Some items can indeed be charged. But the research I have found indicates only Gnome tinkered items. This is not such.
Let me help folks with this quest. I now have my 3rd one.
The gnoll that drops the baby, spawns in the same place as the snake. No special things need to be done to get him to spawn except kill the snake, didnt time the spawn but it seems about 7 minutes or so. It seems to take about 4-5 snakes to get the gnoll. So he is an uncommon spawn. Its random, so it may be longer or shorter.
The gnolls that drop the other quest items now are in South Karana, not in the gnoll dungeon, that dungeon has been taken over.
They run on the north end of South Karana, and go east to west, or west to east. I believe they share the same spawn cycle as lions, lioness, a named gnoll, another escaped gnoll, perhaps a cyclops, undead cyclops, 1 centaur, and 1 or 2 aviaks. If such mobs are traveling North and South, and not east and west, they do not share the same mob spawn cycle. Note some of these mobs travel north and south, as well as east to west. You are concerned only with east to west (or west to east)mobs. While elephants may also travel east to west (&west to east) they don't seem to be on the same cycle.
I also believe there is more than 1 cycle for these mobs. I have seen 2 right after each other.
1 thing to note after you get the sword, don't try and pop the pet out if you have a familiar. You will waste a charge and not get the pet. You can't have both up.
Please note the pet is not a proc, you have to hold the sword and click on it to pop it.
Also I have tried turning in the sword with empty charges and see if it comes back charged, it does not. Nor can you trick the NPC and get the sword by giving him the intermediate one. The only way thats gonna work is if someone turned in the other items 1st.
An uncharged sword does not sell for anything, nor can it be donated to Tribute. And destroy it before you turn in new quest items before you get a new one. They are lore.