You call down a terrible and enduring curse on one creature within range. That creature must be guilty of a great wickedness. You decide the exact nature of the curse (with your DM's approval). These might include the failure of the target's crops every year; or that he and his descendents unto the seventh generation live out squalid, miserable lives; or that he have no sons to carry his name; or that the fleas of a thousand camels infest his bedclothes.
When you cast the spell, the evildoer must be within range, it must be able to see and hear you, and you must announce the curse clearly to the target in a language it can understand. Ancient curse is a long-term spell, and its effects are often not immediate. It is not necessarily permanent; in the last example given, for example, the exhaustion incurred by being unable to sleep will kill the target in a short time, where in the first example the effect could continue for decades. In addition, an atonement spell can lift the curse.
* - (a piece of parchment with the curse written on it)
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