"I suppose that excludes laying down arms and surrendering to Imperial justice?" Kris put in, cursing herself for her stubborn streak. Ulfric boomed a laugh that was quickly taken up by his hangers on.

"You are a bold one Breton. Anything within reason I should have said," Ulfric replied, he was still smiling but a slight chill in his eyes told Kris that she was pressing her luck further than she should. Ordinarily that might not have stopped her, but a sideways glance from Dax reminded her that it might not be her head alone that she was putting on the block. Nothing in all the world was do vile as a traitor, and petty would be tyrants who would rather carve up the Empire than stand against the Thalmor made her insides burn with bile and contempt. With a visible effort she managed to control herself.

"There is a village along the river that serves as border between Windhelm and  Whiterun," Ulfric continued, clearly taking her silence for agreement, however reluctant. Hammerstone they call it, for the old mines in the hills. Something is terrorizing the villagers there. I cannot send my soldiers without Jarl Balgruuf interpreting it as an attack, and I suspect he feel similarly constrained." Kris' knowledge of Skyrim was scanty but she seemed to recall that the center and south of the country were its agricultural heartland. Moving against Whiterun, already a powerful Jarldom, would bring a swift response from the Imperial Legion at Solitude and do so on terrain that was greatly to the Imperial's advantage. Ulfric's Stormcloaks were at their strongest in rugged terrain like that around Windhelm and would suffer on the plains. Further more such an attack would force the Jarl's to choose sides in the nascent civil war. Something Ulfric clearly wasn't ready for. His best bet of disloging the Imperial garrison at Solitude was to sway enough of the country to his cause that they couldn't manuever without opening up their supply lines to attack. That still wouldn't get the Legion out of Solitude, but Kris suspected that the Thalmor would be happy to foment trouble elsewhere to help Ulfric realize his petty ambitions at great cost to the Empire.

"I need strong blades who will do what is best for the people, and I am willing to pay handsomely."