A Dangerous Game

A Dangerous Game is a secondary quest in .
 This quest will fail if not completed before travelling to the Isle of Mists, or if you have already asked Zoltan for help during Brothers In Arms: Novigrad.
== Walkthrough ==
After finally saving Dandelion go to Rosemary and Thyme, you will see Zoltan outside arguing with some suspicious men. Once you get close enough Geralt will join the conversation. Pick either option and the bandits' leader Duke will decide it's time to go, while his friend Earl will boldly declare he can get rid of Geralt, but Duke will insist it's time to go. After they leave Zoltan will tell you what is going on - apparently he started trading Gwent cards for a living and needs help getting 3 rare cards: Fringilla Vigo, Isengrim, and Natalis. Once you agree to help, Zoltan will direct you to Zed.
=== Zed and Isengrim Faoiltiarna ===
Go to Zed's place and knock on the door. No one answers, yet Geralt can clearly hear someone is inside and decides to look for another entrance. Walk back down the stairs and you should see a ladder in front of you, climb it and you should find another ladder nearby, so climb it too, then jump over a gap between the two buildings. Once you do there should be an open door there, so use it to get in Zed's house. Now jump down and you should find Zed's body lying on the floor, examine it and move on with the investigation. Walk down to find 2 bandits talking - they are looking for Zed's ledger, but can't find it. However, they have found the Isengrim Faoiltiarna card, so once the inevitable fight ends you will find it on one of their remains along with the key to the main entrance.
Now search for the ledger using your witcher senses. You will notice something like claw marks under the stairs, something heavy was being dragged there. Use Aard to break the boards and reveal a chest containing Ledger of Income and Outlays. Read it if you like, but regardless it's time to get back to Zoltan. Once you talk to him, your next targets will be Ravik who has the John Natalis card and Caesar Bilzen who has Fringilla Vigo, so you just have to decide where to go first.
=== Ravik and John Natalis ===
Go to The Golden Sturgeon and look for Ravik on the bottom floor. You find him cornered by Earl and the other thug you met at the beginning of the quest. Earl will offer to play Gwent with you for Ravik's life and the card. If you refuse, or agree but lose the game, Ravik is killed and the fight begins. If you win the game, Ravik is spared but the fight begins regardless. Once Geralt is done with the overconfident Earl and his lackey, Ravik will reluctantly give up the card if alive, or it will be found on his remains if he died.
=== Caesar Bilzen and Fringilla Vigo ===
Zoltan will aid you with Caesar Bilzen, so you will meet him when you reach the house. Once there, talk to Zoltan who will tell you his plan on how to steal the card. Apparently Caesar has some secret collection in his house and the card is part of it. Caesar will greet both at his doorstep and ask if Geralt is into fishing. Regardless what you answer, you will be invited to dinner and have a drunken conversation about fish. Eventually, Geralt will be asked to get more booze and you can go look for what you came.
Go upstairs and use witcher senses to find a knife on the sideboard and a triangular hole in the bookcase. Examine the knife so it turns to the side and a drawer will open to your right. Loot the drawer for a triangular key that fits the hole in the bookcase. When interacted, another bookcase will move and reveal a hidden door. Climb the staircase leading to the next floor where you will find the collection. There among other things you will find the card. In one of the cupboards you will find a Jade Figurine which starts the The Soldier Statuette quest, so be sure to get that too.
Once you have taken everything you want, go back downstairs and talk to Zoltan. As you're about to leave, two dwarves sent by Cleaver will appear with hostile intents for Caesar. You can choose to leave or fight them. If you fight them, Caesar will thank you and then decide to pack his things and leave the city, otherwise they probably kill him after you leave. But either way he never has the chance to deal with your theft.
=== Meeting the Client ===
Once you have all 3 cards, go with Zoltan to the place where the transaction will take place. Unfortunately, the client is dead and Duke has all the money. He will call in his thugs and make a run for it. Zoltan will tell you to chase Duke while he takes care of the thugs. Despite it being a chase, there doesn't appear to be any time limit here, so feel free to help Zoltan and then raid any containers you find along the way to Duke.
Go up the tower and some stairs and then down another tower to the last level, leading you to the sewers. You'll see Duke running behind a locked grate door, so you have to go around, but there's only one path available, so you can't get lost. Fight off a couple of drowners and find a breakable wall in the last room. Use Aard on it to progress, then kill off three more drowners before finding Duke lying injured on the ground. Talk to him and get the money back. You have the choice to kill him or let him go, though your choice is irrelevant as it's unlikely he will live. Now you will be teleported back to Zoltan who will give you another choice:
* Take the gold (80 / 150 ), in which case Zoltan will find another client for the cards.
