Sea of Monsters

Bordered to the north by Kadaver and Baross, and to the south by the Cyclopean Shores and the Drylands, the Sea of Monsters is aptly named. The Maw on Baross' coast allows aquatic monsters to emerge from deep beneath the surface - and, some believe, from other worlds as well.
Ocean storms often rage across the sea, some prompted by the frequent volcanic eruptions on the island of Ascalon, others by the strangely shifting currents around Shadow Island and the disturbed waters around the Maw. Ships hug the coastlines and dart to and from the safety of the Lock of Giants, the giant-carved canal through the mountains and its associated water-locks allowing safe passage to the Wyrmsea Republic.
The Maw is always given a wide berth, its unnaturally dark and cold waters sending a shiver of atavistic horror down the spine of any who perceive it, even if they do not know the truth. Eons ago an elder being from the cold beyond the stars was cast down during a war in the heavens and entombed beneath the surface in an undying sleep. The glass-smooth and perfectly curved cylindrical column cut from the cliff edge and running below the oily water is the only visible clue to its exact location, but the stone shrugs off even millennia of weathering. The foolhardy who seek to dive beneath the surface to see for themselves never return, and any attempt at magical scrying results in either violent insanity or the scryer being found dead of terror, with an expression of utter horror etched into their waxy faces.
Sailors sometimes tell tales of strange creatures they have seen under the water as they passed below the keel, or on the surface during the storms when flashes of lightning illuminate the sea. Beings with too many eyes, immense tentacles covered in suckers ringed with fangs like huge thorns, massive mouths like a thorny lamprey's, and gazes filled with cold and malign intelligence are all frequently mentioned. These stories could be dismissed as invention or hearsay, but genuine fear and remembered horror fills the sailors' eyes as they recount what they have witnessed.