1. Yes, there is a game manual. It is part of the stuff you installed on your computer to play the game. To find the manual, look in the Programs, Sony, Everquest... and the game manual is a .pdf file named Manual or eqmanual. click it open to read.
2. Ok, so you found your Guild Master and handed him - her - it your note and the guild master said a bunch of stuff that you didn't understand or can't remember entirely . To review previous text from an Non Player Character also know as NPC your Guild Master type into the chat text line /j that will open up your journal, which is a list of NPCs you have spoken to and you can click on their name to see the text or message they have said.
3. Probably, you will want to walk up to every nearby NPC and click on them.. then type in the letter H to "hail" them. Most will have some sort of response. Some times, it will be interesting, or actually important.
4. Explore your home town a little while. Look around. Talk to the beings you enounter. Vist the merchants and you do not have to buy anything just yet.
5. You will eventually find your way to the area we call the newbie zone of your home town. Most of the major cities have newbie zones. Freeport has 2. This is where you will find monsters that you can kill to gain experience, click on the dead corpse to loot the goodies, and sell to the vendors you found earlier.
I remember what it is like to just start playing the game. I created a ranger, and stayed in Surefall Glade for my first week of playing the game. Totally happy and totally clueless there was anything else involved. I got really good at foraging, fishing, swiming, and making arrows. Then, another player wandered in to check in with her guildmaster, and WOW.. I learned how to get to other zones. I played for three years befor I found Allakhazam.
Just have fun!