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+# DIALOGUE-PROLOGUE-0009
+## The Funeral of a Patron — Canonical Draft
+### Status: Canonical Dialogue Draft
+### Layer: OTIVM (Roman Merchant)
+### Purpose: Prologue scenario teaching patronage networks, inheritance uncertainty, status realignment, dependent livelihoods, and opportunity created when a powerful household loses its center.
+### Repository Path: docs/scenarios/DIALOGUE-PROLOGUE-0009.md
+
+---
+
+## 0. Design Intent
+
+A wealthy patron of Ostia has died.
+
+No market burns. No ship sinks. No law changes.
+
+Yet clients gather, creditors recalculate, dependents panic, suppliers wait, rivals visit politely, and every promise made in his lifetime becomes uncertain in death.
+
+Known facts are uncertain:
+
+- valid will or contested will
+- heir competent or weak
+- debts larger than believed
+- gifts promised but unwritten
+- household retainers dismissed or retained
+- rivals preparing to absorb clients
+
+The participant must learn that one death can move an entire commercial district.
+
+---
+
+## 1. Scene Constraints
+
+Location: street outside an elite domus where funeral preparations are underway, Ostia, late morning.
+
+Primary signals:
+
+- clients gathering in formal dress
+- suppliers waiting unpaid
+- freedmen household staff whispering
+- mourning drapery hung
+- scribes summoned
+- rival visitors arriving with excellent timing
+
+Selection method: participant chooses whose interpretation to follow.
+
+---
+
+## 2. Opening Scene Draft
+
+The street smelled of cedar smoke, lamp oil, wet wool, and expectation.
+
+Dark cloth had been hung across the doorway of the domus. Clients lined the street in careful sandals, each man dressed to display grief at a useful level.
+
+Two mule carts carrying flowers waited behind a wagon carrying account tablets.
+
+Marcus Atilius Varro stood where he could see the entrance, the servants’ side gate, and the road.
+
+Lucius Fabius Felix arrived carrying a wreath small enough to be sincere and cheap enough to be honest.
+
+“You chose a cheerful gathering,” Felix said.
+
+“I chose a queue,” Varro answered.
+
+Felix looked at the clients.
+
+“A queue dressed as loyalty.”
+
+Gaius Licinius Crispus approached already solemn.
+
+“Mind your tongue,” he said. “The dead commanded respect.”
+
+“The dead command less each hour,” Felix replied.
+
+Crispus frowned.
+
+“You mistake cynicism for intelligence.”
+
+“No. I mistake mourning for negotiation.”
+
+Quintus Cornelius Lentulus Minor arrived in black-edged clothing that had plainly been selected by someone expensive.
+
+“This house deserves proper conduct,” Lentulus said.
+
+Felix bowed slightly.
+
+“Then you should enter first and demonstrate it.”
+
+“I likely shall.”
+
+Titus Varenus Secundus came from beside the stable yard, wiping rainwater from a harness buckle.
+
+“The kitchen dismissed three suppliers at dawn,” he said.
+
+Varro turned.
+
+“Which?”
+
+“Fish, vegetables, lamp oil.”
+
+Felix smiled.
+
+“There. Grief already bargains.”
+
+A quiet voice came from behind the wagon of tablets.
+
+“Or lacks coin.”
+
+Publius Terentius Chresimus stepped into view carrying wax tablets tied with cord.
+
+Felix sighed.
+
+“And death becomes accurate.”
+
+Chresimus looked toward the doorway.
+
+“The household paid wages late last month.”
+
+Crispus stiffened.
+
+“Source?”
+
+“The men who accepted them late.”
+
+Lentulus said, “Late wages do not imply weakness.”
+
+“No,” Chresimus said. “They imply timing. Weakness is a separate question.”
+
+A woman inside the house began wailing with professional stamina.
+
+Half the clients lowered their eyes.
+
+Felix counted them quietly.
+
+“Twenty-seven clients visible. Six merchants pretending not to be clients. Three rivals.”
+
+Varro asked, “How many guards?”
+
+“Two bored. One competent.”
+
+Secundus nodded.
+
+“Stable has only four animals left.”
+
+Lentulus looked displeased.
+
+“You inspected their stable during mourning?”
+
+“I inspected shortages.”
+
+Varro almost smiled.
+
+“Good answer.”
+
+Crispus folded his hands.
+
+“If the will is read today, order may hold.”
+
+Felix laughed.
+
+“If there is one.”
+
+“There is always one.”
+
+“There is always a claim that there was one.”
+
+Chresimus added softly:
+
+“And often two copies.”
+
+The street shifted as a litter arrived.
+
+Men straightened instantly.
+
+Lentulus recognized the crest first.
+
+“The Sabini cousins.”
+
+Felix said, “Condolence has arrived wearing appetite.”
+
+Crispus said, “They have standing.”
