Speaking Stones

Speaking Stones are magical items crafted by Skink Priests under the guidance of Slann that enable the bearer to overcome language barriers.

Mechanics & Inner Workings

Sometimes they are built into architecture to broadcast their magic over a wide area, often in prisons or interrogation chambers. Anyone near by an architectural speaking stone can speak and be perfectly understood by anyone nearby with a language.
Smaller Speaking Stones are worn or carried. It allows the person carrying it to speak and be understood by anyone within earshot and to understand all spoken languages.
Speaking stones provide perfect communication, translating idioms and metaphors into something the listener can understand.
A skink with a speaking stone can mimic a dwarf accent perfectly even if he cannot physically pronounce every phoneme of the Khazalid language.
If people in the vicinity are speaking more than two languages, a speaking stone usually addresses the language of the person the bearer of the stone is focusing on, but a strong willed wielder can alter this as in the story New Alliances.

Show spoiler

General Belrikt was able to use a speaking stone into manipulating a Demon Lord into threatening a group of Skaven in Queekish.

History

Many architectural Speaking Stones were created before the Great Catastrophe. Some of them were salvaged from ruined temple cities and moved to the "Big Four" temple cities. A tiny number of smaller speaking stones date back to this time.
Lizardmen are often guilty of valuing magical items more for their ancient history than for their utility and a lot of speaking stones have been passively sitting in great vaults unused.
Most speaking stones that are actually passed around Lizardmen claws were crafted during the Age of Strife.
The recent crescendo of the Great Debate has led to the Merestar Coalition working to create new Speaking Stones though this is a slow process.

Significance

The First children of the Old Ones are generally certain they are right, and that the other races are ignorant fools at best. They rarely care about listening to what the Prodigals and Anathema have to say and they rarely bother trying to communicate their wisdom to the ignorant tadpoles.
Rarely doesn't mean never. Sometimes, the Lizardmen need to talk with other races.
Slann can generally overcome language barriers with their telepathy though this is more than a little invasive (not that Slann usually care about this aspect of their power). Usually speaking stones are created for Skinks or rarely Saurus.
Speaking Stones work just fine when carried about non-Lizardmen though a non-Lizardmen is probably not going to understand what the speaking stone does unless someone is speaking in a foreign language while he's touching it.
To a casual onlooker, a speaking stone looks indistinguishable from every other weird Lizardmen glyph. Some speaking stones are sitting on collector's shelves in the Old World collecting dust...their owners not realizing that they possess a highly useful magical item rather than a low value collector's item.
Once, the Lizardmen gave a speaking stone to a dwarf ally as a diplomatic gift. A couple times, speaking stones have been stolen by those who recognized them for what they are. The skaven are holding at least five or six. A few human and elven wizards are holding one.

Item type

Magical