So I've been rereading all of my old SR novels in preparation for my game. I just finished Headhunters.

In Headhunters, there's a mage named Cullen Trey. He gets into an astral duel against Kylar Luppas. During the duel, Cullen does something with a foci and turns it into a big staff. The book makes sure to point out it's not a weapon foci, so what is it?

Also, IIRC(might be a diff book, but I don't think so), one of the characters is able to summon a sword to use in combat. Anybody know of any way to do this according to the rules?

TIA.

Most likely it's a "it'does whatever the author needs it to do"-focus. I cannot recall reading that book, so, mind to tell what exactly he did with that focus, other than turning it into a staff?

Also, in SR there is no Real Summoning of Stuff. You could have a spell, that creates an object for the duration of the spell, I guess, but other that that, it's something the author pulled out of his ass. Kinda.