continued from The Summoner of Souls (part 1: Stat Block)

Adapting the encounter
Reflavouring the lore and elements to particular worlds or gods is easy enough. The summoner should probably not be a nameless foe but play a central role for at least an evening if not for a whole part of a campaign. It is also not necessary that he attacks the players right away, as he is well apt at bargaining and will trade their lives for more knowledge or even possible help - should the players be willing...
The summoner can be well reflavoured to an elemental version with flares instead of souls, then likely being an agent of a powerful dragon or similar creature. Just pay attention to include at least two different types of damage to not make it overly easy by having one certain resistance available. Replace the Battle Wight by a similar soldier that either has a control / drain ability or at least marks characters to help the souls survive. In a similar way his race can be changed by unapplying his racial template (p279 MM) and applying a new one.
It can be run in any location, although some location that is a little bit tighter in space and possibly includes some difficult terrain or even a superior position for the summoner is best. Do not include more than one extra monster, if any at all, because that distracts from the central summoning mechanic. Rather include a trap (chose an obstacle or blaster type) or best simply upgrade or downgrade the summoner's level (+/- 2 hit points per level for the summoned souls). If run as a paragon encounter, remember that paragon level solos have more health, which means add 25% to the summoner's hit points after level adjustment and also 5 extra hit points for the flares.
If you don't mind deluding the summoning mechanic and don't like the artefact version, you can downgrade the summoner to an elite. For that half his XP value and his hit points, make the souls minions, remove one action point and remove one die from Soul Discharge and Revenge of the Staff. Soul Discharge now does not recharge except by Might of the Staff, which loses the feature of summoning an additional Battle Wight.

Player tactics
This fight puts a heavy strain on the players' healing capacities, and adapting to the changing rhythm between summoning and destroying the souls and targeting the summoner himself when he is not summoning and thereby lower on his defences is the major challenge.
Also while the summoner does not do direct attacks against anyone while summoning, it is a wise idea to keep a Defender next to him to account for the moment he changes tactics. Strikers will concentrate at best on removing the flares quickly, while the rest should simply make sure everybody stays in good health and puts other status effects on the summoner.
Both a Fighter and a Paladin will be helpful in this fight - the former due better stickiness, the latter due his additional healing. A good Cleric will likely make the encounter a good bit easier, while a tactical Warlord as only leader will likely mean doom for the group because they will run out of extra healing before they can finish him off.
The players having all their Dailys available in the fight isn't that important, but having more encounters before or after this one that are heavy on Healing Surges will very likely result in dead characters.

Design notes
The damage from the souls is low for its level, especially for solo, but it continuously targets many group members and is hard to avoid. The melee and ranged attacks are high respectively medium damage, which still isn't too much considering that most solos get at least double regular attacks. The only real high damage attacks are Soul Discharge and Revenge of the Staff, using the limited damage selections as they are low-recharge or one time effects.
This is balanced by the great survivability of the summoner and the hard time a Defender has to keep him in check. Together with the dynamic development of the fight this should provide a good alternative to the common "tank and spank" or "condition stacking" experiences of solo encounters.
Running the summoner at low heroic does give his back story not enough credit, and the players have simply to few healing and damage mitigation available to survive it. A similar version at high paragon and epic wouldn't be that fun because of the massive options and the widely available healing to those characters.
The souls are balanced to be killed by about two successful hits, possibly one from a well built striker or with an encounter powers.

lgw

Level 10 Encounter (XP 2,400)

• 1 Summoner of Souls (level 9 solo soldier)
• 1 Battle Wight (level 9 soldier)

The Summoner of Souls, a Shadar-kai (level 9 solo soldier)
Medium shadow humanoid; XP 2,000

Initiative +9; Senses Perception +6; low-light vision
HP 388; Bloodied 194; see also Might of the Staff and Revenge of the Staff
AC 27; Fortitude 23, Reflex 25, Will 24
Resist 10 necrotic
Saving Throws +5
Speed 6; see also Shadow Jaunt
Action Points 2

