niska in 1656 lasting for five days between the mining guild and metalsmith guild. The 'war' was caused by a series of smaller incidents, but the eventual direct reason was the death of the grandmother of the leader of the mining guild. The series of skirmishes was eventually solved with the intervention by the Medvedi.

## Prelude

Tensions between the mining guild and metalsmith guild ran high in Banská Niska, as the mining was per law given many privileges earning them a good amount of money. Of course this gold had to come from somewhere else and in this case it came from the metalsmiths, who had to pay exorbitant costs to buy raw ore from the mines. They always raised objections but the mining guild was seen as the most important part of the economy by the city council.

Then one night the grandmother of the mining guild's leader passed away during the night. The people of Berok are superstitious people and took to the streets early in the morning, believing the soul of the grandmother was reincarnated into a foul beast. What kind of beast? The people weren't even sure of that, mentioning everything from vampires to trolls. Alas that doesn't matter, they gathered outside the house of the women nonetheless armed with pitchforks and torches ready to burn the place to the ground. Local guards had to intervene to prevent the scorching from happening. Meanwhile the metalsmiths schemed and decided to use this as an opportunity to turn the town against the mining guild and claimed that the leader of that guild was heading his beast of a grandmother.

The people fell for the propaganda of the metalsmiths and small scale riots broke out in the city. But everything would go comepletly wrong when the a mine was ransacked by a group of people, while the city guards were unable to do anything. Thus the miners started arming themselves with pickaxes and fought back in turn starting the Petty War of Banská Niska.

## Skirmishes day by day

### Day 1 - Chaos

The outbreak of the 'war'. After the events of the prelude the miners attacked a nearby smithy. The first was an overall chaos, people beating random people. Looters trying to break into stores. The larger streets and plazas were the main places where fights occurred. However, that doesn't mean that the side streets were completely safe, as thieves of the town laid ambushes robbing anyone trying to flee the fighting. The people fought with everything they could find, pots and pans, even clumps of metal be it ore or bar. The first day was a day of screams and chaos. A significant amount of people had fled from the town during dusk and more left during the dark, as the gates were fully open because the guards had retreated to the castle.

### Day 2 - Preparation

From day 2 the different factions started to organize and the town was quickly divided into three areas, one that supports the miner guilds and doesn't believe in general superstition. The other group supporting the metalsmiths and are fully involved with the superstitious believes, this group was mostly made up of the poorer classes. And a third neutral zone around Ralamost Hrad, were the guard did what they could to maintain order. After the division of the town the second night was relatively quiet, with no sounds of screams that were heard before, instead the clunking of metal was heard as people were preparing for more fighting.

During the same the day a nearby group of Medvedi heard rumours about the fighting and decided to move towards the town to investigate.

### Day 3 - Siege of the University

The third day was perhaps the most violent of them all. As the supporters of the miners had occupied the town's university, it was believed that ol' granny must have been hiding there. The university was 'besieged' and bricks and rocks were lumped at its windows. With groups on both sides even using makeshift slings to attack and defend. The siege was a success at first, with people managing to enter the building but then they were flanked from the sides by a group of staunch miner dwarves who had joined the fray. The fighting also continued elsewhere and slowly the bodies started to get filled in the streets. With a small truce being called during the evening, to help any wounded and to bury they dead before their soul gets abused by the moon too.

### Day 4 - Arrival of the Medvedi

On day four the Medvedi, under the command of future leader Kristína Chlebovská, finally arrived. When they first entered the town in the morning everything was quiet. Nobody was to be found on the streets, but then they heard yelling coming from the main plaza. The group went to investigate and found the leaders of the mining guild and metalsmith guild on the square screaming at each other. Behind the both of them stood a group of supporters armed and ready to battle. Kristína yelled out at them, asking what in the name of Ursun was going on. At the sight of a Medvedi both leaders fell to their knees. Kristína commanded both groups to lay down their arms. After a discussing the leaders obliged. A truce was called and the next day peace talks would take place. At this point the guards also felled courage enough to move out of their hiding hole.

### Day 5 - Peace

During the fifth day a peace trial was held with Kristína as main arbiter. During the day the Medvedi investigated the causes of the conflict. Granny's body was found, still in her bed where she died peacefully without ever knowing about the conflict she accidentality caused. Due to the commotion nobody of the superstitious kind ever bothered to check her home for her, believing that she had moved. As for the mining guild, they couldn't check on the body as Granny's home lay in a part of town controlled by the metalsmiths. The truth about the propaganda also came to light during the investigation. In the end due to Kristína's cunning skill as a diplomat and her rank as Medvedi was the conflict resolved peacefully.