There's nothing noob about asking for directions in game. I asked a lot in game when I came back, a couple of months ago, and now, I'm a lot better player then I was back in 2000.
You can ask for almost everything in game, as long as it's plausible, along with your character's story and passed interactions with other characters. My opinion is that you should make a human bard, since people will ususally want a bard on their side, and go for the Fort. There you can have some connections with some of the members with time and you will know to whom you can ask those kind of question. Ask for one thing here, one thing there, once upon a time. You may even be lucky and end up on someone who is just bored at this time and would help you for a couple of hours, since he has nothing better to do.
Human bard would be a great combo to discover a lot of stuff, since people are most likely to ask for your help to get those good pieces of equipment and the such. And beeing a human, you have no vulnerabilities, people won't attack you at first sight knowing your alignment based on your race (as an orc would jump on an elf as soon as he sees him), etc.
As for the cabals of Thera, there is a quest for it which gives general directions for each of them. You might want to try that quest, and then ask for further informations in game to some who are most likely to help newbies and lowbies characters. That's what I did, honestly, and 2 hours later, I knew the location of every single cabal. I don't know if I can mention the location to start this quest here. You can PM me if you want.
As for ABS, I don't know any of them, I don't know where to get the fillets, I don't know everything of this game. In fact, my lack of knowledge is the one that makes me a good player, but not that hard to beat for one who knows the game. I still add a couple of heros and a lot of passed 40, from almost every class (except healer, shaman, paladin, druid, I just don't have the time and patience to get a char empowered)