But also. One of my favourite Morrowind stories concerns entering a dark cave some way southeast of Balmora, expecting that like most of the other nearby caves it would have the usual combination of bandits and beasts: since it was just a cave and didn't seem to have any special name, and wasn't even of any special type (like the Dwemer, Daedric or Velothi ruins, or indeed the old Dunmer Fortresses). It was just towards the southwest end of that terrain feature which I had learned was called the Foyada Mamaea, and it was called Hassour.
Then you go in, and there's all these red candles around, and an entirely grey human starts shooting lightning at me. I dodge the bolts until he stops shooting and closes to combat - he goes down easily enough and I discover he's called an Ash Slave - but realise there's something far more weird than usual.
And then as I keep exploring, things get more and more sinister. A couple of Ash Zombies and an Ash Ghoul. I notice something of a theme here.
And then, a named boss monster called Dagoth Fovon. He's tougher than anything I've faced before - I have to chug a load of potions but barely managed to defeat him, at the cost of getting my first Blight Disease. Ouf. I've seen enough rumours to hear of the rise of a Dagoth Ur (and also, that the volcano in the centre of Morrowind is being referred to by his name sometimes, although its proper name is Red Mountain), so I wonder if I've stumbled onto one of his unique minions early.
Then I pick up a gem, and a Dremora appears. I'm in no shape to fight him, fortunately I have an Almsivi Intervention scroll, so I bug out of there.
And then when I get back to Balmora... A couple of the locals start to approach me, like I've saved them from some dark waking-dream nightmare. They were the ones who had been possessed cultists, and had been approaching me with talk of the Sleeper awakening and various other sinister cult stuff. Looks like I'd killed the thing that was responsible for possessing them.
Many hours of gameplay later, I'm much more powerful, and doing some faction quests - I've advanced in the Tribunal Temple, done several quests for the guy in Ald-ruhn. The last quest he gives me... is to go and kill Dagoth Fovon in Hassour. Of course I've already done that... quite some time ago. So I immediately get the reward and the thanks from the Temple. Evidently I'd stumbled on an area that should have been too powerful for me, walked in and somehow managed to kill the boss before being asked to.
(I think this is an advantage that Morrowind had over the later games in the series, which often don't even place a boss until the quest that calls for its destruction, or won't allow you into the cave until you've got a reason to go there.)
And then Ald-ruhn turns out to have trouble of its own with cultists - the whole business with the Morvayn Manor and a young son of the Sarethi family being possessed with an ash statue. And a cult leader, Hanarai Assutlanipal, who is still technically a mortal mer (with a name indicative of probable Ashlander origins) but apparently has the same powers of "influence" that Dagoth Fovon had: killing Hanarai freed a resident of Ald'ruhn from the dark dreams' influence. Evidently she was well on the way to becoming Dagoth Hanarai, but had not yet made the full transformation...
The waking of the Sleepers and hunting down Sixth House bases later became one of my favourite parts of the quest. Especially when I explored the far northwestern islands - which were largely free - and found a huge Sixth House base called Subdun, that turned out to have *no* quest pointing to it from anywhere, with another named Dagoth, and killing him freed several more Sleepers from possession in the northwestern towns from Khuul to Maar Gan... it was very satisfying to track *that* one down, since nobody else in-game even knew where he was or that he existed :-)
Walking inside the Ghostfence for the first time and seeing the sky turning red.
Going up the mountain and discovering that there is still a working mine in there, with Imperial soldiers protecting it.
And then finding, inside the corner of the Ghostfence, *another* mine still working, staffed by a few enterprisingly brave (and obviously foolhardy) Ashlanders - probably of the Zainab clan, since there is a House Hlaalu quest in which they want a monopoly on the purchase of Zainab-produced ebony. One can only wonder how the Ashlanders actually got *in* to do any mining, since their mine doesn't appear to be under any protection, whether Imperial or Dunmer...
Hearing all about the last Nerevarine-claimant Peakstar, and her persecution by the Temple, and subsequent disappearence, and wondering if the Temple murdered her (and coming to the conclusion they probably did). Then encountering her actual ghost in the Cavern of the Incarnate, discovering that the Temple eventually let her go, but she perished at the hand of an ash vampire. A sad way to go, but better that way than to have been killed by the Temple.
...And then Sul-Matuul's next quest sends you into the depths of Kogoruhn. Where it is possible to miss encountering Dagoth Uthol entirely, and find the items Sul-Matuul wants, but far more satisfying to actually encounter and kill Uthol, probably your first Ash Vampire. And you realise that this was probably exactly the quest that Peakstar failed on, having the belief to take on the mantle of the Nerevarine but ultimately not the strength.
