The curses are separate to the portents but together they make a small system you can use for solo'ing.
After you have a dangerous encounter you roll 2d6 and list the result alongside a small summary of that encounter, e.g.
- 5: dangerous debris
- 8: goblin ambush
- 7: pit trap
If you go to add a result but it has the same number result as one that's already in the list it indicates there's a repercussion stemming from one of the incidents. Choose which one, erase it and play out what that repercussion is. If you need help working out what the repercussion is you can always use the portents.
Does that help?