I completely agree that such a chat page would need to be separate from the game itself. Kind of like the forum is. In fact, I believe that would be a good place to put the link - right next to the forum link on the menu bars. The only thing the webchat would be for is making it easier for players of any dork level to access and participate in the existing, OOC chat on IRC.
This way they can just click on the chat button while playing and ask anyone who is on how in the heck they can setup that stupid automatic caravan their Duke is demanding of them and potentially get immediate feedback. A potentially positive side effect is seeing the number of people participating in IRC go up.
