Options for granting a Persistent Harrier the ability to vocalize?

[AnonJr]

We are in a mid-level 3.5 Eberron campaign. I'm playing a Warforged Battle Sorcerer/Duskblade/Abjurant Champion. Earlier in the campaign, I acquired two homunculi - specifically Persistent Harriers - who are under my command, but are not familiars and do not have the full bond an Artificer normally would have.

The party has accumulated some extra gear that none of the PCs really want to use, that would also be good to "hand down" to the Harriers, but require a command word to operate... leading to the crux of the question: what are my options for getting a Persistent Harrier the ability to speak - even if it's just the command word for a magic item?

There's a bit of a debate over Pearls of Speech (any help resolving that would be nice), but none of us have a really good idea of a way to make that happen that seems reasonable.

[AnonJr]

Small update: found a reference to an old web article on an amulet that may also fit the bill.

If someone has a good link (or at least a good summary) for if you can use a pearl of speech for this it would be appreciated.

[Thurbane]

I was going to suggest Amulet of Freedom of Speech (https://web.archive.org/web/20181008022833/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20020125a), but looks like you already found it.

As for Pearl of Speech, it does mention it needs to meld with a tongue, so unsure how that might work for certain creatures.

[AnonJr]

Appreciate it. At least you got the link in if anyone else needs it . :smalltongue:

Our GM's main concern with the pearls came down to if Persistent Harriers had a mouth. No material we could find said one way or another. If it was one our party artificer had built, we could have hand waived it a little.

I may try to find an NPC with Improved Homunculus, and see what can be done.