I have been collecting various "Special" items like gems of different types and spider eggs and I still don't know why, lol. Any clues?
I have been tempted to sell the gems now & then as gold seems hard to come by but I don't want to spoils anything for myself later on in the game. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Sell the gems. They're like condensed gold. Occasionally you will find a "special" gem which has a name assigned to it. It will be needed to complete a guild quest and go up in levels at the guild so that you can learn new traits and skills. These gems are very uncommon. I can't be 100% positive, but you may be prevented from selling some quest items. I tried to sell some quest items after I had completed the quest but they weren't in the list of items to select. So I'm hauling them around everywhere.

Gems that can be sold safely are: emerald, amethyst, ruby, diamond

Try to learn Ancient Lore and then build up the Artifacts skill so that you can identfy items yourself. This will save you a lot of money. The armory will rob you blind to identify items. If you identify an item you can sell it for twice as much. You can still equip items you haven't ID'd and get all the benefits. You just won't be sure what they are so watch out for "cursed" items which subtract from your abilities!

Item category 'special' just means it fits in no other category. It sounds better than 'miscellaneous'. When e.g. a sword is a puzzle item, it's category is still 'weapon', which means you can wield it.

Just sell everything you can, preferably at the same shop. You seem to be the only customer, because all sold items can be bought back, so if you sold an item that you need anyway you can always get it. e.g. spider eggs are needed for a role promotion. If you sell them for 0, you can buy them back for 1 which I find is cheap for not having to lug it around all the time.

Thank you for your replies. : )
The gems will be sold as soon as I start the game back up as they are not quest items and I have characters ready for role ascensions who could really use the cash!
As far as the spider eggs go, buying them back for 1 gold later on is a great idea. At this point I will only need one anyway.
I checked out the walkthrough posted earlier, (http://www.shininglair.com/wwwalk.html)
it is a great help!
Thanks again,
Moni