How many lakes and rivers, freshwater, exist with no settlements "neartby"? Of course you will eventually find a settlement somewhere along a large river, but that doesn't mean there are any nearby.
Let's take a major river. Let's say someone crashed along the Amazon River in South America. How many settlements are along that river? How far apart are they? Just because you crashed in the Amazon River doesn't mean you're near a settlement.
Likewise, take the Mississippi River before Europeans settled there. How many settlements existed along that river?
My point is that in BG3 you just crashed in some random remote area. You don't even know what plane of existence you're in because you know darn well you were just bouncing all over the place into the Hells and everything. For all you know, you could be on some random unpopulated realm with literally no cities.
So why would you assume there is a settlement nearby because of freshwater? Dead fishermen? Yes. Freshwater? No.
And as far as a village goes that the nautiloid crashed into and devastated and is on top of, there are literally no signs that this is true. There is not one shred of evidence that points to a village being there in that spot. No ruined buildings, farmlands, cattle, nothing. So...
... but then... you were probably joking. Right? RIGHT?
