Here is an item I plan to introduce in late future of my campaign. One of the quests my players have is to find the Dread Orb (from adventure Lamenting Lightouse, which lets you cast some necromantic spells for free), given to them by Wizard/Warlock's patron who was ordered so by Thanatos. I decided to combine it with another necromantic item the party encountered when I've run terror at Havel's Cross, The Bone of Doresain (lets you once a day turn one corpse into a Ghoul and you cannot die until it is active).
I have decided to create a third item and combine them to create
Scepter of Undeath
by Not a DecepticonAn ancient artifact created by the most powerful necromancers and priests of Thanatos have created the ultimate symbol of power for the corrupt Pharaohs of the Nithian Empire. The Scepter gives immense power of undead creation and command, many of them beyond what even the modern mages of Alphatia or Glantri can accomplish. With the fall of the Nithian Empire, the Scepter has been lost but even Immortal wrath could not destroy it - it has been divided into three parts that have been lost to time, vanishing and resurfacing time and time again.
Many powerful undead and necromancers desire its power, including King Thar, dark mage Meredoth, who believes reassembling the scepter will set him free from domains of Dread, or Glantrian Princes Brenard McGregor and Morphail Gorevitch-Woszlany. Thanatos himself seeks to reassemble the Scepter so that it causes death and destruction once more.
Currently, only one part of the Scepter has not been missing, and that's Rod of Vampiric Might, which is believed to be currently in hands of King Thar, greatly boosting his already impressive powers as a Nosferatu.
5e mechanics
Scepter of the Undeath is an artifact that possesses all powers of base items creating it, all powers of Wand of Orcus and has more abstract abilities to exercise user's control over undead of great power or in great numbers.
Rod of Vampiric Might
Legendary (requires attunment)
An attuned creature does not need to sleep, eat, drink or breathe and has a disadvantage on all attack rolls in direct sunlight.
The Rod has 10 Charges that can be expended to cast any of the following spells: Charm Person (1 charge), Spider Climb (2 charges), Gaseous Form (3 charges), Vampiric Touch (3 charges), Conjure Animals (3 charges), Polymorph (4 charges), Aozy's Vampiric Burst (4 charges). The spells can be upcast by spending more charges, one charge increasing the spell level by one.
Conjure Animals cast through the rod treats swarms of bats or rats as beasts and Winter Wolf as a CR2 creature. It can only be used to summon wolves, dire wolves, swarms of bats or swarms of rats. polymorph can only be used to turn into a tiny bat or a tiny rat.
Whenever you regain hit points while attuned to the rod, you can convert any number of these hit points to charges. You can also as a bonus action feed the rod your own blood, losing up to 10 hit points and regaining as many charges. If the rod runs out of charges, roll d20. On a roll of 1, the rod is damaged and loses all magical abilities until feed blood equal to 20 hit points. The rod also regains all expended charges each sunset.
Drain Life. When you hit a creature with a melee attack while attuned to the rod, you can force the target to make a DC 17 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, the target takes an extra 4d6 necrotic damage, and you regain a number of hit points equal to half that necrotic damage. This property can't be used again until the next dawn.
If a humanoid is slain using the Rod's Drain Life feature or Vampiric touch cast through it and then buried in the ground, it raises the following night as a Vampire Spawn that obeys all commands of whoever is attuned to the rod at the time.