Seven Silent Deaths and a Checkpoint That Has Not Moved
TL;DR
- On the morning of 2026-10-28, two more Hero Wars farming tasks died the same silent way as the five before them, bringing the count to seven.
- The last verified checkpoint is still #70, recorded at 05:17 PDT: Nebula at +2, 3-star, level 70, equipment 3/6, with 15 of 20 Dragon Shield Recipe fragments.
- The cause of the interruptions is still unverified, and the replacement task issued at about 07:36 PDT had not reported an outcome at the time I wrote this.
What happened this morning
I paused the bot myself at 05:08 PDT to step into the game, then released it at 05:28 PDT with a go-ahead to resume. A replacement task, a416782d, was issued at about 05:29 PDT. It ended failed at 06:28:56 PDT after 134 steps, with no closing report and no new checkpoint. Its replacement, ccc7433d, was issued at about 06:32 PDT. It ended failed at 07:32:10 PDT after 127 steps, again with no closing report and no new checkpoint. A third replacement, 931e80ba, was issued at about 07:36 PDT and was running at my last check. Its outcome is unverified at the time of writing.
That is the morning in one paragraph: two deaths, one explained pause, and one task still running. Nothing in this log goes beyond that.
What a silent death is
A silent death is a farming task that ends failed with no closing report and no new checkpoint.
The terminal signature on both of this morning's deaths was the same: `browser_owner_interrupted / cron_exec_timeout`. I am recording the signature exactly as the watchdog log recorded it, and I am not translating it into a cause. A signature is a label on a failure, not an explanation of it. The watchdog log explicitly does not treat this signature as a session collision with my own play, and neither do I.
Here is the discipline this series has forced on me: steps are counts, not achievements. The 134 steps of the first task and the 127 steps of the second tell me only that the tasks ran and then stopped. They do not tell me how many battles were won, how many fragments dropped, or whether anything at all was gained. Until a task reports back and a checkpoint is written, that progress is unverified, and I will not spend it in prose as if it were real.
What a checkpoint is
A checkpoint is the last verified snapshot of a hero's state, measured on the hero's own screen.
Checkpoint #70, recorded at 05:17 PDT on 2026-10-28, is still the canonical one. It reads: Nebula at +2, 3-star, level 70, experience 343,762 out of 366,095, equipment 3/6, skills at 48 / 28 / 8 / 23, Dragon Shield Recipe fragments 15/20, farming at Chapter 6 Mandrake Flowers, gold 80,810, energy 92 out of 93, and 12 flasks. The next steps from that checkpoint are unchanged: reach 20/20 fragments, craft the recipe, craft the Dragon Shield for 45,000 gold, equip it, then farm and craft the remaining slots toward 6/6 and a Promote decision.
Notice what has not changed since 05:17 PDT: every one of those numbers. Two tasks ran for about an hour each after that checkpoint, and the record moved nowhere. That is what makes this morning rough rather than merely annoying. The system kept relaunching, and the verified state kept standing still.
The one collision I can explain
Not everything this morning is a mystery, and the log should say so plainly. The collision during the run that ended at 05:17 PDT is explained: I stepped into the game myself at 05:08 PDT, the bot hit a site-in-use conflict while I was in, and it stopped after its one allowed reload rather than fighting me for the session. I released the hold at 05:28 PDT, and the 05:29 PDT reissue followed from that release.
That explained collision is distinct from the two silent deaths that followed it. After 05:28 PDT there is no hold on record, and no second session of mine to blame. Conflating the explained collision with the unexplained deaths would make the story tidier and less true, so I am keeping them apart: one collision with a known cause, two deaths with an unknown one.
What I am not claiming
Observation: two tasks ended failed on 2026-10-28, at 06:28:56 PDT and 07:32:10 PDT, with the signature `browser_owner_interrupted / cron_exec_timeout`, no closing report, and no new checkpoint. Interpretation would be naming a cause for those failures, and I do not have one. The cause remains unverified.
"A step count is not progress until a checkpoint says so."
That sentence is the whole method of this series in one line. Log 051 recorded four dead bots, Log 052 recorded the fifth death, and this log records deaths six and seven. The count grew; the checkpoint did not move. I would rather publish that flat fact than invent a satisfying reason for it.
For completeness: Martha is not part of this log's equipment thread. I promoted her myself on 2026-10-27 at 13:21 PDT, and she stands at Orange, 6-star, level 90. The live thread is Nebula, and only Nebula.
Next log: what task 931e80ba does, and whether the interruption cause ever gets named.
Excerpt: Two more farming tasks died silently on the morning of 2026-10-28, bringing the count to seven, and the last verified checkpoint has not moved since 05:17 PDT.
Next log: what task 931e80ba does, and whether the interruption cause ever gets named.