Dragon Age: Origins DLC content that can be completed after the first journey through Lothering. The story follows the player and company being sent to investigate the abandoned Grey Warden fortress of Soldier's Peak, which has become haunted by a demonic curse.
Meeting with Levi Dryden
After the initial journey through Lothering, a Ferelden citizen named Levi Dryden will pop up at the player's campsite, and can be talked to if the Warden's Keep DLC is installed. The player approaches Levi, who introduces himself as a past friend of Duncan that helped bring the Grey Wardens back to Ferelden. Levi explains that he had a past discussion with Duncan about promising to investigate something important one day, but it's no longer possible given Duncan's death. The player asks what the investigation is, which Levi explains of how his Dryden family doesn't have much of a reputation these days. However, he points out that his great-great-grandmother, Sophia Dryden, was once the Warden-Commander of Ferelden, but because of the Grey Wardens' reputation as freeloaders back in the day, Ferelden's past King, Arland Theirin, chose to banish the Wardens. This included taking away all of House Dryden's family possessions, even their land and noble titles, which left them with nothing, and Sophia's proud history gone.
Levi continues on that even to this day, his family reveres Sophia Dryden. That he's looking for evidence to reveal to everyone that Sophia was once a person of legend rather than an unimportant nobody after her status was stripped away. He reveals to the player that what they do know about Sophia Dryden is that she died at an old Grey Warden base in Ferelden known as Soldier's Peak. The player asks why Levi doesn't just go there himself, which Levi explains that no one's been there in years, and that he's been spending the past few years just figuring out the map on how to get there, and only recently discovered the main location of Soldier's Peak. Levi adds that he was hoping for Duncan to be the one to first investigate it since there's no telling what dangers now live there after all these years. In return, the player agrees to help. Levi appreciates it, which the map he provides shows that Soldier's Peak is located in northern Ferelden.
Soldier's Peak
The player's group follows along with Levi to Soldier's Peak, which appears as a large Grey Warden fortress at the top of a mountain. Given that Levi's not much of a fighter, he tells the player that he will follow close behind while the player and company explore around and dispose of any danger. They pass through the outer gate of Soldier's Peak to reach the frontal courtyard only to suddenly be hit with a vision. The vision showing a group of King Arland's soldiers trying to break into Soldier's Peak to kill off the Grey Wardens that have barricaded themselves up within the fortress. Given the struggle to break in, the soldiers decide to just wait it out to keep the Grey Wardens trapped until they starve to death. After the vision, Levi and the player both admit that they saw it. Levi questioning if the place is haunted, which it turns out that the Veil between the human world and the Fade is weak at Soldier's Peak for some reason. Thus, demonic magic might be at play here.
Exploring further into Soldier's Peak, the demonic magic from the Veil rift raises up the corpses of the Grey Wardens and King Arland's soldiers that litter the fortress, which they attack the player and company as skeletal forces. Within the keep is a side-quest to follow Asturian's notes. Asturian was the Commander of the Grey who oversaw the construction of Soldier's Peak, which following the note clues leads the player to Asturian's hidden stash that provides gold and two unique items: a Shadow Belt, and a unique sword, Asturian's Might. Eventually, the player's group enters into the main keep of Soldier Peak. They have another vision where they see Warden-Commander Sophia Dryden holding down the fort against King Arland's forces. As her mage ally, Avernus, provides the bad news that his magic won't be of much help from here on out, Sophia proceeds to give a heroic speech to her fellow Grey Wardens that they will hold out and fight down to the last breath rather than become a part of King Arland's tyranny. After the vision, Levi is proud to see that Sophia's past greatness is true, but is also disgusted that King Arland went so far as to try to kill Ferelden's Grey Wardens.
Continuing on through the keep of Soldier's Peak, the player's group starts to come across demon summons that they have to fight through. They eventually come across a badly burned book that provides another vision involving an archivist working within the keep. A woman with the archivist warns him that they've run out of time as the keeps about to fall, which the archivist states his disappointment they were so close to accomplishing their grand rebellion. The woman complains that Grey Wardens such as them should never have gone against the rulers of Ferelden as they're interrupted by soldiers breaking in. The vision ends, which Levi questions what this "rebellion" is that they were referring to. However, there's still not much to go on, which the group continues on through the keep. Further into Soldier's Peak, the player's group eventually comes across a spot in the keep where the rift in the Veil is at its strongest due to summoning circles that were left behind on the floor.
