Misery loves company (or makes a good read, at least)

A good novel is all about conflict. It's about your character overcoming obstacles in the face of all odds. And the more your character has to overcome, the better the novel.

To that end, in addition to facing death at the hands of a horrible monster, I also have my main character:
at risk of losing his job because of his little adventure;
at risk of losing his girlfriend because of his little adventure;
at risk of alienating his family because of his little adventure
(see a pattern here? He's risking it all to chase his dream);
and last but not least, he wrecks his car.

What else I can throw at him? Or not? Maybe any more and he'd seem like the unluckiest shmuck in the world. But I'll worry about that in the rewrite--once the novel is done, if it seems like I've thrown too much at my main character, I'll edit some of it out.

For now, I'm going to continue to think up diabolical ways to mess up his life.