Practice Yard

Purpose / Function

Outdoor space for training in physical disciplines and the art of war.

Alterations

"Practice Yard" is actually a holdover name from the original practice yard in the courtyard of the Main Building , which is now a garden. The new Practice Yard is actually a complex of multiple yards and outbuildings that better fit the scale of the newer, more extensive curriculum.

Architecture

The yards are packed dirt and the outbuildings are wood. The following locations exist:

Main Yard

A big square fenced in space that is frequently the location of more than one class at once. There's usually a variety of equipment out, including sandbags, practice dummies, various obstacles and weights, racks of wooden swords, etc.

Monstrous Combat Yard

Not quite as big as the main yard but always clear of equipment and with a much higher, sturdier fence. There's a lifeguard chair at each end for instructors to shout advice to those assuming the form of, summoning, or fighting larger-than-life foes.

Channeling Arena

A round clay courtyard with concentric circles marked in even distances at multiple places. The clay itself has a Counterspell that can be triggered by a wooden lever at one end. 

Archery Range

Lines to stand behind. Hay bales with targets to shoot. There are rules for Evocation students wanting to practice ranged spells.

Armory

Not just a place to store things to hit each other with, this also has changing rooms, lockers, and a tiled room to grab a quick sponge-bath, to the relief of all.

Indoor Salle

Some of the Maestri grumble about the softening effect of not making the students practice swordsmanship in driving sleet or snow, but it really does make the metal last longer. The acrobatics classes tend to take over the East end with aerial silks and suspended rings and other equipment inconvenient to set up daily in an outdoor yard.

Track

Gravel. Surrounds the Practice Yard as a whole. About a half mile long. Connects to other footpaths on the grounds.

Type

Room, Outdoors, Courtyard

Parent Location

Hilltop Preparatory Academy