OK, I just realized that I've deleted this screenshots before I could upload them. So you'll have to bear with me here...

I was out tomb raiding & swimming along the Bitter Coast, as you do if you are a fool in the summer. I must have been somewhere between Seyda Neen and Mudanchzend, and I see something not quite right under the surface. I gulp down some water breathing potion and go in for a closer look.

At first I thought it was a Dreugh stuck in the sands, but it was actually a friendly Ash Ghoul running around on the seafloor He seemed to be quite content there, occasionally stopping to pray or to wiggle his trunk around. We even had a short conversation about how I'd betrayed Lord Dagoth etc. while I was waiting to see if he'd survive. After a minute I realized he wasn't going to drown, so I swam down to his level and he immediately became aggressive, as Morrowind beasties are wont to do.

The poor thing couldn't work out that his destruction magic wasn't going to work underwater, so it was a bit of a one-sided fight. Quite eerie to watch his prone body float slowly up to the surface in the evening sunlight. This exchange made a change from Slaughterfish spawning on land, and unlike that I have no idea how this happened mechanics wise. This was vanilla Morrowind 1.2 with no mods affecting levelled lists.

Anything similar happen to you guys recently or back in the day?

Slaughterfish spawn on land sometimes... at least they did back in the old days before the community patches, I haven't seen it happen in years.

Ash Ghoul dialogue is creepy as hell.

But Ash Slave dialog is hilarious.
Nothing creepy about communicating with the Stackable Furniture in the Kogoruhn stronghold. (my personal favourite Morrowind oddity that few people piece together)

edit: one of my mods even has a little joke reference to this, but I still don't think anyone has ever gotten it.