Hired Help

Recruit Charon is a minor quest in Fallout 3.

Accepting the Quest
If you speak to Ahzrukhal in The Ninth Circle in the ghoul town of Underworld, he will tell you that he holds the contract of employment (read: slavery) to 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 kill Greta, who works there, he would be willing to give you the contract to Charon.

Killing Greta

 * There is a method to acquire Charon for free, and without karma loss!. Around 7:30 - 9:00PM every day, Greta will go out to the front lobby to smoke a cigarette. All you need in order to pull this off, is Dogmeat (or any companion) and your fists. The key here is to do as little damage to her as possible, whilst still causing her to become hostile towards you. If you do 30% of the damage in this game with a companion, you are accredited with the kill, which we do not want. However, depending on your character build, you may have a very strong melee attack, so you may have to come up with another way of inflicting minimal damage. After she becomes hostile, she will flee towards the bathroom - at which point your trusted canine will do the rest. The dog will finish her off quickly, and you will only be an accomplice to murder (which is no crime). Now head back to the barkeep, and tell him she is dead - and you've got yourself one of the best fighters around, free of charge. Enjoy!


 * The simplest way is to simply go in stealth mode so you are hidden (no pickpocket, stealthboy or special armor/items required) and headshot her with a silenced 10mm (if you have one) or a melee weapon. The automatic sneak mode critical will easily kill her with no one noticing.  It doesn't matter if they see her explode into chunks as long as you're in (hidden) sneak mode. -Confirmed on PC with 1.4.0.6 patch 03/17/09


 * Another way that usually works, is to be hidden, then pickpocket Greta. Put a live pulse grenade in her inventory, and she will blow up and no one will be hostile to you.  Just remember to get clear so you don't take damage also.


 * Remember that if anyone sees you kill Greta, they will become hostile to you, so 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 9:00PM daily.


 * If you have Mister Sandman perk you can easily kill her in sleep without getting any hostility from Underworld's ghouls.
 * Do not try to kill Greta while she is sleeping without the Mr. Sandman perk. Even if you are hidden the others will still become hostile. This is not always true, however. If you have a high enough sneak level and are lucky, you can wake Greta up, sneak behind her, and then attack. So long as you stay hidden for a short period of time (15 seconds?), you will not be marked as a hostile. In addition, you can shoot her with a Silenced 10mm Pistol.


 * Another method is to force Greta to attack you (use the mesmetron on her, this will even work with people standing next to you)- thereby triggering the Underworld Residents to attack her in your defence. This gets you NO negative karma or reactions from other NPCs, you can still raid Greta's body, and the contract will still be yours.


 * A different way to kill her is by activate a Stealth Boy before entering the hotel. Then simply walk up to Greta, pickpocket her, and move a single frag grenade from your inventory to hers. This will then make the grenade live. Walk quickly out into the corridor and listen for the satisfying bang. Stay hidden until your stealth boy runs out then stroll into The Ninth Circle and tell Ahzrukhal the good news. You'll receive negative karma for this but nobody will suspect a smoothskin of such cunning. (Note- as long as your hidden when you drop the grenade in Greta's inventory, you don't have to use a stealth boy).


 * Use the Mesmetron on her, causing her to go berserk. This allows the player to kill her without everyone in underworld becoming hostile towards them.


 * While she warms her hands at the brazier in Carol's place, and is hidden from the view of others, use a silent weapon to kill her with one blow (for example, a Chinese Officer's sword).


 * Another good way to kill her is to buy the room for 120 caps and while she is sweeping the floor, push her into the room, and quickly kill her.


 * Yet another great way if you have a stealth boy or the stealth armor (Anchorage download) then activate it and just use a single headshot with a silent weapon.


 * The last and possibly easiest way is to wait (use wait tool) outside Underworld until she walks outside to smoke and kill her then. Since she is outside of Underworld when she dies, the residents of Underworld wont attack you. [She has been noted to step outside at 20:50]


 * Follow the robot guardian to the back room up the stairs. With its back to you, shoot its combat inhibitor until it breaks (I did this with a combat shotgun, four shots in VATS). The robot will go in a frenzy and will kill Ghouls until it's killed. It killed Greta for me and I received no negative karma or hatred from the Ghouls. On the down side, the robot did kill half the population, including quest givers!

Alternate Way
Charon can also be acquired from Ahzrukhal by paying him either or
 * 2000 caps
 * 1000 caps if you have a barter skill of 50 or higher

Reward
After you murder Greta, return to Ahzrukhal to report your success. He will stick to his word and give you Charon's 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 Ahzrukhals head off then shoots his dead body one time.

It should be noted here that looting Ahzrukhal yields a cooler key to a cooler full o' goodies and caps. You may also steal anything in the room with no bad karma and no angry denizens. However, if you try to lock pick the safe or the hack the terminal they start shooting.

On the PC Version, Patch 1.4.0.6, picking the safe resulted in no hostility and no negative karma, while hacking the terminal caused the shooting to start.

Cultural References
Continuing with the Greek Death theme of the Underworld, Charon, is the ferryman across the River Styx, which all dead souls must cross in order to get to Hades.

Videos
A video of this quest:

Glitches

 * Sometimes 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 remedied 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.