The Rod of Alu Ghorop

This tale is popular through the realms, for it is a tale of rags to riches and the downfall that might one day bring another out of poverty and suffering. The tale centers around a crafty but poor metalsmith known as Alu Ghorop.
While the location changes by telling, it is said that Alu Ghorop could never decide what he wanted to do. He would take up blacksmithing, then jewelry work, then alloy creation. However he could not manage his finances and soon found himself out of work and his home each time. His wife left him and took their children far away to her uncles home. Destitute and alone he eventually lived in a series of caves. In a cave he found a variety of precious metals and over the course of a decade fashioned his famous rod, enchanting it with contracts from ancient distant powers. It was a rod the length of a large man's forearm, with delicate filigree of malachite and silver and a demon's head with two faces.
With this rod he was able to command others to do his bidding, and settle disputes. With this he soon became the mayor of a large town. His wife returned and his now adult children did also. He lived happily but indulgently until one day his eldest son in a fit of jealousy stole the rod. Son and father laid traps and tricks for each other, ruining the lives of those in their family until dropping the rod onto rocks where the crashing waves stole the rod away. Now his family left him again, not because of his poverty, but because of his atrocious behavior. He eked out a living thereafter but died alone.
Many hunt for this missing rod and for the fortune and fame it could carry to the very day.

Historical Basis

It is believed that a variant of this story may have actually occurred, though the particulars certainly are not as fantastical as those presented. The idea that the rod actually worked as described in story is generally dismissed as hyperbole, but spurs treasure hunters on as even the mere find of a non-functional rod of Alu Ghorop could be priceless.