Soldier's Peak (quest)

Background
Centuries before the events of Dragon Age: Origins, the Grey Wardens of Ferelden took up arms against the the rulers of Ferelden. This tumultuous event led to the expulsion of the Grey Wardens from Ferelden leaving their ancient fortress of Soldier's Peak to the ravages of time. This downloadable content provides The Warden with an opportunity to aid Levi Dryden in redeeming the Dryden's family name by proving that Sophia Dryden, his grandmother, the commander of the Grey Wardens acted honorably.

Main Quest
Kill the undead in the courtyard and enter the castle to watch a cutscene. Make your way to the second floor Commander's Quarters to encounter Commander Sophia Dryden, who's possessed by a demon. The demon wants you to free her, which means going into the mage's tower and destroying the force confining her. You can kill her at this point instead of helping her to get the Warden Commander Armor.

Before entering the great hall (big room with four purple summoning circles on the floor), buff your characters and prepare for a tough fight. A greater Rage Demon will show up, along with four undead warden in each summoning circle. The undead will heal the Rage Demon, so it's best to get rid of them first. Alternatively you may cast Curse of Mortality on the Rage Demon to prevent it from healing. After you kill the first wave and have reduced the demon's health to some point, another four will show up. Kill them all and continue attacking the Rage Demon.

Continue onto the bridge, past the Skeleton Archer and the traps, and enter Avernus' tower. Make your way to the lab and read the journal to understand the terrible experiments Avernus has been conducting on fellow wardens. Unless you morally appose dark magic, drink from the bottle to gain two Power of Blood skills. Enter the door and talk to Avernus to get a complete understanding of what's going on. You can then choose to agree to help him to seal the veil and get rid of the demons.

Follow Avernus back to the great hall. He will stand in each summoning circle in turn, during which time demons will appear and attack your party, one wave per circle for a total of four waves. There is a small window of peace between each wave, so save and heal. Eventually a final Desire Demon appears, and once she's dead, the main quest is done.

Talk to Avernus afterwards to decide his fate. You can kill him and get the Robes of Avernus for your mages. Or you can kick him out of the keep to never see him again. Or you can let him continue his research.

Alchemical Concoction
There is an Alchemical Concontion in the tower before you meet Avernus. When you first enter the tower, there will be a table in front of you and on top of it is a green jar of some sort, you can also find a book to your left on the floor in a fireplace, there you can read about Avernus's experiments. Read it if you like, but the Jar is more important, by clicking it, you can choose whether to drink it or not. Drinking it, will unlock the Power of Blood Talents and as well as unlocking the Diabolist achievement.

Secret Chest
There is a secret chest in the castle. In order to find it, you must find four clues before leaving Warden's Keep because you may not re-enter once you leave. The clues can be found, from a in the corner of the first floor, from a  before Sophie Dryden's room and an  in Avernus' study.

The chest is found after closing the veil. On the way out, look at the. If you have found the four clues you will be able to recite the warden's oath and a chest will emerge from the wall. This chest contains Asturian's Might, a longsword; the Shadow Belt, a belt that reduces hostility; and a small amount of gold.

The Drydens
Once the quest is completed, the Dryden family will set up shop outside the Keep. Two merchants will be available, and they give the best discount in the game (better than the dwarves at your party camp). Levi Dryden's cousin, Mikhael Dryden, is a smith, and has every conceivable non-magical weapon and armor for sale - such as the Drakeskin armor set. Additionally, if the player happens to find some meteorite ore, Mikhael will be able to craft a longsword or a great-sword which he will name Starfang.

Items
The following items are available in this downloadable content and may be found in Soldier's Peak or during their travels in Ferelden.
 * Warden Commander Armor set
 * Robes of Avernus, a robe that improves Blood Magic
 * Winter's Breath, a powerful magical staff
 * Starfang, the longsword or Starfang, the two-handed greatsword
 * Asturian's Might, the longsword of the Grey Warden Asturian
 * Antique Warden Crossbow, an above average Crossbow
 * Shadow Belt, a belt that reduces hostility

Power of Blood Abilities
Rogue

Dark Passage

Passive Range: Personal

Activation: 0

Tapping the power of tainted blood makes the rogue more nimble, able to move more quickly while using Stealth and more likely to dodge a physical attack.

