If the party asks around about the Intractable before going there, they find that it’s a prison hulk where prisoners are held before being transported to a penal colony on Hilde. It’s managed by a private company, and prisoners are treated extremely poorly there - like a floating concentration camp. With a little more poking around, they hear that the company is sympathetic to the hobnails and under their thumb.
When the party goes to the Intractable, they find that it’s an old warship in poor repair. It’s about the same length as the sloops-of-war you’ve encountered before, Hedgepeth and Durst, but it’s taller with three cannon decks instead of one. A gangplank goes up to the main deck. On the main deck, you can see a few apparent bodies wrapped in cloth, with a menial tending them. If the party asks where the bodies come from, the persons tells them typically a few prisoners die a day and their bodies are found by the others in the dark corners of the lower decks.Inside the ship, you’re immediately struck by the darkness, heat, bad air, and crowding. There’s light coming from the cannon holes, but much of it is blocked by the crowd of prisoners; there aren’t normally torches burning because the air is bad down here and torches burn oxygen. Because the air is so bad, many of the prisoners continually pant, struggling to breath.
As far as the prisoners themselves, because of the heat, many of the prisoners are shirtless or naked. Even in the low light, you can see that many of them are underfed or ill. On each deck there are a few prisoners shouting, crying, or wringing their hands.
The party got a description of Bering from Chill Touch, and they don’t find a person like that on any of the cannon decks. Continuing down to the bilge (where water collects), they pass a few toughs sitting on the steps, they find Bering in the water up to about his waist, seemingly in thought. There are a few lackeys around waiting on him. Bering has a large Horst tattoo like Auld did. When the characters come in, he comments that he can smell Hilde on them. When he finds out who they are, he says bitterly that Burns and Krill were the ones who dumped him in the penal colony.