Geralt and Dandelion met Zoltan Chivay three years ago, during the north’s first great war with Nilfgaard. He fought at the great Battle of Brenna, which repelled the invaders, along with a great many other dwarves in the Mahakam Volunteer Detachment. After the war, Zoltan thought he would settle down and go into business, but his engagement soured and with it his business prospects. Geralt is eager and willing to pay back Zoltan’s many favors to him during the war by saving him from being hanged in Flotsam’s town square.
Zoltan was taken to the scaffolds because the local authorities accused him of colluding with the Scoia’tael, a charge Zoltan vehemently denies. Still, he clearly knows something more about the Scoia’tael than a mild-mannered dwarf properly should, and it’s even rumored that he is personally acquainted with the dread Scoia’tael leader Iorveth. It is certainly impossible, given the current fractious state of relations among the races in the north, for any law-abiding dwarf not to feel a certain sympathy for the freedom that the Scoia’tael are trying to win for nonhumans, if misguidedly.