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+# DIALOGUE-PROLOGUE-0020
+## The Freedman Banquet Invitation — Canonical Draft
+### Status: Canonical Dialogue Draft
+### Layer: OTIVM (Roman Merchant)
+### Purpose: Prologue scenario teaching status mobility, invitation signaling, stigma markets, alliance dining, reputation arbitrage, and how social events can reorder commercial relationships.
+### Repository Path: docs/scenarios/DIALOGUE-PROLOGUE-0020.md
+
+---
+
+## 0. Design Intent
+
+A wealthy freedman of Ostia has issued banquet invitations.
+
+No ship sinks. No law changes. No court sits.
+
+Yet households debate attendance, rivals count names, caterers are overwhelmed, musicians booked solid, old families sneer publicly and inquire privately, and merchants wonder which seats will become contracts.
+
+Known facts are uncertain:
+
+- banquet celebrates success or seeks legitimacy
+- guest list broad or selective
+- elite attendance genuine or transactional
+- patronage offers to be announced
+- debts hidden beneath display
+- scandal planned by excluded rivals
+
+The participant must learn that dining can be political commerce.
+
+---
+
+## 1. Scene Constraints
+
+Location: fashionable street near the host’s townhouse, caterer lane, and public fountain in Ostia, late afternoon.
+
+Primary signals:
+
+- invitations being discussed openly
+- servants delivering wreaths and provisions
+- musicians and cooks in demand
+- excluded men pretending indifference
+- invited men pretending humility
+- prices rising for luxury foods and services
+
+Selection method: participant chooses whose interpretation to follow.
+
+---
+
+## 2. Opening Scene Draft
+
+The street smelled of roasted meat, fresh rushes, perfume, and envy.
+
+Servants hurried past carrying lamps, wine jars, flower garlands, bronze serving ware, and faces trained to reveal nothing except urgency.
+
+Outside the townhouse, men who had not been invited found urgent reasons to stand nearby.
+
+Marcus Atilius Varro stood where he could see the entrance, the service alley, and the growing knot of observers.
+
+Lucius Fabius Felix arrived smiling like a man who had been invited twice and intended to eat three times.
+
+“No fire. No riot. No edict,” Felix said. “Only supper. Most dangerous of all.”
+
+Varro nodded toward the doorway.
+
+“Thirty deliveries since midday.”
+
+“Then appetite has accountants.”
+
+Gaius Licinius Crispus approached in formal dress chosen to suggest he attended banquets reluctantly.
+
+“Who is confirmed?” he demanded.
+
+Felix answered first.
+
+“Everyone who denies it.”
+
+Crispus ignored him.
+
+“Host is Publius Cassius Felix,” Varro said.
+
+Felix bowed slightly.
+
+“A superior name.”
+
+Quintus Cornelius Lentulus Minor arrived with studied hesitation.
+
+“My family received a note,” Lentulus said.
+
+Felix looked delighted.
+
+“A note. Not an invitation?”
+
+“A personal request.”
+
+“So hunger in better handwriting.”
+
+Titus Varenus Secundus came from the service alley carrying a crate stamp.
+
+“Kitchen doubled staff. Extra couches rented. Wine from three cellars.”
+
+Varro asked, “How many guests?”
+
+“Enough to require second oven.”
+
+A quiet voice came from beside the fountain.
+
+“And enough to create enemies.”
+
+Publius Terentius Chresimus stood reading scraps of wax tablet discarded by messengers.
+
+Felix sighed.
+
+“Even gossip becomes archives.”
+
+“It should.”
+
+A fishmonger shouted that sea bass suitable for banquet tables had sold out.
+
+Immediately three ordinary households bought inferior fish to avoid embarrassment.
+
+Felix pointed.
+
+“There. Prestige reaches the stomach.”
+
+Crispus folded his hands.
+
+“A freedman seeks respect through excess.”
+
+Felix replied, “A magistrate seeks respect through posture. Both require costume.”
+
+Lentulus frowned.
+
+“You reduce distinctions too easily.”
+
+“I price them.”
+
+A servant emerged asking for six more lamps and two literate boys.
+
+Chresimus looked up.
+
+“Announcements.”
+
+“Or poetry,” Felix said.
+
+“Then even more dangerous.”
+
+Secundus pointed toward the alley.
+
+“Porters waiting for gratuities instead of working elsewhere.”
+
+Varro nodded.
+
+“Labor drawn inward.”
+
+A pair of young merchants argued over whether to attend.
+
+One said old families would laugh.
+The other said old families would arrive late.
+
+Felix admired them.
+
+“Both educated.”