Staff of Souls (standard; at-will) - Weapon
Reach 2; +16 vs AC; 2d8+7 damage
Soulbolt (standard; at-will) - Weapon, Necrotic
Ranged 20; +17 vs AC; 2d6+5 necrotic damage
Soul Discharge (standard; recharge ) - Necrotic, Fear
Close Burst 3; +13 vs Fortitude; 4d8+5 necrotic damage and the target is stunned until the end of the summoner's next turn; Aftereffect: the target is weakened (save ends); Miss: half damage, no other effect.
Summon Soul (standard; recharge special) - Conjuration
Close Burst 2; Summon a soul (AC 23; all other defenses 21; 20 HP; As conjuration it does not trigger "on death" effects when destroyed.) into an unoccupied square and the summoner becomes insubstantial until the end of his next turn. Recharge depends on the number of souls currently is existance: 0 ; 1 ; 2 ; 3+
Haunt Soul (move; at-will)
Move all summoned souls within line of sight up to 8 squares. They have the phasing quality during that movement and don't provoke opportunity attacks.
Torture Soul (minor 1/round; at-will) - Psychic
All summoned souls within line of sight perform an attack: Close Burst 1 (only affects enemies, see also Soul Mastery); +14 vs Reflex; 1d8+5 psychic damage; no target can be subject to more than one attack per turn, but overlapping attack areas provide a +3 bonus to the attack for each soul beyond the first. This attack does not suffer from any attack penalties or conditions affecting the summoner but only from those placed on an individual soul.
Soul Mastery (minor; recharge )
Increase the burst size of the next Torture Soul attack by 1.
Revenge of the Staff (when reduced to 0 hit points) - Necrotic
The staff explodes with a close burst 5, making a +13 vs Fortitude attack for 4d8+5 necrotic damage, half on a miss. Should the Battle Wight still be alive he also explodes with a close burst 3, making a +12 vs Fortitude attack for 3d8+5 necrotic damage, half on a miss.
Might of the Staff (free, when first blodied; encounter)
All powers of the summoner except this one recharge. He also summons a Battle Wight (p262 MM) of his level into an unoccupied square within 15 squares, who's first turn is right after the current. The XP for the Battle Wight is included in the encounter XP bugdet.
Shadow Jaunt (move; encounter) - Teleportation
The summoner teleports 5 squares and becomes insubstantial until the end of his next turn.

Alignment Evil; Languages Common, Abyssal
Skills Acrobatics (+9), Arcana (+15), Diplomacy (+14), Insight (+11), Intimiate (+14), Religion (+15), Stealth (+9)
Str 10 (+4) Dex 17 (+7) Wis 15 (+6)
Con 17 (+7) Int 22 (+10) Cha 20 (+9)

Equipment The Staff of Souls, any leather armor*, any amulett or cloak* (*: This equipment has no special function but serves as possible encounter loot that survives the explosion of the staff. Should it provide more than enhancement bonuses then these properties and powers could be added to the summoner's list of traits at the DM's discretion.)

Summoner of Souls Tactics
The summoner will usually summon, haunt and torture more soul whenever he can, because it protects him well and will place his enemies in the trouble of staying at sufficient health. Should he be unable to do so he will move into a favourable position, still protected by being insubstantial, and release a Soul Discharge to stall his enemies. Should an enemy run low on health he will use an Action Point in an attempt to knock him out.
Should his enemies prepare too well for his summoned souls, usually by spreading out and / or readying attacks against them, he will break the tactics and single out a weak foe (usually targeting a leader or controller), again using his superior protection and ignoring any marks, in an attempt to knock him out fast and decisively, often using an Action Point.
He will keep Shadow Jaunt on reserve for appropriate use. He might also forgo summoning or moving his souls in favour for being able to use Soul Mastery on a proper occasion, if he shouldn't be able to prepare it on a turn beforehand - if it recharges then, it does stack with itself.
The Battle Wight mainly serves as further distraction, to keep too much fire from being focused on the souls while he summons more.
He does not know about the Revenge of the Staff and will accordingly not prepare for it.

Staff of Souls Lore
A character knows the following information with a successful Arcana or Religion check.
DC 15: The staff of souls is a minor artefact still surviving from the Great War between the Gods and the Primordials, when it was used by the Gods to steal souls from the Primordials' arsenal. First created by the Raven Queen it was stolen after the war by Vecna, whom it serves now.
DC 20: The essence of the staff is not bound to one particular object, but can be channelled into an existing staff by a long ritual that involves sacrafice and torture. Should Vecna approve and should the essence not be bound already, it will then inhabit the staff and bind itself to the caster to grant him tremendous power over souls. It then will ensure that its wielder follows Vecna's commands, which can mean both destruction of his opponents as well the hunt for more secrets.
DC 25: The wielder of the staff can draw on its power to channel multiple souls from the Abyss into this world, using their suffering to inflict damage on his enemies. It is also said that there are some souls permanently bound into the staff, that can be released to weaken enemies or summon stronger allies into the field.
DC 30: Should the wielder fail Vecna, usually by being slain, the staff explodes in a tremendous burst, drawing all remaining souls with it. It is said that these souls go directly to Vecna and that he has some special fate for them in mind, and while nobody knowns what exactly that is, it isn't a pleasant fate for sure. The only way for the wielder to escape this fate is by either long and successful years in Vecna's service and a proper death rite by a Cleric of Vecna, or the ascension to Lichdom - in both cases, the essence of the staff moves on, although in the latter case it is said that he next incarnation of the staff serves as phylactery for the now newly ascended Lich.

Shadar-kai Lore (see p230 MM)

continue to The Summoner of Souls (part 2: Adaption)

lgw