Bastone Diabolico
Casting this ritual is a bit trick because it requires the removal of a leg bone from a living person. the donor must survive the removal (at least for a little while). The bone is then submerged in molten lead. Once it cools, the thin lead coating is inscribed with various runes.
The Necromancer then uses this metal-shod bone to beat its donor to death while repeating a droning Greek chant.
With a successful roll, this ritual produces a bastone diabolico or "devil stick." The stick can be activated by anyone who holds it and expends a point of Willpower. Activation lasts for a scene, and during that time any ghost, spirito or spettro hit with the devil stick looses a point from its Passion Pool (if you're using the rules from Wraith: The Oblivion, wraiths lose a point of Pathos and spectres lose a point of Angst). In addition to its normal effects, this club does an additional die of damage when used against the walking dead (not vampires), and such damage is aggravated.
Unfortunately for the Necromancer, ghosts can sense that the bastone diabolico is bad news, even if they don't know exactly what the thing does. They tend to stay away from anybody carrying one, which means that all rolls for such a character to use powers that summon or attract spirits occur at +1 difficulty.
The Giovanni clan stores many of these cudgels in their Venice vaults, and are actually more likely to lend one out to a neonate than to teach the ritual (after all, kidnapping somebody, mangling him and killing him was a lot easier to get away with a few hundred years ago). Most older devil sticks are made from tibias (for individuals who prefer a thinner, faster club) or femurs (for the type who like a big bludgeon with a knot on the end). Modern Necromancers are just as likely to use the patella to create a ghost-punishing weapon far easier to conceal.
Reference: CGR 75