+
+Crispus said, “Attendance has consequences.”
+
+Felix smiled.
+
+“So does absence.”
+
+Lentulus adjusted his cloak.
+
+“If reputable men attend, stigma falls.”
+
+Chresimus said, “If reputable men are seen entering by the front.”
+
+Varro asked, “Rear entrance?”
+
+Secundus nodded.
+
+“Already in use.”
+
+Felix laughed aloud.
+
+“There. Roman morality has side doors.”
+
+A musician ran past demanding triple fee or silence.
+
+No one called his bluff.
+
+Crispus looked displeased.
+
+“This display is vulgar.”
+
+Felix said, “Then why are you dressed for it?”
+
+The crowd enjoyed that too much.
+
+A rival merchant across the street announced he preferred modest dinners at home.
+
+No one asked why he remained outside.
+
+Chresimus said quietly:
+
+“He bid for grain contracts last month and lost to the host.”
+
+Lentulus turned.
+
+“So this banquet may be commercial.”
+
+Felix stared at him.
+
+“My noble flower, everything is commercial.”
+
+Inside the house, cheers rose suddenly.
+
+Then applause.
+
+A servant rushed out to summon more scribes.
+
+Crispus straightened.
+
+“Grants or pledges.”
+
+Secundus said, “Or seating changes.”
+
+Varro watched the observers.
+
+“Three men leaving unhappy.”
+
+Chresimus nodded.
+
+“Names not called.”
+
+Felix said, “There. Exclusion begins paying dividends.”
+
+A cook emerged demanding more pepper, honey, and clean knives.
+
+Secundus muttered:
+
+“Kitchen over capacity.”
+
+Felix replied, “So is ambition.”
+
+Lentulus said, “What matters now?”
+
+Varro answered first.
+
+“Who enters openly.”
+
+Secundus said, “Who supplies repeatedly.”
+
+Crispus said, “Which officials attend.”
+
+Felix said, “Which enemies pretend not to care.”
+
+Lentulus said, “Which houses can now associate safely.”
+
+Chresimus said, “Which promises are made after the third cup.”
+
+They all looked at him.
+
+He shrugged slightly.
+
+“Those are often the binding ones.”
+
+The front doors opened wider.
+
+A senator’s steward entered carrying a sealed gift.
+
+The street changed instantly.
+
+Crispus inhaled.
+
+“There.”
+
+“What?” Varro asked.
+
+“Recognition.”
+
+Felix smiled slowly.
+
+“No. Escalation.”
+
+Lentulus straightened at once.
+
+“Then attendance is now mandatory for some.”
+
+Secundus said, “And catering impossible.”
+
+Varro stepped toward the side alley.
+
+“I’ll see who truly controls supply tonight.”
+
+Secundus moved with him.
+
+“I’ll track kitchens, couches, and labor.”
+
+Lentulus adjusted his cloak.
+
+“I will decide whether to enter publicly.”
+
+Crispus drew himself up.
+
+“I will observe which offices compromise themselves.”
+
+Felix turned toward the waiting crowd.
+
+“I will sell invitations to men already invited.”
+
+Chresimus tied his notes.
+
+“I will learn which promises tomorrow denies.”
+
+Felix looked back once.
+
+“Six men. One banquet. None of us discussing food.”
+
+Varro answered without turning.
+
+“We are discussing rank.”
+
+---
+
+## 3. Choice Presentation
+
+> The banquet has begun. Seats may become alliances. Whose reading of the street do you trust?
+
+| Choice | Background |
+|---|---|
+| Follow Varro to trace true access through service channels. | Former Legionary |
+| Follow Felix to exploit status panic and invitation value. | Freedman Trader |
+| Follow Lentulus to navigate elite attendance and association risk. | Noble Younger Son |
+| Follow Crispus to monitor officials, reputations, and public compromise. | Failed Magistrate |
+| Follow Secundus to manage kitchens, labor, and logistical leverage. | Camp Logistician |
+| Follow Chresimus to uncover promises, guest lists, and tomorrow’s consequences. | Guild Scribe |
+
+---
+
+## 4. What This Scene Teaches
+
+- Invitations are economic signals.
+- Social stigma can be repriced quickly by elite attendance.
+- Banquets can function as contract markets.
+- Rear-door attendance reveals hidden incentives.
+- Luxury demand spikes around status events.
+- Reputation often changes before any formal alliance is declared.
+
+---
+
+## 5. Canonical Success Condition
+
+If the participant stops asking:
+
+“What is for dinner?”
+
+and starts asking:
+
+“Who will owe whom after dessert?”
+
+then this dialogue is functioning correctly.