When Max Sumner and three friends play a magical card game called Round Table, they realize that it is up to them to prevent the wicked creatures of the cards from destroying their town, indeed, their world.

As the four friends known as the Grey Griffins begin school at Iron Bridge Academy, where children with special powers like theirs are trained to fight evil beings, rumors surface that a mad scientist known as the Clockwork King is back, and the Griffins must defeat his robotic war machines before total devastation is unleashed upon the world.

Tragedy divides the Grey Griffins, but their united quest to capture Von Strife continues, pitting them against killer clockworks, spider-like beasts, and an army of animated dead as they work together to prevent the building of The Paragon Engine.