* Keep the cards for yourself (no other rewards) and Zoltan pays off his debts with the gold.
The quest then completes.
 Keeping the cards may seem like the obviously better choice, unless you don't play gwent. However, they are later found on the Prison Warden during the main quest The Great Escape.
== Journal entry ==
:Zoltan Chivay has never had much luck in business. No exception to this rule was the time he tried to acquire and sell three valuable gwent cards. At this time gwent was reaching the peak of its popularity and collectors were paying a fool's fortune for rare cards.
:Zoltan was not alone in sticking his pan into this raging torrent and hoping to strike gold. Yet there was another player in Novigrad, one wanting to grow his already-sizeable fortune, interested in flipping rare cards. Duke was his name, but many felt he would soon be known as Whoreson the Third - for he was even more ruthless than Whoreson Junior. This Duke stood in Zoltan's path to riches. Luckily, Zoltan had a friend named Geralt of Rivia who decided to step in and get him the cards he so desperately desired.
:The cards were in possession of Zed - a Novigrad fence. Geralt went to the dealer's house to buy them, but it turned out Duke had made it there before him. A brief exchange quickly turned to blows, and ended with the thugs pushing daisies. Among the splayed-out corpses was that of Zed, whom the murderers had killed earlier.
:Geralt searched the body and discovered his victory was not complete - he only found the Isengrim card. Zed had sold the two remaining ones to Caesar Bilzen and a man named Ravvy. There was nothing left but to visit both purchasers and get Zoltan his cards.
== Objectives ==
* Get the Fringilla Vigo, Isengrim, and Natalis cards for Zoltan.
* Find a way into Zed's home.
* Search Zed's home using your Witcher Senses.
* Find Zed's ledger using your Witcher Senses.
* Find the Isengrim card.
* Bring the card and Zed's ledger to Zoltan.
* Meet Zoltan in front of Caesar Bilzen's house.
* Get the John Natalis card from Ravvy.
* Search the body for the John Natalis card.
* Search upstairs in Caesar Bilzen's home using your Witcher Senses.
* Let Zoltan know you've found the card.
* Bring the cards to Zoltan.
* Go to the meeting with Zoltan's buyer.
* Chase Duke.
* Return to Zoltan.
== Notes ==
* If you go south from where you finally meet Duke you will find another breakable wall which will take you to a tomb where you will find Vairmont Jonne who will give you the short quest A Tome Entombed. You can complete it before your final conversation with Duke as he is not going anywhere. This is quite convenient as finding the place again can be difficult.
* Assire var Anahid's necklace and Vattier de Rideaux's dagger, both of which Geralt can examine in the secret room, were at some point intended to be lootable, but are replaced with more generic junk items.
== Bugs ==
* An objective to search Ravvy's body for the John Natalis card appears even if he is alive.
* In older versions of the game, it was possible to exploit glitches and break the script and/or obtain two copies of the John Natalis card:
** Before approaching the thugs, you could throw a bomb at them and they'll attack you, while Ravik will survive without playing Gwent. After you talk, he'll give you the card.
** If you refuse to play Gwent for Ravvy's life, then if you throw a bomb that deals high enough damage to kill the two bandits and Ravvy with one throw, then you instantly shoot to the next cutscene where Ravvy is alive and he presents you his Natalis card. After the cutscene with Ravvy ends, you could loot the bodies for another copy of the card.
** When going down the stairs, throw as many bombs as necessary to kill Ravvy and the two bandits, then approach their table. This will give way to the cutscene where Ravvy gives you the card, then you could loot the bodies for a second copy.
== Trivia ==
* With some stretch, a reference to the Quentin Tarantino film Pulp Fiction can be seen when Zoltan asks what happened to Zed. Geralt replies "Zed's dead," referring to when Butch Coolidge (played by Bruce Willis) tells his partner Fabienne what happened to the character Zed from the movie.
== Videos ==
File:Gwent Cards for Zoltan - The Witcher 3 DEATH MARCH! Part 57 - Let's Play Hard
ar:لعبة خطرة
pl:Niebezpieczna gra
ru:Опасная игра
uk:Небезпечна гра
Category:The Witcher 3 secondary quests