Alcarys Complex

Corvallis Unruh is a young pacifist from a small coastal town. He spends his days working for the local pharmaceutical distributor and taking his daily pain medication, even though he’s not sure he’s actually in pain.
One night, his world is upended when a huge creature tears his family’s house apart, sending him on an adventure that he’s pretty sure he doesn’t want to be on with a companion who he’s pretty sure doesn’t want him there. Along the way, his companion, Angela, brings other people into the fold – a mercenary, a professional adventurer, a nobleman, and a sorcerer – but Corvallis is always alone. And he knows it.

People who want to curry favor with Corvallis tell him that he’s some sort of Chosen One, but they fail, every time, to tell him that he’s been chosen to be a cog in a political machine with a thirst for profit. And where there is no money, there is only bloodletting.