Why spider central of course!

"Spiders don't sound as dangerous as a witch, however big they might be."

Thompson nods, "Aye, I'm with you on this one. While the 8 legged pricks can be a real pain in the arse, one wrong move with a witch and you live the rest of your life in the body of a frog!"

You start heading south, Thompson a little ways behind.

You added onto his message "Plus, you seem to have a way with the spiders..if we do get in trouble, you can probably talk our way out of it, right?"

Thompson looked less confident than you were hoping he would, "Well I wouldn't go so far as to say it's entirely probable..but it's certainly possible!"

You nod, regretting having asked. You both walk on in silence for a while.

...

Nothing noticeable changed much at first, but over time it did seem that thin webs started appearing more often, and every now and then thicker ones tying whole trees together started to emerge. They almost seemed to grow as you kept walking.

"How do they even catch anything this far in? Surely all the smaller webs catch everything up to this point?" You ask in a whisper, not seeing anything caught in the larger webs.

Thompson responded with a similarly quiet tone "The larger webs are aimed towards larger creatures, they only catch something every now and then but usually it's big enough to feed them for a long while. They also move around enough to settle in areas with new wildlife when the food starts running scarce..."

"How big are these spiders going to get?" You can't help but ask when passing by one web that **** you into a considerable detour to get around, the spider in the middle being about the size of your head. It was black with a nasty red sheen and bright red spots on it's back. It was hairy as well, though the hair was too thin to be mistaken for a mammal.

"Depends how deep into their territory we get, we might not face too much opposition, maybe meter long spiders at most, but if we're on a collision course for the middle..." He considered this for a moment before answering, "..well, let's hope that's not the case!"

You shivered and whispered furiously, "Meter long?! You could have warned me we would be paying Shelob a visit!"

He chuckled and pressed a finger to his mouth, "If we keep quiet and avoid the webs we can rest assured it'll be nothing more than a visit!"

"What comes next, balrogs and goblins? You got a cursed ring for me as well?" your minor arachnophobia had a way of expressing itself through sarcasm.

"Not out of the realm of possibility! Though I'm afraid I've yet to come across such a ring." Thompson replied.