Preset-Self-Original: target redirecting in complicated effects

[temnix]

When a spell is cast, then sent through Apply effects list, targeted, for example, at Self, and then a minion is supposed to be summoned by the caster, not the one the spell is directed at... targeting gets pretty complicated. At some point I'm not sure anymore which way the gun is facing. Sometimes there is a simpler, more primitive workaround, but it's not the same level of quality. Here is the situation at hand: my gliders from "Adventurer's Miscellany" in Strafe for Dirt mode.

They weren't working so well before, and now I'm tightening up the mechanics. In this mode they fly around taking incriminating snapshots. The first time this happens, the glider's race changes to LICH to take account of that fact, and every time a variable is supposed to be increased. This should be a local variable, separate for every glider. The glider soars until somebody in the party gets below and hooks it with a dongle. Holding a dongle applies a combination of spell states to the character, and the glider throws a small area-of-effect around itself every second. When somebody under that combination is caught in it, a spell is applied (to Preset target) that summons an invisible minion on the glider and, after a short pause, removes the glider. The minion's script checks the local variable on its summoner in the interval the glider still exists and creates dirty snapshots that are then passed on to the party for selling on the black market. Now, I have had this all working in a rough outline, but only with a global variable, because I can't seem to figure out the targeting of the summoning effect. No matter what I try, the minion gets summoned on the fishing character, whose local variable is obviously zero, or not at all. With a global it's all simpler, I don't need to care about who the summoner is, but then the first glider caught will empty the stash for all of them in all areas. An AREA-level variable could be satisfactory, but that type can't be set through effects.

So what I want to know, before I give up and stick with the simpler version, is how to target the effects. The sequence is as follows:

Glider casts Caster - > AoE - > channeled effects to Preset target - > Remove creature (Original caster, delayed) + Apply effects list (Self, race: LICH) - > Display string (Original caster, says "Ejecting plates...") + Use EFF File - > Summon creature. In this final spell Display string on Original caster correctly finds the glider, but the targeting for the EFF and inside the EFF always points at the party member doing the catching; some combination of targets failed completely. I don't remember which it was, and I don't want to poke around combining them at random anymore. This is all difficult to test, because catching gliders as they go over inaccessible rooftops and impassable terrain is a chore every time, even with the improvements I made. But if someone knows just how targeting should be tuned in a case like this so that the minion's summoner is the glider, do tell.