So I went back to another save, this one back to lower city after just saving Volo. I then went on to save figaro, and then to councilor florrick.

Was still able to load into lower city.

But here is one little tidbit I noticed about this save that was different from all the others - After doing all that going back to my camp I discovered that Volo was in my camp, and telling me to go whoop Orin.

I will once again go and confront Gortash, but could Volo be the issue. Is he stuck in Lower City and bugging the loading process out? Unlikely I think, but it's something different between this save and my others that have failed.