Most are desperate, but the veterans are crazy. You have to be a little off to go out into a forest where even the plants are trying to kill you so that you can hopefully get some magical spider's silk. — Jasper Cameron, Leader of the Bronze Ravens
Silk Gatherer's are broadly anyone who desiced to venture into the Ghostspider forest to gather silk. Although technically about half are the reason the slang term for new recruits is "Spider food." During one's first season the mortality rate is 30-50% depending on the year.
Trapper's Bane is no doublt responsible for more than its fair share.
Once you are in the forest it is easy enoguh to get some silk. After all, it is practically everywhere. Although getting the right kind of silk is a bit more important. Most people dont know but there are several types of spider silk. Its not just "sticky" and "not sticky."
The most valuable forms are the cocoon silks, used either to wrap captured prey or secure egg sacs. Of course, these are also the hardest to get, being as they are in the heart of a spiders den. These are the most prized as they are the silks most easily to transition planes, like the Ghostspiders themselves.
Of course you could go for either of the sticky silks (aggregate and flagelliform) which are the next most prized, but also technicallay the most difficult to harvest. Afterall its very nature as the capture and structural threads it is designed to entangle and bind those that come into contact with it. And harvesting it in a useful form is also complicated by its sticky nature.
For those just looking for easy repeatable trips you can just gather ampullate, or structural, silk. It is the most common in the forest and the easiest to gather. A simple spooling tool from the
Silkweavers Guild and a couple of days in the forest and you are ready to return to
Sylm Aranae and get some gold for your troubles.
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