Curse of Damocles

General: You raise a weapon and length of silver chain. As you intone the arcane words, the weapon rises into the air as the chain lengthens and slithers around it like a serpent. With the last syllable of the incantation, the weapon begins to radiate with silver light before scattering into a cloud of luminous runes that fly like moths and swarm the target who must make a Wisdom saving throw.

Failed Save: The runes coalesce into a spectral weapon hanging from a chain where the end fades away into nothing. Both weapon and chain have the appearance of the consumed components. The spectral weapon hovers with a perpetual gentle swaying motion above the target and will follow regardless of how fast they move. The only sign of it being affected by inertia is the weapon swinging back and forth slightly further than usual in the direction of motion. Only the target, caster or creatures with Truesight can perceive the spectral weapon. Other creatures will instead see the rune chaotically rise upward and dissipate.

Successful save: The target takes 1d4 necrotic damage, but no additional effects occur.

Triggered Effect: When the target ignores the spectral weapon for longer than 10 minutes, the spectral blade materializes with a corona of black light, and time seems to slow to a crawl. Before the chain, it once hung from breaks causing it to fall and strike the target with unearthly force. As if the weapon was many times heavier than should be physically possible. Afterward, time resumes. The target must make a Constitution saving throw, taking ((Consumed weapon's damage dice + damage bonus) * 2) damage on a failed save. Or half as much on a successful one. The target's maximum hit points are reduced equal to the damage until the curse is dispelled. If the damage reduces the target's hit points to 0, their Death saving throws are made with disadvantage unless the curse is dispelled. The curse ends when the target dies.

Dispell Conditions: The Remove Curse spell is cast by a creature with the same caster level as the spell slot level used to cast the curse, or the Wish spell is used to remove it.

At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 6th or higher, the (triggered effect) damage multiplier increases by 1 for each slot level above 5th.