A Dangerous Game - Novigrad
Area: Novigrad
Location: Rosemary and Thyme
Quest Giver: Zoltan
Other Requirements: Complete before The Isle of Mists
This quest begins by speaking with Zoltan at the Rosemary and Thyme once you've completed the A Poet Under Pressure Story Quest. You must complete this quest before completing The Isle of Mists Story Quest, once you complete The Isle of Mists this quest as well as many others that have main characters in them automatically fail.
First thing you will need to do for this quest is head over to Zed's house in Novigrad, it's marked on your map, just follow the white dots. Knock on the door when you arrive and you'll hear someone inside, but the door is locked. There is a ladder across from the stairs up to Zed's that you'll want to climb up. At the top you'll need to jump across the gap to Zed's house.
On the second floor of Zed's house you'll find his body, on the first floor will be two bandits whom you'll have to fight for the Isengrim card and the key to the front door. Additionally on the first floor of this house under the staircase you'll find a treasure chest. You'll have to Aard away the boards that are blocking it though, as shown in the screen shot below.
Use Aard to clear the boards away from the chest.
Read the book that you find in the chest then return to Zoltan and speak to him. You'll have to go through all of his dialogue, including the optional stuff to continue the quest. There are two new quest objectives, get the John Natalis Card from Ravik and meet Zoltan outside of Caesar Bilzen's house.
You can do whichever objective you want first, skip to the objective below that you're doing or need help on.
Meet Zoltan outside of Caesar Bilzen's House
Head to the quest marker on your map and speak with Zoltan, he'll tell you his plan to steal the card. There will be some dialogue, it doesn't matter what you choose - when Zoltan tells you to go get another bottle of wine that's your queue to go upstairs and steal the card. Here is what you're going to have to do...
1. Examine the "knife" on top of the desk upstairs
2. Loot the key from the drawer that opens
3. Use the key on the hole in the bookshelf across from the bed
4. Go upstairs and pillage everything
You should loot everything you can in the upstairs room, you can steal many of his valuables. In addition to the item we're after there is another item which is very important to grab - Jade Figurine. This begins the side quest The Soldier Statuette which you can only begin by looting this item right now. You'll never be back to this location so missing it now means missing it forever.
Get the Natalis Card from Ravik
Head over to the quest marker which is at the Golden Sturgeon and you'll be thrown into a scene when you approach the NPCs downstairs. The thugs here will threaten to kill Ravik unless you beat them at Gwent. If you refuse or lose the game Ravik dies. If you win the game Ravik lives but you still have to fight the bandits.
So, the only way to make sure Ravik lives is to play the thugs in Gwent and win. Loot the card from Earl's corpse if you didn't beat him at Gwent.
End of Quest
Once you've obtained both cards you'll want to return to Zoltan and give them to him. He'll ask you to help him out with one last thing, you have to go and meet the buyer of the three cards. When you arrive you'll find a corpse and the guy standing there will sic some bandits on your and Zoltan.
Leave Zoltan to take care of the bandits and chase down Duke. Even though this says you're in a chase, you're not timed, so feel free to stop and pillage the goodies along the way. Keep an eye on the quest marker and when it tells you to go down. In one of the towers that you chase the Duke to he'll start going down the ladders when you follow him it'll lead you into the sewers.
While in the sewers you'll come to what appears to be a dead end - Aard down the wall (pictured above) to clear a way to Duke. You'll find Duke lying on the ground and injured, you can kill him or leave him, it doesn't matter. Once the scene is over you'll be teleported back to Zoltan where he'll ask you what reward you want for this quest. You can accept the three Gwent Cards or coin, if you wish to complete the Collect Em' All quest you'll definitely want to take the Gwent Cards. If you play Gwent take them too as they're the better reward.
Completing this quest means you'll be able to ask for Zoltan's help during a future major story quest. For more information about this check out my Brothers In Arms: Novigrad Guide.