i'm always struggling with external pages

[testbot]

how hard would it be to query the last 9 active users and display just their avatars on an external page?

i would like to make a module on my main site that has a 3x3 list of avatars under the title 'Recent Members'.

i see the following in one of the templates but i'm not sure where to get started with this hint.

<if condition="$show['avatar']"><td class="alt2"><a href="member.php?$session[sessionurl]u=$post[userid]"><img src="$post[avatarurl]" $post[avwidth] $post[avheight] alt="<phrase 1="$post[username]">$vbphrase[xs_avatar]</phrase>" border="0" /></a></td></if>