There are two ways to get to a guarded city from the northern wilds:
1. Walk there from wherever you are, running away from any difficult encounters.
a. If you're really far away (and don't mind), die and then hope you respawn closer to your destination.
2. Keep (re)creating and deleting your character until you end up starting at your destination.
a. Same as above, but only delete/create until you get to a semi-close city.
I'd encourage option 1 over option 2, as it's significantly more taxing on the server/database/etc. and will probably take longer unless you luck out.
Just run from any encounter that will kill you (which should be pretty much anything unless you're starting out with some skill in unarmed/melee).
Use turn-based if you have high agility (and a decent perception) and real-time if you don't (or if you you want to trade a little safety for speed).