xD. well, that was unexpected! Do you want us to follow after Rhiannon, or do you want her to meet up with the group on her own?

Well, I would love to join in this. Unfortunately it appears that you are not accepting new people at the moment. Just letting you know my interest. Please let me know if you will allow me to join your group.

*Is back, was caught up in Toukiden* Sorry about that guys ^^; been caught up in chores and testing out my new Vita recently. I still owe Rhia a post in that one thing. Anyways, happy to be back! Also, would say we're happy to accept new people, but not totally sure about that.

It's up to whoever; someone could have followed Rhiannon through the crowd or see her coming out of the compound or she can find them at the Sepulcher.

At the time I wrote that, there were like four extra people who were going to join but they never showed up! So sure, we can take in some new blood. The RP's already started, but that's not a big deal~ :3

Name: Gudmund Tollak
Age: 19
Sex: Male
Race: Human, European
Personality: Dedicated. He was raised as a fighter and tends to give a lot of effort to everything. He likes to focus on one thing at a time and can get a little frustrated when multiple tasks are unloaded on him at once, but can still operate. He is very big on following rules and laws and is very tradition focused. Although he tends to be focused and serious while training or working, he enjoys relaxing and having fun after a long work day.

Appearance: He stands at 5'7", with a strong athletic build, weighing about 180lbs. Most of his body is covered with very short hair. He has a round face that is very handsome. His nose is roman and he has blue eyes. He has brown hair that is roughly chopped at the bottom and extends to his shoulders. His hair is very curly and slightly fluffy. Some locks of his hair are forming dreadlocks. His beard is grown out to the length of his neck, no further than his Adam's apple, and is very roughly grown. His hands are rough and calloused and arms are scratched and bruised. He has become very tanned since reaching the Levant. He tends to wear a dark blue tunic. He wears a brown pair of hosen with leather front lace ankle boots. He wears a leather belt around his waist, typically. His shirt under his tunic is white, a very yellowish stained white.

Skills: He can sing in bass, as his voice is very deep and sometimes monotone(as he has a tendency to lack inflection). He loves dancing, but is not very good at it. Better than his fellow squires, though. His swordsmanship skills are progressing, getting better and better the older he gets and the more experience he gains. He is good with throwing axes. He has a strange bowmanship skill, which he hides. His eyes will glow red when aiming and he can make the most amazing shots on first picking up a bow and arrow. He can make shots believed impossible for a standard longbow. When, if, he uses a bow and arrow, he tends to lose site of everything and goes into a sort of hyper focus on archery, such that he doesn't always remember what happened. It doesn't matter how heavy a bow, he can still fire and make a magnificent shot. He hides this strange ability of his, and avoids using the bow and arrow.

Background and History: Gudmund was born and raised in Normandy. His lineage is almost purely Scandinavian. At age 7 he was sent to become a page for a lord. At age 15, he became a squire and worked his way to become one of the top fighters among his fellow squires. Thankfully, knights were not typically using bows, so he could avoid using the bow and arrow all together. Apparently his grandfather was called the Demon Archer of Normandy and passed away the day he was born.
Gudmund joined the crusade to the Holy Land at the time it was declared and followed Robert Curthose when he gathered his force to go to the Holy Land. Gudmund hoped to become a squire to another knight and stay in the Holy Land after they took it from the Saracens and the Fatimids, rather than go back to Europe.
Ever since entering the Levant, Gudmund has lost many friends and fellow squires. He marched alongside Raymond of Toulouse to Jerusalem, as the leader he followed was Robert of Normandy, who had become a vassal of Raymond of Toulouse. He would have preferred to follow Bohemund of Taranto or Godfrey of Bouillon rather than the old man known as Raymond of Toulouse. Luckily, after reaching Jerusalem, Robert Curthose went with Godfrey of Bouillon, leaving Raymond of Toulouse. Now, maybe Gudmund would meet the great leader known as Godfrey of Bouillon.

Welcome aboard! Everything seems to be in order~ given the nature of your character, however, you might have to wait until Jerusalem falls to be able to join us.

Initially the plan was, as far as I know, that we were going to escape the city during the siege and recapture it later, possibly alongside the Fatimid relief force. I would say that creates a large conflict of interest for Gudmund. But now we're apparently hiding instead of fleeing and everyone but Marduk is Christian, and Mordecai is the only Christian who isn't native to Europe! So I have no earthly idea what we're going to be doing and he fits the general demographic of the group just fine.

Interestingly, we're now up to 3 out of 5 characters in our party who could be tried and executed for witchcraft. And a fourth, of course, who's a heretic.
And then there's Mordecai, whose only real issue is that he might or might not speak Arabic, and that doesn't even matter since the Europeans are going to win the siege.

By the way. We're all using Latin as a common tongue for simplicity's sake. Because otherwise Rhiannon speaks Welsh, Hayate speaks Norman French, Mordecai speaks Hebrew, and Marduk speaks Arabic.

Mordecai could be executed for witchcraft if someone mistakes his prophetic gifts for sorcery...

Trrruuueee. I guess it would depend on if he could convince the accusing party that he's legit.

I guess it depends if they are 'false' teachers or not.

True! I suppose if they reject the idea of such gifts, then he might be in trouble.

My joining my character with the rest of you guys is a work in progress.

Hah, okay! Looks like we're all headed to the sepulcher, at least.
Or, well, maybe. God only knows what's going to happen now that Mordecai and Rhiannon have run off, and I'm sure the rest will follow. Probably just delay it a bit.

Meanwhile, when I do post, I'll give you something interesting to deal with. :D.

As a side note... do you guys think we should skip the whole "inner wall" thing for the sake of streamlining progression, or should we stick to the historically accurate interpretation and give them another night before they break into the inner city?

From what I've read, once they broke through the walls, they took the entire city in a day.

Edit: That includes my Wikipedia reading and my reading of two awesome books on the Crusades.

Mmh. Yes, the inner walls! I haven't exactly read any physical books on the subject, but I've been nosing around the internet a lot since starting this RP, and the account that I've seen most often repeated is that there were two siege towers, one in the north and one in the south. The outer walls were overrun in the first day, but it took another day to get past the inner walls. There were apparently two sets of walls. Which I guess is super redundant to say since I pretty much just repeated that for the third time, but yes. xD. I can do some additional research to confirm this tomorrow, but either way I think we're going to just have them flood the city in one day for simplicity's sake. xD

I may or may not be able to post tomorrow. Wednesdays are very busy for me this semester.

It did take them two days. They breached the outer walls and then took the city the following morning.

The reason there were two siege towers was because Godfrey of Bouillon and Raymond of Toulouse split into two camps rather than work together.

We could just say that they had already breached the outer walls by this point.

Also, for historical fiction on this period Tom Harper is fantastic.

Yeah, they were hopeless. I mean come on, you can't even work together in the most important event of both your military AND religious lives? I guess they both wanted to do the honors?

After Bohemond got Antioch I think they were both desperate to rule Jerusalem. After the siege Raymond went off to siege Trier if I remember rightly.

Damn. I just saw that you're not accepting new people. Too bad since I was in the original IC.