What's the earliest point where I can get a spider egg for the Warlock promotion? I know I can get them in the Snake Cult Temple, but I could swear I've had some drop from the giant tree spiders in the forests west of Valeia in the past, yet during this play-through none have dropped.

I don't seem to recall any being findable in the crypts, so I guess I'm stuck without a Warlock until I get that far, right?

Additionally, is there a guide for what the various skills and abilities do online? I've managed to misplace my W&W manual.

There are two placed spiders in the Valeia area.
One in the basement of the Windmill and one on the path past the windmill before you get to the Gypsies house.

Either may drop an egg but it is not guaranteed.

They also can spawn in the area but not very often.

Ah well, nothing there is any danger. I'll just crank up the spawn frequency and run around murdering the hell out of everything until I gets me some spider eggs.

If you have a thief, you can try to steal an egg from the spider. You can steal until you get one... much better than the 50/50 odds of seeing whether one drops when it dies or not.

The one in the windmill usually drops an egg for me.

Yeeeeah, but I already wiped all those out. So I'm down to waiting till one of them spawns, as I'd like to have a Warlock before I meet the Snake Cult.

They often spawn in the "gauntlet" area outside Ishad N'ha... I often run up and down those first couple of turns looking for encounters.

Just don't go far enough to wake the salads...

God, yes, I remember the Salads. However, if you're good, you can get a cheesy take-down on them. If you maneuver right you can get into some paths that they're too wide for, and then if you can continue just right, you can get into a spot where you can hit them with spells and they can't hit you with their ranged attacks, then it's just a matter of patience and bombardment to take them down.

I had a weird experience while hunting for spider eggs. I got past the crypt and into the wilderness on the Valeia side of Ishad N'ha, thanks to my Barbarian's short stint as a Ranger, he informed me that Giant Tree Spiders had been in the area, and I decided to find them. I find them, save, approach and... Game locks up, gives me a CTD(Crash to Desktop) as soon as I press enter or escape.

Figure it's random chance, but it happens three more times. Alright, maybe it's the area, I lure them away, engage them in melee and... Same thing. I bombard them from afar with Flamestrikes till they die, I approach, grab the egg(Thankfully one dropped!) and save. Then I go for the chest they were guarding, as soon as I get near... Same thing happens. Then I make the long walk back to Valeia because I had just whacked Tepik T'porn, nothing happens there. Not on the walk back to Ishad N'ha either, seems to just be that little area or those two spiders doing it.

Bizarre.