[1] The crusader raiding party captured the Turkish fort of Xerigordos, about four days' march from Nicaea, in an attempt to set up a pillaging outpost.

[2] The army of the People's Crusade landed in Asia Minor on August 6, 1096, and camped at Helenopolis (Civetot/Civetote) to the north-west of Nicaea, at that time capital of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm.

Moreover, there was no water system inside the fortress: Our people were in such distress from thirst that they bled their horses and asses and drank the blood; others let their girdles and handkerchiefs down into the cistern and squeezed out the water from them into their mouths; some urinated into one another's hollowed hands and drank; and others dug up the moist ground and lay down on their backs and spread the earth over their breasts to relieve the excessive dryness of thirst.

Some accounts mentioned that Turks sent two spies to the Crusaders' camp at Civetot to make them think that Xerigordos was still safe, and even that Nicaea had been conquered by Reinald.

Other accounts mentioned that Crusader leaders on the field were forced by their troops to advance, but could not make the decision until news of the Xerigordos surrender arrived on October.