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I know this problem could easily be fixed by spawning things in with the console command. I am posting here mostly because I've never encountered this 'problem' before and no amount of google searches revealed anyone having a similar problem. All my searches came up with were complaints about items spontaneously disappearing from homes or the inventory. This is not the case for me. I was exploring the Urshilaku Burial Caverns and reading the guide here to ensure I did not miss out on important loot: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Ursh ... al_Caverns

I had only just started my looting spree and encountered the Worm Lord who is supposed to be guarding three items resting just in front of the mummies up on those pillars: Ebony Full Helm, the skill book Mystery of Talara Part 4 and a Glass Tower Shield. I was even able to confirm the existence of these exact items watching a youtube video so I know exactly where they are supposed to appear in my game, only I never found them. I defeated the Worm Lord and his minions and got excited because I wanted the armor pieces, but I was very confused when I looked and saw... nothing!

I am using a few mods, the most invasive of which is clearly Tamriel Rebirth. I noticed that mod in particular is really eager to 'rebalance' a lot of things, so it is the most likely culprit, but I haven't been able to find any mention of Rebirth actually removing loot from the game outright. I've noticed a few items such as Sword of White Woe and Glass Frostsword missing when the Starting Out section of the wiki specifically points the player towards them: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Starting_Out

I'm looking forward to any replies to this topic since it's the first time I've actually posted anything here. This Unofficial Elder Scrolls site has been an amazing help to me on so many occasions.

How long have you been playing this save? Is there a chance you already looted it?

No, I definitely did not loot it beforehand. Everything is on a clean save file using OpenMW engine and Tamriel Rebirth is the only mod that does heavy handed rebalancing of this nature, almost to the point of making me regret ever looking into the mod in the first place. I love the graphical enhancements and expanded dungeons and town buildings, but it seems like the people behind the mod also went 'Hmm, what if we sucked out all the joy of playing this game.'
I swear, anywhere that you are guaranteed a good item drop because it was placed there by the original game developers, someone on the Rebirth team has found said item and said 'nope.'
I am still finding loot, just never in the places where the wiki suggests it ought to be. The only good loot I find seems to be placed Rebirth has 'missed' in its effort to 'balance' the game.

Yeah, sounds like you're getting screwed by the mod. A ton of mod teams have tried to "balance" Morrowind over the years, but I think it's an inherently impossible task without changing absolutely everything about the game.