hi guys

i've been trying to do the daedra quests to get all those nice weapons, however when the blacksmith in falkreath told me to go and see a dog... i get there, the dog starts to talk, and then... a dragon appeared in the middle of the conversation, the dog attacked the dragon... i attacked the dragon with a shout, that hit a guard and then BAM, guards killed the dog... and no more barbas for me... so... what now? am i locked out of the quest? the dog is nowhere to be found... dead end? any pointers?

i play skyrim on the ps3... yeah...

Yeah, Bethesda forgot to mark ol' Barbas as essential unfortunately. If he dies then as far as I know that particular quest is a no go. That is unless you're on PC and you can use commands to raise Barbas from the dead, but unfrotunately you're not. Sorry man.

ah damn... well thanks anyway

As far as I know you can't somehow begin the quest. I'm not entirely sure on that though. It seems like after eight patches Bethesda would have fixed something like that by now. Maybe someone else will see this thread and can give you some better news.

It wont help with your current playthrough OP, but for future characters you can go to Falkreath early in the game, before there are any vampires or dragons, and talk to Barbas.
Simply tell him that youre busy right now and he'll head off to his cave alone and you can then go to that cave for the quest at your leisure without worrying if he died or fell through the map.

Oh, they took care of it- he's not supposed to take any damage! That is certainly true in my game (Xbox). OP, since that could point to a glitch in your particular game, better just to reload a prior save.

LD here brings up a great point and I'm shocked I forgot to mention it. Reload a prior save right before Barbas died. You explained how he died very well so I assume it just happened. If you know Elder Scrolls and Bethesda games then you should know to save early and save often. It's console users best defense against bugs and glitches.

Also, if they did fix this glitch in a patch like LD said, then you might not have the latest patch. You should get online and check.