Here I am. Someone called me by any chance?
Anyway, it's many years since I last played The Elder Scrolls - Arena, so I've forgotten many details about this game and am more familiar with Daggerfall (and Morrowind, but that's a rather different engine and game). However as far as I remember, Daggerfall is not that much different from Arena, only the former has more spell effects, metal kinds, different monsters etc., so...
Yoga, why don't you simply create a spellcaster character (one of the pre-made classes like Spellsword or Battlemage), join the Mages Guild, work your way up through quests (they already had member ranks for Mages Guild in Arena, didn't they?) and simply create a custom spell with the Passwall spell effect? Or maybe even better, with Water Breathing spell effect (should be there already in Arena), then train your magic skills a bit so the spell costs less, and pass this river point without any troubles. Or more or less like that depending on what Arena actually allows to.
That weird problem where you drown in the river might be simply you running out of stamina due to swimming too long, so when you have 0 (zero) stamina you collapse and are assumed to be an easy prey for monsters to eat you, hence this might be why you die. Maybe some potion or spell which replenishes your stamina back could help? If not the empty stamina is the problem, then I can only assume that there's some strange clipping (falling / going through solid objects like walls) bug at the spot in the river where you drown all the time. In such a case, you might try using some trainer (god mode aka invincible) or savegame editor (position changing) to move your character further up the river to where you need to.
Additionally said, it was widely known back in the 90s where Dos game were still active and running, that The Elder Scrolls - Arena would be hard to play without a magically skilled character like a Magician. It could be finished with a simple Thief or Warrior class, but it would be very hard, unlike for a spellcaster.
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