I am planning on running Dawn of the Artifacts this summer and have hit a snag, there is no fourth book, and I have no idea when/if it's coming out. Is this coming out soon? Should I write my own ending, and any ideas what the fourth artifact could be? I'm trying to think of other low-tech orienteering gear, but my brain is coming up short. Anything to guide me would be nice, especially regarding the release date of DOTA4.

Jason said writing for DoTA4 was done and it was being put together. hopefully we'll see it early summer?

So what, there's a sextant, the Piri Reis map, and the Phaistos Disc so far? Let's start with other historical artifacts that are out there.

As a Minnesotan, the first thing that comes to mind is the Verendrye Runestone. Allegedly found in North Dakota in the 1730s, it contained writings in a "Tatarian script" (Norse runes? Old Hungarian?) The alleged trail of the alleged artifact disappears in a cathedral in France which was bombed during the Second World War. That "Tatarian script" you could easily say was old Sperethiel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verendrye_Runestone

That said, two of the artifacts have European origins so far, so it might be time for something else. My bet is that the fourth run was planning to be something from Qin Shihuangdi's tomb in Manchuria, considering how much they've foreshadowed about the tomb so far. We know the published run was going to take place in Asia, at least. And China is a very old civilization. Another Chinese option might be to go back to sites of the earliest known (or at least we think it existed) dynasty in China, the Xia, which was in SR's Henan. Given Aztechnology's involvement there and in the last two published runs, it's easy to think they might be involved in Henan too.

A lot of cultures I know less about, but you could easily have an artifact from South America, Africa or Australia that's not in the popular culture.

And then there's the Voynich manuscript, which is just asking for a treatment, although that's Europe again.

As a Texan, I recommend Santa Anna's Leg. Come and take it, Aztlan!

If you're terribly interested, Ancient History has copies of his chapters for Harlequin's Gambit that tie in really well with the end of DotA.

I found that on another forum when looking for the same information, it's pretty sweet, the trick will be getting that last artifact in between 3 and Gambit. At the rate that these adventures have been coming out I really doubt that we'll see them before my party is done with them. I don't mind breaking from canon a bit, my Seattle still has the Sci-fi museum, and that fact is a large part of my Techno player's backstory.

I like the idea of the Manuscript and the Runestone, now I have to decide whether or not I want the players to recognize the artifact, or let them google it later and have me look like a genius. Decisions decisions . . .

Jason is promising DotA 4 will be made available to the playtesting pool soon. I'm in no position to speculate on a release date but no later than GenCon sounds reasonable.

When is Gencon? The timing of that would be important.

Beginning of August.

Oh, well then that may just be perfect timing. Now it depends on how long my players take on the first few.

I just kind of had another idea for this, and refound this thread. I'm sure it's way too late for OP, but why not the mysterious Plain of Jars in Laos? Stone age jars everywhere on this big old bombed-out plain and nobody knows what they do... Definitely going to have them be magical in some fashion in my current campaign. Probably are only significant as a group?

OOH! That's really neat. I think I'm going to get this involved some how. I still need a Macguffin for them to chase around the world, I'm thinking of talking to my players about a prequel run, of sorts. Having them play as the team on the initial theft, see everything go to hell, then have their team arrive to pick up the pieces. I'll have to talk to them about it. Anyway, I need to do more Macguffin research, I want to find something that I could tie to those Jars somehow.

Holy crap I had no idea about that, and I'm a Texan I knew he sucked as a general and all but honestly had never heard he had a fake leg, much less lost it in action (the replacement leg I mean) hahaha. Awesome stuff.