Bottled Lightning

Ultimate Equipment Guide II

Author Greg Lynch, J. C. Alvarez

Publisher Mongoose Publishing

Publish date 2005

Bottled lightning does not actually come in a bottle, but rather in a fragile, yet strangely heavy for its size, glass sphere about two inches in diameter. Within the sphere are two opposing lodestones, suspended in an alchemical solution. The glass of the sphere is dark, making it difficult to see inside, but a careful observer will occasionally note the faint glimmer of electrical current in the tiny globe as it arcs back and forth between the two lodestones. Touching a globe of bottled lightning produces a tingling sensation from the electricity contained within. Bottled lightning is intended to be thrown as a ranged weapon, much like a bottle of alchemists’ fire. A direct hit with a globe of bottled lightning deals 1d8 points of electrical damage and unleashes a small storm of electrical energy, dealing one point of electrical damage on every creature within five feet of the point where the globe burst. The electricity dissipates almost immediately, causing no further damage after its initial effects.

The globes which contain bottled lightning are extremely fragile and easily broken, and should only be carried about when they are stored in a padded case. Tathiela has received numerous offers, requests, even demands that she develop a larger version of this item, capable of dealing more devastating damage, but she always refuses. She has known and heard of too many alchemists who have tried to do that very thing, usually with fatal results. The stress placed on the bottled lightning container is one reason it is so fragile, to make the device any larger makes it impossible to use glass or ceramic as a container, and most substances capable of holding a larger bottled lightning charge are strong enough they will not break on impact, which defeats the purpose of the device entirely. As far as Tathiela is concerned, there is no way to build a larger version of bottled lightning that will still burst on impact.

Bottled Lightning: 30 gp; ½ lb.