Swamped

"This is First Mate Bertha's room," he replies.

"The young woman with the cane?" You're more than a little surprised. "She looked a bit young to be raising kids."

"Not her own. She's taken on the duty of watching children when their parents are busy." Resk pauses. "Wait, how'd you know about that? Were there children in here?"

"Yeah, I thought I heard something when I was passing by earlier. Found two kids here."

"And nobody else?"

"No, just a weird mass of dead bugs in the corner. The same one that's now a big mess of dead bugs on the floor outside. It wasn't moving at the time, but I figured it was best to just get them out of there."

Resk frowns.

"What do you mean, at the time? Are you telling me that whatever it was moved some time later?"

"It attacked us just before you arrived," the wizard interjects.

Resk looks thoughtful for a bit.

"Whatever the story is with that, I want to focus on the children for a moment. I know there was an emergency, but normally when Ms. Bertha has other work while children are under her care, she gets her partner to watch them instead. That's very odd."

Her partner. Guess that's another person who could have been in the room to make the symbol. Maybe even while the kids were asleep. Of course, you found the door slightly open, so it could be someone else... but you'd rather look at the likeliest options before worrying about who else had the chance.

"Is this relevant to finding out what's pulling the ship down?" the wizard suddenly asks, impatiently.

"Sorry. I was trying to think from a different angle, figure out who made the symbol. Thought if we could work that out, we could ask them," you explain.

"Makes sense," Resk says, nodding. "It would be natural to wonder if the room's main occupant might have done this. And I suppose I can go and ask her. I had planned to give a report to the captain, anyhow, and since Wiz is busy, we're probably not dealing with the warden for a while either."

"Just a moment," the wizard interjects. "Before you go and do that, there's something you can do here that would help me quite a bit."