Charon (Fallout 3)

Charon is the Ghoul bouncer of the Ninth Circle, a guard for the Underworld and a recruitable companion $$

Background
In his youth, Charon grew up around an "interesting group of individuals" that effectively brainwashed him, making him loyal to whomever holds his contract. Charon's current contract holder, Ahzrukhal, mentions that a series of choices brought Charon into his employ. While employed under Ahzrukal, Charon serves as his personal bodyguard and soldier. He is sent out every "couple of days" packed with weaponry and returns with a bag of Caps. Charon will refuse to speak to anyone, deferring them to "Talk to Ahzrukal."

Charon, along with Cerberus, is responsible for dealing with threats to the Underworld, including Raiders and Slavers. He also watches over the The Ninth Circle and keeps drunkards in line. Though Charon is loyal to Ahzrukal, he is unhappy with his employment and states that Ahzrukal is "an evil bastard." If his contract is purchased, Charon will kill Ahzrukal to "rid the world of [the] disgusting rat." Azhrukal mentions that Charon has an "annoying sense of morality." Charon is also said to never sleep.

Appearances
Charon appears only $$

Behind the scenes

 * Charon was written by quest designer Erik J. Caponi.
 * In Greek mythology, Charon is the ferryman of Hades.
 * When Charon is asked to switch from melee to ranged weapons, he will make a state that he finds "happiness in a warm gun." Happiness Is a Warm Gun is a song by The Beatles.

Bugs

 * For some players, after Charon shoots Ahzrukhal, Charon may automatically become your follower, even if you already have a follower with you (including Dogmeat).
 * Charon cannot be recruited if Ahzrukhal is killed before his quest is completed, as Charon's contract can only be obtained through completion of the quest. Charon will tell the Wanderer to talk to Ahzrukhal, even if Ahzrukhal is dead.
 * If you hire Charon as a follower, he may not follow you through the concourse but will appear again outside the museum entrance.
 * Sometimes, Charon will not follow you outside of Underworld but will still appear outside of the Museum of History. This can be fixed by saving outside of Underworld then loading the save game and he will appear.
 * When buying Charon's contract from Ahzrukhal, a bug can occur during their interaction that leaves one, or both of them, unable to respond to the player (i.e. Charon will not follow you and/or Ahzrukhal will not talk to you). This bug may happen if Ahzrukhal is asleep. When Charon goes to wake him, Ahzrukhal will say his first line of dialogue and Charon will stay in place. Ahzrukhal will then go to the area he is in originally when you walk in during the day. It can be solved on the PC by using the in-game console command "resurrect" to reset the problematic non-player characters. On the Xbox 360, this bug can sometimes be solved by exiting and re-entering the game.
 * This bug can be avoided altogether by simply waiting for Ahzrukhal to wake up before telling Charon you now own his contract.
 * To fix the bug, just type in the console "select Charon", type "disable" then "enable". Charon should continue to kill Ahzrukhal.
 * At times, he may shoot dead bodies the same way he shoots Ahzrukhal.
 * If Charon dies when he is still under the contract, you cannot fire him or drop his contract from your inventory, this result makes the player permanently unable to acquire a human companion. This bug can be fixed by loading an auto-save/save file or using the console to remove his contract.
 * If you enter the Outcast Base from Operation: Anchorage, Charon will disappear and not come back. The game will still act as if he is still in your party, so you cannot get another companion. A fix to this is to fast travel to Underworld, wait for 24 hours, then fast travel back to the Outcast Base. Charon will be outside the lift and act as if he was told to wait. Simply talk to him and tell him, "Let's go" to get him to follow again.
 * Before entering the Tranquility Lane pod, if one has Dogmeat and Charon in their party, they will receive a message saying something about Dogmeat returning to Vault 101. However, they do not receive a message for Charon. This creates a bug that possibly makes Charon disappear. One solution, if The Pitt add-on is owned, is to travel to the Pitt itself, where a message stating that Charon has gone back to the Ninth Circle will display. This should fix the problem and reset Charon.