A Poet Under Pressure

A Poet Under Pressure is a main quest in .
== Walkthrough ==
If you helped Dijkstra with his treasure hunt during Count Reuven's Treasure, you can meet him back in his bathhouse office, and he agrees to send a small band of his men to help you with the ambush. He'll give you 3 initially, but push for more and he'll agree to 4 if you keep your mission secret or 6 if you reveal it.
For the ambush itself, go east of the Seven Cats Inn and, as you approach the objective, head up the grassy embankment to the north of the road, as the target location is up on a hill where Zoltan Chivay is waiting. He and some of his fellows have set the ambush for the convoy transporting Dandelion from his prison on Temple Isle to Oxenfurt.
Talk a bit with Zoltan before Priscilla arrives bringing news from Dudu that the convoy leaves at dawn. She stays whether you ask her to leave or not and will challenges you to a game of Gwent while you wait. There's nothing to win from the game, so it's truly only a time killer until you hear the sounds of horses approaching.
You don't have to fight during the ambush and Zoltan even tells Geralt to follow Dandelion instead, but stay for the action and loot if you wish. Follow the running horse's tracks using your witcher senses, preferably on Roach. Eventually you'll pass by a lake where a few drowners will appear. They aren't part of the quest and if you're doing it at the recommended level a couple of drowned dead may be way above you anyway.
If you wish to find and return Dandelion's ring later, get off Roach just after the drowners and use your witcher senses to follow along the lakeside to find hidden amongst the red horseshoe prints the Pegasus signet that Dandelion dropped. The ring lays on a rock just by the water, but can be hard to find at first and has the same red coloring as the horseshoe prints.
Keep pursuing the horse, and lying on the road north of Honeyfill Meadworks, you'll see three red pages with some poetry notes that Dandelion dropped on the way. Follow the horseshoe prints to the camp where it is unclear which direction Dandelion took as there are horseprints that lead both left and right at a fork in the road. You can ask for help from the blacksmith in the camp but he may only confuse you by saying the horse "turned left there", as he means left further in the woods and not the left fork just next to him. If you do go immediately left, the tracks lead to horses just outside Yantra and Geralt will declare that he has taken the wrong path. Instead, take the right fork in the road following the horseshoe prints where you will find Dandelion's hat lying on the road. Examine the hat to get scent of Dandelion's perfume and follow the scent trail. As you follow that, eventually the horseshoe prints disappear and the search marker stops updating, with only the scent trail remaining.
Follow the scent trail to the Isolated Hut in the woods where you'll see a collapsed horse. Talk to the distressed halflings about the intruder into their home. They will give you the key to a secret tunnel behind the house. Go down the ladder and at the opposite end of the room you will find another ladder leading into the house. Climb it up and behind a door you will find the Witch Hunter and Dandelion tied to an chair. Kill the Witch Hunter and free Dandelion to start a series of conversations, during which he tells Geralt about Ciri and you play as her again during Ciri's Story: Breakneck Speed. Completing the flashback quest will also update In Ciri's Footsteps as this is the end of her story in Novigrad.
While the quest is already complete here, when the scene returns to present time, there's a lot more talking and you get 1000 after you're done with all of it. If you then talk to the halflings again, they will give you a Painting of Hierarch Hemmelfart, which can later be given to Dandelion for his Cabaret.
==Journal entry ==
:Ah, what times those were, times of adventure, action and unexpected twists around every corner! As you surely recall, Ciri and I escaped from Whoreson Junior's headquarters only to wind up trapped in a corner by the Temple Guard. Ciri managed to get away, but I was captured and tossed in the Temple Isle dungeons. From there I was to be transported to Deireadh, the infamous Oxenfurt prison, to await my execution – and here my tale would surely end, had my friends not devised an ingenious plan to ambush the transport.
: Yet even the best-laid plans can go awry if fortune deems it so. The ambush succeeded only partially, as one of the guards tossed me on his horse and fled in the heat of the action. Not losing my cool for my second, I quickly concocted a plan of my own, and it had almost come to fruition when Geralt burst in and broke me free in his typical clumsy yet, granted, effective way. But do not think me ungrateful or cold-hearted – any irritation I felt soon faded in the sincere joy that filled my heart upon seeing my old friend once more.
== Objectives==
*If helped Dijkstra find his treasure: 
**(Optional) Ask Dijkstra to help rescuing Dandelion.
*Meet Zoltan at the site of the ambush.
* Use your Witcher Senses to pick up the trail.
*Ask if anyone from the camp has seen Dandelion's abductor.
*If examined Dandelion's hat:
**Follow the smell of Dandelion's cologne using your Witcher Senses.
*Explore the area in front of the hut in the woods.
*Enter the halflings' home via the secret passage.
*Free Dandelion.
*Defeat the witch hunter.
* Untie Dandelion.
== Notes ==
*This quest must be completed in order to start the . When you complete it, all notice boards in Velen will receive Appeal to Sir Geralt of Rivia, the Bridge his Crest notice which begins the quest Envoys, Wineboys.
* Both the painting and ring can be given to Dandelion or kept for yourself. Additionally, they can be stored in your stash, and still be given to Dandelion creating duplicates of them.
*If you want Dijkstra's help with the ambush, but also have the A Deadly Plot quest available and haven't talked to him at the Passiflora yet, the quest tracker will lead you there. Unfortunately, you can't choose what to talk about with him there, so you have to finish the scripted conversation there and then go to the bathhouse (he will return there even though you'll never see him leave the brothel).
==Gallery==
Witch Hunters convoy.jpg|Prisoner convoy
ar:شاعر تحت الضغط
pl:Poeta w opałach
ru:Поэт в опале
uk:Поет у халепі
Category:The Witcher 3 main quests