@Kitsune: Given that adventurers' sexual preferences are undetermined currently, there's no risk/chance of kids being abandoned, and I don't see the upcoming release having any particular reason to address that issue.
Artifact threats: I would guess an artifact threat would be treated more like petitions are currently than how diplomats behave. With petitions you're notified, can bring it up and review it, and back out to do the background checks that are currently completely missing from the screen, before coming back to make a decision (and the current diplomacy stuff could do with a re-implementation, which will probably be done eventually, but I suspect artifact demand isn't touching the issue sufficiently to do it now).
@Shonai_Dweller: Was it a threat of selling a "hoard" of dragons to the fortress or to unleash a "horde" of them at it
?
And you're perfectly entitled to decide you won't hand over the chalk earring you've always hated out of spite to get your Fun, while another player can pay the annoyance off to get on with the covering of the surface with a charcoal floor.
However, I wouldn't mind if you refused/didn't respond and they withdrew their demand when they had breached the fortress as they figured they'd be a position to take both the artifact and the fortress at that point. Might be a bit tricky to implement a tactical evaluation of when the tipping point has been reached, though.