Last night I started playing a monk. today I escaped from Irenicus' dungeon. The other times I have gone through the game, he is usually fighting the Shadow theives. Imoen tosses a magic missile at him, the Cowled Wizards step in, and they take both Irenicus and Imoen away.

THIS time, I got out and Irenicus was just standing there. He babbles a bit (nothing to do with the storyline at all - the speech pattern doesn't sound like him at all) and then walks up to Imoen. She casts magic missle, and he teleports both her and himself away. No Cowled wizards.

I'm unsure as to what happened? Since I've completed the game, I know that the wizards took them to Spellhold. But I'm not sure if that happened this time, and I don't want to put in countless hours if this is a bug and I'll have to start over anyway.

anyone else encounter this?

Lemme guess... you downloaded the Baldurdash patch which skips the introduction. ;) Regular players download this patch because they have seen the introduction so much already, they practically memorised it by heart, so they just want to skip it all.

No, this isn't the intro. This is AFTER you get out of Irenicus' dungeon. (the start of chapter 2) Normally, Irenicus has a fight with the Cowled Wizards, and then they take him and Imoen away.

THIS time, there was no fight. Irenicus walked up to Imoen and teleported them both away. No Cowled wizards.