Quote Originally Posted by Pex View Post
Your players may surprise you and know they aren't villains especially if the people of Salt Marsh tell them they got along fine in the past, and it's only because one was seen with the pirates that caused concern in the first place.

I played a paladin in 2E when I played this adventure and was insistent to the party before we met the lizardmen weren't our enemies. Truth was going to see them we were the invaders to their home, and they would likely defend themselves. As it happened when we approached they did not know our intentions and attacked. However, we fought defensively. We didn't kill anyone, just knocked them out until finally we found a lizardman we could talk to. Once we did we immediately dropped our weapons and surrendered so we could talk, and so we learned what was going on.

If the party does fight to kill, if they win they win. If they lose they get captured, not killed, and it wouldn't even be deus ex machina. The lizardmen would legitimately want to know why Salt Marsh would send invaders when they had gotten along in the past. Then the truth comes out on both sides.
I'm not sure you understood what I was going for. What I'm suggesting is to shift "the truth" to the lizardmen acting on the side of the sahaugin. The people of Saltmarsh will have had little or no previous contact with these lizardfolk, so the information gathering will be starting from zero. It's possible that the player characters can figure out that the lizardmen are working for the sahaugin under duress, but that will still make for a very different adventure (especially for the players that have metagamed)