To avoid Suna Seni early on, I believe that Sikret has said going from the Promendade to the Slums to the Government district to the City Gates to Umar Hills is a safe route. (I hope I got that right.) Well, going from from the Government District to the Temple District (for Keldorn) instead of to the City Gates triggers the encounter. I groaned when I saw the dreaded sphere on the enemy mage, and immediately reloaded to check to see if this was a random encounter that may not be there if I tried again. No luck. However, I did manage to chop them up this time when I fought without too much trouble. Wooot, I'm learning to play IA! If this is an indication, I expect my second run through to take many less reloads. Hurah!

Nevertheless, I suggest delaying the encounter with Suna Seni to *at least* 3-7 (random) game days. I can imagine that some newcomers to the game would be very turned off by this encounter on Day 1! I know that I wasn't very fond of it on my first run.

I would have put up a spoiler warning, but if you don't know who Suna Seni is, I suppose that you are not spoiled.

This is correct.

However it actually gets better than this, because when you re-enter Athkatla you can do the following:

1) From outside the city (Umar/Windspear Hills, de'Arnise Keep etc.) go to the Bridge District.

2) From the Bridge District go to the Temple District

3) From Temple to Promenade

You can do all this without triggering the Suna Seni encounter, allowing you to complete the tanner quest in the Bridge District and the Unseeing Eye quest before facing Suna.

Knowing this path is very useful for raising experience before you take on Suna and her party (especially for a solo character).