The capitol in sight! Fresh leather! Culture and booze! Lag increased as I approached it, even moving around the meadhalls on the way was a drag. In the city I went directly for the keep, and the lag got just under tolerable until I started sprinting. The place was a bloodbath; crime bosses on the walls and vampires in the keep, bodies everywhere. I didn't even know where to start, but my companions seemed to pick random targets. This is why I hate traveling with companions, unit coordination is completely lacking.
I don't know what went on between the goblin and bard, but while I was killing beastfolk with their own weapons I saw her beating him to death with her lute and her book. Maybe he wasn't such a good match for the party after all. Maybe we could've spent more time on team-building exercises. I decided not to intervene, but later discovered a minor loyalty cascade in the party had caused her to also kill the Hunter. So he finally found his end; struck down by 21 pounds of Clear Meditations. He made a great decoy for so long.
The lawgiver and several lords turned out to be vampires, and I outed them all before attacking. They were a lot tougher than the roving savages because they actually had weapons and armor, and as meager as those were, they were effective. The fighting died down after taking them out. So let the looting begin!