The party gets the raft underway upriver again, with Razor left behind to invisibly sneak into the tent.
After a few hours you begin to worry that Razor may have been caught. He rejoins you finally, and gives his report.
"The men are deserters" the little monster explains. "They think the army will lose in the desert. They have looted some jewelry from the local village. But now they are worried because they're running out of food, and they don't know what to do."
The party decides to continue on with its own mission, and the rest of the second day of the trip proves uneventful. In the evening, watches are set as before.
Day 3
In the morning, the party sets out again upriver.
Around noon as the raft is being poled through a particularly slow section of the river, it quivers and shakes as if grounded on a sandbar, and then stops moving.
Using the poles, the party attempts to get the raft moving again, and Rajah orders his troll skeleton to get off and help push the raft.
Three giant shapes rise up out of the shallows. They are giant crabs with shells some 8' in diameter across! You draw your weapons but just as the crabs attempt to grab the troll skeleton the raft gets loose again and starts moving. The troll skeleton is scratched up a bit but wiggles its way out of the snapping claws and climbs back onto the raft at Rajah's order. Working quickly with the poles you manage to escape the crabs' hunting ground. Rajah repairs his pet.
The rest of the day proves uneventful. In the evening, watches are set as before.
Day 4
In the morning, the party sets out again upriver.
It seems like it could be an uneventful day, until you notice something in the late afternoon.
The river here is broad with reed-filled shallows, the reeds
growing up to 6’ high. As your raft rounds a bend, you can see
smoke rising at many points along both banks of the river. A line
of reeds and thick palms prevents you from seeing any signs of a
camp.