It's the journey that counts...

Most imprecations focus on the “how” of the injury rather than its final goal, which is generally presumed. This is the core of its power. Death inevitably comes to all things. But it is how this final aim is achieved outside of life’s natural course that makes curses truly terrifying. Accordingly, it is the barrage of ailments in the first curse that really matters. They overpower life. The disembowelment malediction is more then just the death of the vassals’ offspring. It also seeks to extinguish the family name and the demise of the underlings’ immortality. For the vassals, however, the injury is a slow, pitiable demise. Death, therefore, is the definitive goal of all curses against living beings. It is only the means of how it is to be achieved that differs.— Cursed Are You!, page 201