Thaler

Bernard Ducat, known as Thaler, is Temeria’s foul-mouthed former spymaster, who plots against King Radovid while disguised as a cobbler.

Thaler is the name most people know Bernard Ducat by. He is the former head of Temeria’s intelligence service, a master of disguise and one of the foulest-mouthed men Geralt has ever called a friend. The names are a joke of their own, since both a ducat and a thaler are old coins. When Nilfgaard invaded Temeria and dismantled its secret service, Thaler barely escaped with his life. By his own account he drank until his liver begged for mercy, then decided to act. Together with Vernon Roche and Sigismund Dijkstra, he concluded that King Radovid had to die.

Thaler in The Witcher 3
Thaler now travels as Clogs, a cobbler, because nobody notices a cobbler, while a cobbler sees and hears everything. He passed through White Orchard just before the battle there, left in a hurry after a deadly fight with an unknown man, and moved on to Velen. In A Deadly Plot, Dijkstra and Roche ask Geralt to find their missing contact. A trail of shoes leads to a cave where three rock trolls are holding the cobbler, because they want shoes of their own. Geralt can free him with threats or talk the trolls round, then walk him back to his wagon. Afterwards Thaler turns out to be a fine gwent player, and beating him wins Geralt’s own unique card during Gwent: Old Pals or its standalone version.

What happens to Thaler?
In Reason of State he helps plan the ambush on Radovid but waits in Novigrad with Dijkstra, since neither is a fighter. After the king dies, Thaler and Roche reveal they have been negotiating with Nilfgaard to make Temeria a vassal state, and Dijkstra turns on them. If Geralt steps in and fights, Thaler survives and plans to return to Vizima once Emhyr withdraws. If Geralt walks away, Thaler is killed along with Roche and Ves. See the endings guide for how this affects the North.

In the earlier games
In the first Witcher game, Thaler poses as a crude fence in Vizima’s Temple Quarter, selling the witcher Berengar’s gear, until Geralt learns who he really is at a high-society reception. There Thaler is investigating documents forged in King Foltest’s name. Count de Wett can have him killed unless Geralt defends him, but Thaler returns in the third game either way. He once courted Shani without telling her who he was, until his clumsy agents gave him away. In The Witcher 2, one of his agents delivers a package to Geralt in Flotsam.

Across the games

Thaler is a fence in Vizima’s Temple Quarter, and all his quests are in Act II. In Suspect: Thaler, Geralt finds evidence linking him to Azar Javed and goes to question him about his dealings with Salamandra.

In Memory of a Blade, the jailer Jethro lets slip that Geralt’s silver sword was found at Thaler’s place. Geralt has to push Thaler before he admits he bought the sword from a dice gambler at The Hairy Bear inn. In A Gravedigger’s Gratitude, Thaler holds the gravedigger’s debts, and buying them from him is one way for Geralt to get a permit to enter the cemetery.