Traditionally, a rod that conducts electricity into the earth or water, to prevent lightning striking a structure. Captain Nemanor was known to keep a lightning rod on board his galleon, in order to "dispel storms" (ironic for a man who can spellcast the wind).
When Treguard learned from Hordriss that Red Death was approaching Knightmare Castle, he instructed dungeoneer Chris of the team in progress, Team 7 of Series 6, to "forget the Sword" (their quest object) and retrieve Nemanor's lightning rod instead (they must be hard to come by in the Dungeon). Having done so with Nemanor's endorsement and guidance, Chris entered the dwarf tunnels and hurried the lightning rod to the antechamber: an incredible dash for someone who supposedly can't see in front of his own face. The 'red' dragon continued its approach. Treguard, taking the rod and joining hands with Pickle, waited until a given moment, then ordered the elf to strike the quest table with the mace. This charged the lightning rod and caused it to emit a powerful blue energy stream which zapped the red dragon, sending it plummeting lifelessly onto Mount Fear (and Lord Fear - an incident mentioned by Lord Fear in the next season and by Greystagg in the fan-made KMRAmDram/Dunshelm Players audio play Famous For Retreating).

A clip of the incident was made available via the ITV Children's Classics YouTube channel in 2014.
Thus, in a series of events involving rod, hull and a violent puppet, a humble lightning rod helped to save Knightmare and thereby pave the way for Series 7. On second thoughts, maybe it wasn't such a fantastic device after all...

Other rods featured in Knightmare include a fishing rod and two or three divining rods.

[Earlier version provided on: 2005-09-27 01:02:04]

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