+ Play the right class:
Warrior is not a beginner class, too many variables and complexity.
You want either Assassin or Ranger. I'd suggest Assassin.
For race you want Arial or Human or Felar.

Assassin will allow you to hide and see enemies approaching easier.

+ Try and join the right Cabal.
I would strongly suggest you be of good alignment and try to join
the Fortress. Playing with others (allies) will allow you to learn
things much faster and you'll get help with regearing/preps and
exploration. You will also get an idea of cabal dynamics and cabal
wars.

+ Try and interact with others in game.
Approach obvious good-aligned players (elfs, dwarves, paladins, Fort
members), let them know of your intentions to join Fort, ask for
help etc. The bonus of playing good is that not everybody is going
to want to murder you. If you play evil, you can have the whole mud
gunning for you.

+ Find information outside the game. The unofficial forums and wiki
(you need to sign up for the forums to access it) @ www.qhcf.net
are full of extremely useful info. There is also an IRC channel.

+ Most importantly as daevryn said, learn to enjoy dying. CF has
permadeath either due to con loss or age death or you deleting.
No char is permanent, so take advantage of this, play a couple
of chars and con die them to get the hang of PK. View each battle
as a learning opportunity. Lost equipment/coins can be replaced
very fast if you learn how to do a basic regear.

CF _is_ challenging but if you follow these simple recommendations
you will have a lot more fun as you learn the ropes.