The Seas Boiled Away: A 5 Monster Setting

10 monster settings were created by 3 Toadstools, but since then the formula (10 categories, a monster for each, make a setting out of it) hasn't changed. I want to see if the settings get easier or harder to make (and if they're more or less interesting) with a different number of monsters.

The Seas Boiled Away - 5 Monsters

Intelligent: Eloko (CC1 Creature Compendium)

Aerial: Alkonost (Kobold Press Creature Codex)

Aquatic: Draug (Asgard, Issue 1)

Big: Buru (CC1 Creature Compendium)

Small: Acid Ant (Kobold Press Creature Codex)

"The Eloko are to blame!" cried the world, as the seas boiled away and the Eloko crawled out of them, at war with the land. 

As the oceans vanished, the world was covered in rain, becoming hotter and more humid - by the time the war against the Eloko was won, the earth was mostly jungle. 

The plains that used to be the seas are impassable: the Draug drag the ships they died on across the empty seafloor as the possessed Alkonosts circle above them, crying for the bodies they once had.

The Eloko who survived build their towns atop the long amphibian Buru as their skins are resistant to the Acid Ants that spread like a plague as the world changed. The ants are so numerous some parts of the world have been eaten down to nothing but stone as the ants consumed everything.

Humanity is dominant - the old races died out as the climate shifted, and the Eloko have been pushed back to the edge of the continents.

Adventure Hooks

1. An old treasure ship has been sighted, pulled along by hundreds of Draug. If you could catch up to it, you could become rich beyond your wildest dreams.

2. An Eloko clan has decided to continue the old war - they ride on Buru and throw bags filled with Acid Ants as they advance.
3. From the coast, you can see Alkonosts circling. And talking. About you: how much they need your body. They'll take it from you.
4. An Acid Ant nest has been raised in the middle of town overnight. While the populace evacuates, you could use this time to loot the town.

Verdict
It might be that I used fantasy monsters for a fantasy setting, but I don't like this one as much as The Flesh Descends. It's post-apocalyptic (again), but in a much less interesting way.

I do like my categories, however - by removing Extradimensional and Mythological you can make pure-SF settings without any fantasy weirdness.