The Tainted Blade

Sustained

Range: Personal

Activation: 44

The rogue's blood gushes forth, coating the edges of weapons with a deadly taint. The character gains a bonus to damage determined by the cunning attribute,but suffers continuously depleting health in return.

 Warrior 

Blood Thirst

Sustained

Range: Personal

Activation: 33

The warrior's own tainted blood spills in sacrifice, increasing movement speed, attack speed, and critical-hit chance. For as long as the mode is active, however, the warrior suffers greater damage, and continuously diminishing health.

Blood Fury

Activated

Range: Personal

Activation: 33

The warrior sprays tainted blood in order to knock back nearby enemies, which they may resist by passing a physical resistance check. The gush of blood, however, results in a loss of personal health.

Mage 

Dark Sustenance 

Activated

Range: Personal

Activation: 0

A self-inflicted wound lets the mage draw from the power of tainted blood, rapidly regenerating a significant amount of mana but taking a small hit to health.

Bloody Grasp

Activated

Range: Medium

Activation: 15

The mage's own tainted blood becomes a weapon, sapping the caster's health slightly but inflicting spirit damage on the target. Darkspawn targets suffer additional damage for a short period.

Bugs
The following is a list of bugs that the player might encounter and their work arounds.


 * After completing the keep, it is possible to zone back into the tower and then back again and Levi has dialogue meant for later.
 * Occasionally, the trade option will not bring up the trade screen.
 * Sometimes the location on the map disappears along with items found.

Party Storage Chest & Camp Merchant :: Item Tier Scaling
Items left in the Party Storage Chest will scale with the player's level over a random period of time. A Tier 1 Iron Dagger placed in the chest can end up a Tier 7 Dragonbone Dagger (once the PC is leveled high enough to access Tier 7 weapons). Traveling to the Party Camp and then back to the Warden's Keep will often be enough.


 * Most unique/special items are not affected by this. These are items which do not have multiple tiered versions to begin with. Examples confirmed NOT to work: Oak Branch, Templar Armor, Ancient Elven Armor, Aodh. All of these items exist only as a specific tier in the game, regardless of the PC's level when found.


 * Items known to work already exist within the game in multiple tiered versions, such as the Warden Commander Armor, Warden's Longsword, Asturian's Might, and Heavy Plate Armor.
 * Esentially: items will only improve if  a higher tier version of that item exists.


 * Confirmed on the Xbox360 and PS3 for the Group Party Chest / Warden's Keep DLC.
 * Tested on PC with multiple weapons and armor; reported NOT to work in the Warden's Keep Group Party Chest (see below for a similar effect which has been confirmed on the PC)

A similar effect may be found (on all platforms) once you are joined by your Camp Merchants, Bodahn and Sandal. This effect is not seen with other merchants because items sold do not return the merchant's stock, instead appearing under the merchant's side of the "Junk" category. Once the sale is finalized, any items under the Merchant's Junk category are destroyed. It is possible that this behavior ("bug") would be observable in the merchant at the party camp, as they are unique in that any item sold stays in that category when it transfers to the merchant's inventory, where it remains. (a trait for merchant which is logical in the game sense because they travel with the Warden, who is likely their only customer.) It seems likely that item leveling is applied to all merchants, including the ones at camp.)

The biggest downside of this with the Camp Merchants is that you will be paying the normal price for a weapon of that tier.

When using the Group Party Chest, however, it can become an extremely profitable investment.

The reasoning for this is thought to be that the original game contains no system or game mechanics which behave as a two-way chest which items transfer to/from the PC's inventory seemlessly and remain permanently. Instead of writing entirely new code for the chest in the DLC, they likely used the camp merchant mechanics with a small adjustments to remove item prices. As such, this behavior of leveling the content's item tiers could easily be inavertedly included in the chest as well. It is far less likely to notice this occurring at the camp merchant as items sold there are unwanted and its inventory is not watched as closely. this is in contrast to the chest, which is for items which want to be saved, and any changes to equipment here would be far more likely to be noticed.