@Urbatin Find detail isn't possible with Stone Shape. You can make things like crude doors or coffers. You can't make a flower bed, and certainly not a still growing flower bed.

@GMJoe It's not just you! There are a plethora of different spells that could result in a similar outcome. The problem is I don't know which spell he intends to use. I wanted to answer the question he asked, and show him how it is possible to come to that conclusion, but without knowing exactly what he intends to I had to make some assumptions.

An amulet with a +2 bonus to wisdom that gives advice on occasion would be great for a new player.

I don't think you even need to telegraph over-much. Like, what do you expect when you've been shipwrecked on a jungle island and leave the group?

Put a giant clock in the arena and make it "ding" every fifteen minutes and "dong" the number of hours.

This is basically what I have in a comment I just made, with the exception that your bad ideas can have deep insight to guide the player in the right direction.

@NeilSlater I think that's fair. Personally, my call as a DM would be to allow players to possibly acquire allies through the Diplomacy skill, although that ability is not explicitly stated. It just makes sense within the context of what diplomacy actually is. However, were they then to attempt to get an NPC to do something potentially harmful, and the NPC was to question it, it would be all about bluff. If they lied, anyway. If they tried to explain why it would be best if the NPC took the hit for the group, it would be Diplomacy against a high DC.