Lift our flaming spear in front of us, and prepare to throw the flaming javelin. Begin to slowly back away. Do not make eye contact with the manticore, as some beasts consider this a challenge.

Lifting your weapons in a defensive position, you slowly back away the way you came, avoiding eye contact. The manticore does not follow, or really do anything at all.

If the monster does not make any aggressive moves, back off, head to the library, and look up manticores. Especially manticore poison.

Getting out of sight of the manticore, you head back to the library. There are some books on manticores here.

There are two types of manticores known to inhabit the Everfree. Most common is the wild manticore. Ferocious and angry, it is not an opponent to be taken lightly. Its poison has an LD50 of approximately 500mg/kg, with a half-life in the equine body of approximately two days.

The other type is the dwelling manticore. It is much more intelligent than the wild one, and usually lives in caves and dungeons. Most are capable of coherent speech, some being more intelligent than top scientists. The more intelligent dwelling manticores tend to propose riddles and other intellectual challenges in exchange for a traveler's or dungeon delver's safe passage. This is thought to be a way for them to amuse themselves. In this regard, they're considered similar to the mythological sphinx. The dwelling manticore's poison has an LD50 of 50mg/kg, with a half-life in the equine body of approximately two weeks.

Researchers have long wondered how to tell the two apart, but have had no success so far.

ten in case its non-hostile[or in the aftermath] : ignore it tend your own wounds

You don't have any noteworthy wounds. You feel slightly woozy, but nothing serious. Heading back down to the manticore, you shout out to it from across the room.

"Hello there!"

The manticore responds with a deep, rumbling voice,  "Hello, survivor. Do you wish to pass through here?"

"Well, yeah, that's kind of why I'm down here at all."  you answer. Hey, does that count for the first riddle?

"Very well,"  the manticore says,  "but first you must answer three questions. One will be a riddle, one will be a mathematical one, and one will be a combination of riddle and mathematics."

It uses its surprisingly sharp claws to carve something on the floor.

A bus driver was going down the street. He went past two stop signs without stopping, went by a red light, and turned left at a "No Left Turn" sign, yet didn't break any traffic rules. How?

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x^2-11x-42=0

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1% of women at age forty who participate in routine screening have breast cancer.  80% of women with breast cancer will get positive mammographies.  9.6% of women without breast cancer will also get positive mammographies.  A woman in this age group had a positive mammography in a routine screening.  What is the probability that she actually has breast cancer?

"You can turn back without answering. You can answer correctly and pass. You can answer incorrectly and leave. You can answer incorrectly and try to kill me to pass. It's up to you."

What do you do?