+
+“They have timing,” Felix replied.
+
+Varro watched the servants’ gate.
+
+“Porters carrying chests out.”
+
+Secundus looked.
+
+“Household silver? Clothing trunks. Fast movement.”
+
+Lentulus said, “Routine rearrangement.”
+
+Felix stared at him.
+
+“You are a treasure.”
+
+Chresimus said, “Or collateral leaving before inventory.”
+
+Crispus turned sharply.
+
+“That would be unlawful.”
+
+“That has never prevented it.”
+
+A young man emerged briefly at the doorway, pale, overdressed, and immediately surrounded by advisors.
+
+Lentulus inhaled once.
+
+“The heir.”
+
+Felix asked, “Competent?”
+
+Lentulus watched carefully.
+
+“Nervous.”
+
+“Same question.”
+
+Secundus said, “Hands soft.”
+
+Varro said, “Posture collapses under touch.”
+
+Crispus said, “Still lawful heir unless displaced.”
+
+Chresimus said, “Unless debt outruns inheritance.”
+
+The clients began murmuring in clusters.
+
+Some drifted subtly toward the arriving cousins.
+
+Felix pointed.
+
+“There. Loyalty changing shoes.”
+
+Varro said, “If clients move, household influence falls fast.”
+
+Lentulus frowned.
+
+“Not if guided correctly.”
+
+Felix smiled.
+
+“Then guide quickly.”
+
+A cook came out the side gate shouting for more flour and cheaper wine.
+
+The crowd laughed despite itself.
+
+Secundus said, “Funeral feast underfunded.”
+
+Crispus muttered, “Indecent.”
+
+“No,” Felix said. “Informative.”
+
+Chresimus opened one tablet.
+
+“The deceased guaranteed two shipping notes personally.”
+
+All five looked at him.
+
+“How do you know?” Crispus asked.
+
+“Because one creditor is here pretending sympathy.”
+
+Varro scanned the crowd.
+
+“Which man?”
+
+“The fattest tears,” Felix said.
+
+Chresimus did not contradict him.
+
+Lentulus adjusted his cloak.
+
+“If the heir needs allies, introductions matter.”
+
+Felix said, “If the heir needs coin, inventory matters.”
+
+Crispus said, “If claims emerge, procedure matters.”
+
+Secundus said, “If staff flee, kitchens and stables matter.”
+
+Varro said, “If clients leave, visible order matters.”
+
+Chresimus said, “If no one knows liabilities, numbers matter first.”
+
+Inside the house, a servant shouted for the family seal.
+
+The street went still.
+
+Felix smiled slowly.
+
+“There.”
+
+“What?” Varro asked.
+
+“The true corpse. Authority.”
+
+Varro stepped toward the entrance.
+
+“I’ll secure the line and see who still obeys.”
+
+Secundus moved with him.
+
+“I’ll speak to stable men before they hire elsewhere.”
+
+Lentulus straightened.
+
+“I will offer proper support to the heir.”
+
+Felix laughed.
+
+“You will offer yourself.”
+
+Crispus adjusted his garment.
+
+“I will determine whether probate begins today.”
+
+Chresimus tied his tablets tighter.
+
+“I will learn which debts die with the man and which survive him.”
+
+Felix turned toward the suppliers.
+
+“I will buy what the household can no longer afford.”
+
+He looked back once.
+
+“Six men. One funeral. None of us discussing sorrow.”
+
+Varro answered without turning.
+
+“We are discussing what depended on him.”
+
+---
+
+## 3. Choice Presentation
+
+> The patron is dead. The household still stands. For how long depends on what happens next. Whose reading of the street do you trust?
+
+| Choice | Background |
+|---|---|
+| Follow Varro to preserve order and watch loyalty shift. | Former Legionary |
+| Follow Felix to buy distress and displaced supply. | Freedman Trader |
+| Follow Lentulus to secure access through the heir. | Noble Younger Son |
+| Follow Crispus to exploit inheritance procedure and claims. | Failed Magistrate |
+| Follow Secundus to capture staff, stables, and household operations. | Camp Logistician |
+| Follow Chresimus to uncover debts, guarantees, and the true estate. | Guild Scribe |
+
+---
+
+## 4. What This Scene Teaches
+
+- Patronage is economic infrastructure.
+- A death can instantly destabilize dependents and suppliers.
+- Clients migrate toward future power, not past loyalty.
+- Household competence matters as much as wealth.
+- Inheritance uncertainty creates openings for rivals and creditors.
+- Operations (staff, animals, kitchens, seals) can matter before ceremony ends.
+
+---
+
+## 5. Canonical Success Condition
+
+If the participant stops asking:
+
+“Who inherits?”
+
+and starts asking:
+
+“Who can no longer rely on this house tomorrow?”
+
+then this dialogue is functioning correctly.