Upon investigating the summoning circles, the group has another vision where they see Commander Sophia, Avernus, and what's left of her Grey Warden forces battling it out with King Arland's soldiers that have invaded the keep. Avernus goes so far as to summon in demon allies to fight Arland's soldiers, but they quickly turn on him, and start killing off the Grey Wardens. Avernus tries to order his demons to fight the actual enemy, but one of the demons refuses; claiming that Avernus's body now belongs to it. Left in despair, Avernus deserts from the battle by running away to a higher floor of Soldier's Peak; leaving Sophia and the remaining Grey Wardens to die. Thus, the rift between the normal world and the Fade remains open since Avernus didn't cancel the summoning circles. Following the vision, the player and company dispose of the demons in the area. Levi then discusses about the vision, which it comes as a surprise and disappointment to him that a Grey Warden mage went so far as to summon in demons, and that Sophia knew about it. The player tries to reassure him that Sophia was in a desperate situation, but Levi still remains disappointed having thought that House Dryden wouldn't stoop so low as to summon demons.
Sophia and Avernus
Fighting on through the keep, the door up to the higher level turns out to be blocked by a magic barrier, but the nearby Commander's quarter room remains open. Upon investigating the quarter room, the player's group stumble upon the walking corpse of Sophia Dryden, which is possessed by a demon. Knowing the threat that the player and company pose having fought their way through Soldier's Peak, the demon possessed Sophia offers a deal. The demon explains that the mage that's holed up on the top floor set up some sort of magic device that's keeping the demons locked up in Soldier's Peak. As a result, the deal is that if it's freed from being trapped within the keep, the demon will seal the rift in the Veil that's been pouring demons of the Fade into Soldier's Peak. The player either chooses to help the demon, which would release the demon possessed Sophia out into the world, or the player's group refuses, and disposes of the demon right there; leaving behind just Sophia's corpse.
Departing from the Commander's quarters, the magic barrier blocking the door to the upper level has been lifted. The player and company fights their way up the keep until coming across a room of caged skeletons along with a book detailing Avernus' notes and brutal experiments. The notes explaining that Avernus' blood magic tests on his captives were moving along quite well, but that he ended up running out of live subjects to test on despite being so close to having a break through. Continuing on up the keep, the player's group and Levi eventually arrive at Avernus' sanctum at the top of Soldier's Peak. Within the sanctum, they find Avernus still alive, and continuing his work as an old mage. Avernus gets the gist that the player's group are the reason the demon numbers within the keep have dwindled, which the player calls out Avernus' as a monster for relying on demons and performing blood magic experiments. However, Avernus defends his actions that summoning demons, and doing blood magic tests on Ferelden nobles for some sort of power breakthrough, were necessary due to King Arland trying to kill the Soldier's Peak Grey Wardens.
Levi uses the meeting to ask Avernus if there's any proof about how great Sophia was during her past days as the Warden-Commander, but Avernus provides him the bad news that while he knows from personal experience how strong and influential Sophia was, there's no evidence remaining. The answer disappoints Levi knowing that the Dryden family's honor can't be restored, but he remains satisfied that he finally has closure regarding Sophia. The player is then given a choice regarding what to do with Avernus. Either Avernus is fought with given his heinous actions, or Avernus is convinced to make amends, which he wishes to close the Veil rift himself. If Avernus lives, he travels back down the keep to the location where he abandoned Sophia to die, which is the spot where the rift in the Veil is at the strongest due to Avernus' actions when he originally tried to summon in demons.
When Avernus and the player's group arrive back at the rift location, Avernus explains that he will go about undoing the summoning circles that he created so long ago, which will finally fix the rift. However, he warns that the demons will surely try to attack to keep the rift from closing (if the player accepted the deal with the demon possessed Sophia to kill Avernus, it's her that goes about shutting down the summoning circles to close the rift). The player and company go about protecting Avernus from the demons appearing through the rift as the old mage successfully removes the summoning circles. Though a powerful desire demon manages to break in, the player's group manages to defeat it, which finally closes the Veil rift for good. Thus, freeing Soldier's Peak from its curse. Depending on whether the player sided with Avernus or the demon possessed Sophia, final choices are made regarding the fates of these two. For Avernus, he either continues his work in Soldier's Peak, gets exiled, or gets killed off. For the demon possessed Sophia, she's either killed off, or she's set free into the world.
After the Curse is Lifted
With Soldier's Peak safe again, Levi congratulates the player for the job well done while still left in disbelief that there was a blood mage within the Grey Warden ranks. Levi then states that while it's disappointing that he couldn't restore his family's honor, there's still the future to build towards rather than remaining stuck on the past. He also tells the player of how they now have the Soldier's Peak fortress to use as a Grey Warden base, which it now comes with a storage chest for the player to store away items, and two merchants appear to set up shop. One of which is Levi Dryden, who provides some of the best merchant discounts for the player. Afterwards, the player's group departs from Soldier's Peak.
