This spell is used to avenge the imminent death of the caster. The barbarian cleric can name an enemy and invent a curse to take effect on the foe – if this enemy was the direct cause of the caster's death. If the caster is raised from the dead, the curse is broken, but otherwise it is everlasting. The curse is usually imaginative (and fiendish), but cannot exceed the power of a bestow curse spell (-4 penalty, ability score reduced to 3, etc.). If the caster commits suicide, the spell takes effect, but obviously this is not commonly done.
The material component is a necklace made of the teeth of large carnivores. Only one enemy can be held under threat of a death curse at a time
Notes: Restricted to barbarian clerics, very rare. (Updated from Dragon Magazine.)