The Maximal Crew of the Exploration Vessel White Star are en route to a yearly stopover for refueling and new mission parameters. Suddenly, the ship is buffeted from all sides by a freak meteor shower. Desperately, the crew tries to hold the ship together, but it tumbles into the atmosphere of an unknown world, spraying the contents of its stasis hold into orbit. The crew prepares to depart the vessel, but energon field readings force them to assume beast forms. Their new bodies: A dog, an ugandi (eel/spider), a warhorse, a gryphon, and a chimp.
As the group adjusts to their new bodies, Commander Rift discovers that he is no mere hound, but a Blink Dog, capable of self-teleportation. Scythe, the smallest officer and an ex-Predacon member of the group, converts a lifting drone into the form of an umber hulk for him to ride on. When the Maximals exit the ship, Shadowraith, the black gryphon, and Paladyne, the silver warhorse, spot a pair of human beings approaching curiously. Farmer Miller and his son are highly curious as to what manner of fallen star has crashed onto their farmland...and frightened to be questioned by a talking gryphon and horse!
When Scythe and Trenek, chimp and ship secondary technician, question the humans, the farmer can only offer to them that perhaps gnomes or dwarves could explain where to find some of the strange metal they would need to repair their ship. Surprised at a demonstration of the transformation ability, he mentions legends of other "humans" that could become animals. He says the Maximals would probably be able to discover more in the town of Brimwell, to the north.
The Maximals leave Scythe and his drone Hulk behind to begin repairing their computer and ship, and walk toward the town. As it gets on evening, Scythe realizes he is being watched. He encounters an elven barbarian and a human rogue, Kithas and Nikki. The elf questions the Maximal as to why he fell from the sky and whether he is a god. Predacon circuits still firing in a minor way, he insists that he is. Unimpressed by his stature, Kithas succeed in attacking Scythe, then complains that he is not a god at all. Nikki asks if there are others on the falling star, and Scythe, after an unsuccessful bluff, admits that the others should eventually return. The adventurers tell him that they will be camping nearby.
In town, Paladyne steps directly into a bar, and demands to see a bard right away. Very startled, the bard in question nevertheless answers the horse's questions about shapeshifters, by telling several tales. His first in particular, of a dragon that transformed into a human to become a knight, inspires Paladyne's imagination, and he changes topic, continuing to press the bard for more information. The bard tells several tales of the Falleen Knights of the Lily, and their adventures in the lands to the east. When Shadowraith tries to return to the original topic, the bard also tells a tale of bird-shifters in the fairy forests to the north.
Meanwhile, Rift wanders into the center of the town, checking to see if any of the humans are talking about the celestial event. He catches snippets of conversation about the meteor shower, which is an event that apparently occurs every hundred years.
Though Paladyne insists on staying and further questioning the bard, the rest of the Maximals return to the White Star. Rift's abilities allow him to arrive first, and he notices the adventuring party. He sneaks up on the group, and steals a book from their half-elven mage. He then returns to the ship to see if the computer will analyze its contents. He asks Scythe if he was aware of the campers nearby, and Scythe admits his error in telling the adventurers that he was a god. Rift is, naturally, displeased, and forces Scythe to tell the story to Trenek when she returns.
As they discuss, Shadowraith arrives outside of the ship, and is also curious about the adventurers. Unfortunately, the party is on alert, and he is missed by a crossbow bolt from the fighter and struck with a magic missile from the mage. Not expecting the flesh-creatures to have what feels like energon firepower, he retreats to the ship and informs the others that he was attacked. Shadowraith is tracked and chased by the party's fighter, Brash, and this time, Rift goes out to handle the disturbance. He parries all of the human's attacks with his own swords, but, unable to convince the human to stop attacking what he now believes is a monster guarding treasure, Rift eventually disables him with one swift kick.
Paladyne tips the bard with a single coin of energon, and returns to the ship. He approaches the campfire immediately, and speaks with the adventurers. After explaining to the party that he and his companions are not gods or demons, merely adventurers like them, he asks as to their destination. Nikki says that the party was sent out to investigate the crash, and she mentions that it's lucky they arrived before the emperor's army. Paladyne asks of the Lily Knights, but Nikki seems singularly unimpressed by the concept. He then talks of gods and prophecy with the cleric and mage. The cleric, a dwarf named Feldspar, tells of the god Gildar of the Dwarves and his forge of creation, and Paladyne talks of Primus and the Plasma Forge, the two coming to the conclusion that perhaps they worship the same deity. The half-elf mage then tells of the prophecy that brought them to the crashsite. A hundred years ago, during the night of the meteor shower, the earth erupted in the jungles to the south, and savage and evil gods appeared and took over the elvenlands. Many elves were driven out of their homelands, Kithas among them. The prophecies foretold that, during this starfall, the good gods would tumble from the sky, do to battle with the evil gods.
The cleric then notes that the party fighter is missing, and he and Nikki help him back from the White Star, and Feldspar says a healing prayer. The other Maximals gather and greet, and the mage's book is humbly returned.
Seeing that merely strange adventurers, and not gods, have arrived, the party nevertheless offers to travel with the Maximals as far as the castletown of Essex, where the lord of this kingdom lives. Beyond that, to the west, are the mountains of the gnomes, who might be able to aid the Maximals in repairing their strange technology.