Having waited for the Manticores to return to their nest, the HILT descended the cliff and snuck into their cave, while Ajax, a dwarven pirate they had rescued, guarded their ropes. 

The brave monster hunters were neither particularly brave, nor experts at hunting monsters, so the battle with the mating pair of manticores was somewhat fraught.

First, the casters present were not exceptionally skilled at causing harm. They told some excellent jokes, which kept the flying lion scorpions in hysterics, but the battle was mostly spent trying to protect Olive long enough for her to find the appropriate organ to puncture with her arrows. 

In the flurry of the battle, most of the eggs were lost, unfortunately. Well, not lost, more, exploded. Two were saved, though.

Covered in blood, yolk, and victory, the HILT trundled off back to Isard.  En route, they were attacked by a third manticore. It attacked furiously from the darkness, nearly killing Meli and Gene with its rain of tail spikes.

The battle was won, however, and another partially formed egg was retrieved from the corpse. 

Technically another egg was recovered, but it had already been broken open, so Tyrteus separated the egg from the surrounding viscera using a magical colander and prepared a Frittata to share with the ravaged party.