Hired Help

Hired Help is a minor unmarked quest in Fallout 3.

Accepting the Quest
If you speak to Ahzrukhal in The Ninth Circle in the ghoul city of Underworld, he will tell you that he holds the employment contract of a ghoul named Charon (also located in The Ninth Circle in the corner). Charon is bound to work for whomever holds his contract. Ahzrukhal also tells you that he dislikes having to compete with the other beverage outlet in Underworld, Carol's Place. He proposes that if you were to murder Greta, who works there, he would be willing to give you the contract to Charon.

At this point you have two choices:


 * Agree to Ahzrukal's plan, and kill Greta
 * Purchase Charon's contract through dialog.

Killing Greta
The simplest method to complete this challenge is to just kill Greta by your preferred means and return to Underworld once the residents have ceased to be hostile. If you do not wish to turn the town hostile, there are several alternative options:


 * The best time to kill her is when she goes on her smoking break just outside of Underworld in the Museum of History lobby area. She appears here around 9:00 PM nightly.
 * If you have Broken Steel and Griffon is selling his aqua cura, you will not be able to kill her on her break due to the ghouls outside becoming hostile to you, unless you use a stealth boy or wear Chinese stealth armor and use a silenced weapon.
 * Use the Mr. Sandman perk to slit her throat while she is sleeping.
 * Reverse-pickpocket a live grenade onto her without letting an NPC see you.
 * To kill Greta without losing any karma, you will need any follower and a low damage weapon (i.e pool cue). Simply wait until she goes out in the lobby area on her break (details below) and attack her, causing her to become hostile towards you. At this point she will flee, and the follower will attack and finish her off. Since the follower does the killing, you do not lose any karma. This also works for other NPC's, however some followers may turn hostile when fired (i.e. if using Charon to kill another resident of Underworld and fire him, he will become hostile)
 * Mezz her and allow the residents to do the work. There is no karma loss and no one will become hostile to you, although this only works if it makes her aggressive instead of blowing up her head or other side effects.

However you accomplish the task, you should then return to Ahzrukhal to complete the quest.

Purchasing the Contract
Charon can also be acquired from Ahzrukhal by paying him either or This way cannot be taken after accepting the task of killing Greta.
 * 2000 caps
 * 1000 caps if you have a barter skill of 50 or higher

Reward
Whether you kill Greta or purchase the contract, Ahzrukhal will stick to his word and give you Charon's employment contract. After you tell Charon that you now have his contract, he will walk over to Ahzrukhal, who will think he's coming to say goodbye. Instead, Charon pulls out his shotgun and blows Ahzrukhal's head off, then shoots his dead body one more time.

Looting Ahzrukhal yields a cooler key to a cooler full of goodies and caps. You may also steal anything in the room with no bad karma and no angry citizens. However, if you try to lockpick the safe or hack the terminal they will become hostile.

Bugs

 * Occasionally, if you kill Greta, when returning to the Ninth Circle you will be attacked by everyone in the room and will be unable to talk to Ahzrukhal. This can be corrected by exiting Underworld and waiting three consecutive 24 hour periods.Then all hostility should be gone and you can talk to Ahzrukhal normally.
 * Sometimes once you kill Greta, Charon will try to kill his former master but does not and you will never be able to acquire Charon.
 * Also, as above, Ahzrukhal will not acknowledge that deed and no dialog options will appear so you cannot acquire Charon.
 * And if you kill Greta before accepting Ahzrukhal's offer, the plot options to ask about Charon's contract will not appear, making it impossible to recruit him.
 * Occasionally, when the player successfully receives Charon's contract and he is en route to 'bid Ahzrukhal adieu', Charon instead simply stands in one spot and cannot be talked to, nor can Ahzrukhal. After this happens, Charon cannot be recruited and both will stand there indefinitely. If you break the law and get the residents of Underworld to attack you it will unfreeze Charon and Ahzrukhal. After you make your escape the next time you return to Underworld Ahzrukhal will be dead and you can gain Charon as a follower.