Idea Snippet: The Lightning Rod

The lightning rod is a magical item that sits somewhere between the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons-style high fantasy and Dresden Files-esque urban fantasy. In truth, it could be easily justified, and created, in either world. It functions essentially as follows, and is on the surface quite simple.

First, one fashions their rod. For many this is a staff of some kind, typically a hardwood or metal, usually five to six feet long. On one end, the "top," a connecting port is fastened. This port uses gold filaments and a simple screw-in system found with most modern bottles, but could also connect to the bottle (which I will mention soon) in a variety of other ways. Once the connector is attached to the rod, a special bottle can be connected. This bottle is a vacuum tube with a gold filament coming out the top that serves as the current connection to the rod.

Now comes the tricky part: catching lightning in a bottle. This can be done in multiple ways, with two being most common. The first involves the already-connected rod and bottle. The user enters a clearing during a natural thunderstorm and extends the rod above himself. When lightning strikes the rod, the energy is stored inside the bottle for later use. The second method fills bottles without using the rod, and allows multiple bottles to be filled at the same time. Using an apparatus similar to an upside-down umbrella, the user sets out the bottle beneath the apparatus with its own extended lightning rod. Each bottle is connected to a wire that is connected to the rod. There should also be an extra grounding wire, unless the user plans to collect every bottle and dismantle the apparatus in the midst of the storm. Each lightning strike fills one bottle with one charge, which can then be magically unleashed using the lightning rod.

Alternatively, the bottles could be thrown. When they strike a hard surface, they will shatter and release all of their energy in an undirected blast, either escaping in a bolt toward the closest conductor or simply exploding in a sphere of electrical power. The rod is used to direct this energy in a single bolt at a specific target, though proper aim is incredibly important, and environments with multiple powerful electricity conductors or strong sources of ambient energy are likely to tamper with even an experienced user's aim.

Writers, creators, artists, what have you: Feel free to use this. Just thank me when you get published.