Happy with his gold sovereigns... for now... Amastacia gets back on the road to Soldier's Peak. Levi guides us through the tunnels and eventually, we find ourselves standing before an impressive castle. Upon entering, we discover that this place has a bit of a ghost problem that needs to be sorted out before we move in. Visions of the Wardens' last moments hound Amy as he searches for valuable loot and Levi keeps asking if we see what he's seeing. We have to keep telling him to shut up and focus on shiny objects... and the fact that we keep getting attacked by skeletons... but mostly shiny things.
"Hey! I'm providing some very important exposition, dwarf! Don't pretend like you didn't notice!"
Our exploration eventually leads us to a chamber that shows that the ghost problem was just this castle's way of warming us up for even worse news. We see a vision of Levi's ancestor, Sophia Dryden, fighting the king's soldiers with her mage ally, Avernus, behind her. She directs him to summon a small army of demons to assist them, which goes about as well as you'd expect. The demons refuse Avernus' orders and start killing everything. The strongest among them tells Avernus he has managed to tear a hole in the Veil of reality itself, and the mage runs like hell when he hears that. Sure enough, the glowing tear in the Veil is still in this room and Amy has no tasteful curtains that he can use to cover it up.
After vanquishing the demons that have come through the tear, we make our way to the commander's office and find Sophia Dryden still locked inside. Unfortunately, she was possessed by a demon after Avernus abandoned her. The demon makes a simple request: it will close the tear in the Veil and make Soldier's Peak safe for us to inhabit if we let it keep Sophia's body. At this point, we know of no other way to close this demon portal and it would be unwise to screw up what could be our only chance. So, Amy stabs the demon out of her body and takes her fancy armor. Curtains. That's our solution. Gotta find 'em.
That shade of purple is hideous in this room! ...Also, a demon came through the purple thing and possessed the old Warden-Commander.
We find a door leading to Avernus' old part of the fortress and battle through some more undead on the way. A disturbing room full of blood stains awaits us, the site of Avernus' many experiments to unlock the secrets of Grey Warden blood. ...We're sensing a theme of "blood" and "magic" here. It's probably a coincidence.
Near Avernus' research logs is a flask filled with a dark liquid. The logs detail just how horrible the experiments were, but Amy can't read too well when he's thirsty. He grabs the flask off the table and chugs it like it's ale. The searing pain that follows tells him that definitely wasn't ale. It's a potion Avernus made to empower the magic in a Grey Warden's blood. Amy scribbles something in the logs about the potion needing more fruit flavor, and moves on.
The next room is Avernus' chambers and much to our surprise, he's still here... and not possessed by a demon. He senses that we have Grey Warden blood, and explains that his experiments have increased his lifespan significantly. When he asks why we're here, Amy tells him he only came because a total stranger asked him to. Levi Dryden then asks if any of his family records remain intact and Avernus regrettably informs him he's out of luck.
"You're telling me I spent all that time convincing people to buy this DLC, and I don't get a damned thing out of it?!"
Avernus is more concerned with repairing the damage he did to the Veil however, and insists that we discuss his horrible ethics after all the demons are dead. Amy starts to mention the fruit flavor thing, but Avernus is already walking out of the tower, toward the tear in the Veil. No wonder people hate blood mages. Their manners suck!
Back in the main fortress, Avernus begins the process of closing the summoning circles. The demons aren't happy about that, and make a final push through the tear to stop us. Rage demons, shades, wraiths and even a desire demon shows up, but the attacks bounce off Amy's new armor and the Veil is repaired.
His work done, Avernus says he'll be happy to stay in his tower and conduct more grisly experiments to help the Wardens. Unfortunately for him, Amy still hasn't gotten the foul taste of that energy drink out of his mouth. He decides the mage had outlived his usefulness and kills him, too.
I don't care about the ethics of your experiments... but as a person, you creep me out too much. DIE!
Levi parts ways with us a little disappointed, but says he'll stay at Soldier's Peak and provide what support he can to the Wardens. Whatever, Levi. We have some new armor and a belly full of blood that need to be washed down with something mystical and fruit-flavored… and we know just the place to get it.
Mages of the Circle Tower! I seek a legendary potion of ambiguous fruitiness! The Grey Wardens demand your assistance!
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