Stalking Crystal

This is the sequel to my "Tracks" puzzle. It is a "crossword" on a Mario Party board. All boards in Mario Party 6 have day and night versions, but the skeleton key item only appeared in Mario Party 2 and Mario Party 3. The only board in either of those games with day and night versions is Horror Land from Mario Party 2, which is perfect, because this round of puzzles has an extremely loose Halloweeny theme.

The answers:

Originally he was Wednesday's great-uncle, how about that: FESTER
Right:
 Set that gave us Ashling, the Extinguisher: EVENTIDE
Left:
 Right:
  Right:
   Triumphs or successes: VICTORIES
   In the Four of this suit, a hand offering one extends from a cloud: CUPS
   Supposedly this person wears "something blue": BRIDE
  Left:
   Era of Dickens, Darwin, and those terrifying Brontë sisters: VICTORIAN
   U+2002, e.g.: SPACE
   Right:
    Snake who shares a voice with Winnie the Pooh: KAA
    Not the fun little death, but the one that brings total annihilation: FEAR
   Left (requires skeleton key):
    Rapper Dee, recorded "Wild Wild West" in 1988: KOOL MOE
    Verb distinguished by pedants from "raise": REAR
 Left:
  Monarch imitator: VICEROY
  Right:
   Right:
    Like "the oyster split" in "The oyster the oyster split split": EMBEDDED
    TMBG song featuring a mermaid: ERASE
   Left:
    Mother of Independent George and Relationship George: ESTELLE
    Welles's Third Man role: LIME
   Right:
    J. Jonah Jameson thinks Spider-Man is one: MENACE
   Left:
    The sense of this Biblical hunter's name as "moron" may originate with Bugs Bunny, I'm not sure: NIMROD
    Offspring or installment: ISSUE
  Left (requires skeleton key):
   Copacetic dame, frequently zozzled by giggle juice: FLAPPER

All the branches match up and the answers overlap correctly if you start at the blue space in the bottom left next to where it says "Horror Land" (where players actually start):

If, as you follow the paths in the order given by the clues, you note all the red spaces, they read ESMBANIA, which doesn't make any sense. If you read those letters off in the order 3 7 1 6 5 4 8 2, you get BIENABAS, which doesn't make sense either.

If, as you follow the paths in the order given by the clues, you note all the green spaces, they read STEPBACKFROMREDELLIPESS. Which is as close as I could get to STEP BACK FROM RED ELLIPSES given my other constraints. If you look at each red space (but not Bowser spaces, which are not ellipses) and take a step back, you get the letters DEAMRENL. Read those letters off in the order 3 7 1 6 5 4 8 2 to get the answer, ALDERMEN.

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