R.A.D.

R.A.D. is the Research and Analysis Department of the Academy of Magics. It is officially one of the smallest and least prestigious of the academic departments. It's primary function is to catalogue news from the outside world, and evaluate current events searching for various points of interest that the Academy might find useful. For example, if a Fellow Wizard has a theory that a passing of a comet causes goat infertility, they might task RAD with tracking the comet and sifting through the news for stories or reports from field mages that support it.

RAD operates from a very small office in a somewhat dilapidated building, most of which is used as a storage of some sort. The RAD office is cramped, as it doubles both as working space and an archive/library, with precariously balanced stacks of books and scrolls littering every available space.

In reality however RAD is just a front, for what is a secret intelligence agency funded by the guild. Under the rinky-dink office there are vast vaults for storing world's most dangerous magical artifacts and laboratories devoted to studying them. RAD employs hundreds of researchers in Zorandon alone, and thousands of operatives across the world.

RAD spies operate in total secrecy, and are embedded in various organizations, all across the known world. Their missions vary, but in most cases they either collect information for the agency, or try to covertly protect guild's interests.

RAD also recruits seasoned adventurers to act as their secret elite task forces. Their missions are usually to stop world ending events, or magical cataclysms uncovered by RAD's spy network.