I'm not saying that he should totally disengage from said quest, just to take his time and explore thoroughly before making a decision, which in his case, may or may not be rash.
Yeah, usually I agree that when you go blind into a new RPG you should play it straight and safe. That means taking a combat-proficient character, killing lots of critters and maybe even accepting the first quests you go into. But if you're going to roll a squishy character, at least act like one. Lie, run, hide, explore options, play things in a safely manner. Not only because you can side with someone else in this case, but you need to better assess the situation, buy some better equipment, hire some muscle, do some easier quests so you can be better leveled up against certain challenges and so on.