So yeah, as your villages expands into new territory, you may encounter a villager that needs to be rescued from monsters. Once they have been rescued, you get three options:
Option 1: Accept resources from the villager (Food, Materials, Gold)
Option 2: Accept them to join the village ( They become a worker in your town)
Option 3: Accept none of the above and let the villager go (They do not join your town and you will not receive resources)
And also, you can leave them to die if you wish :’)
Hello friend =^.^=
I am pretty sure Tom has said that there will be a scenario kind of like this coming soon. Like maybe a hearthling being trapped in a cage by a goblin and if you save them they would join your town. He modeled a cage in one of the goblin streams, so its just a matter on code and the scenario is good to go lol. So look out for something like that soon
indeed, this has been confirmed! 
looking forward to it as well, add some more roleplaying elements to the game! 
Next we need towers, princesses, and dragons. Tameable dragons, mind you.