I was wondering about a couple of scenarios related to discarding cards to pay the cost of an effect

There are several possibilities with such a Gormond Goodbrother that allows a discard to be cancelled

Response: Kneel Gormond Goodbrother to save a location you control from being discarded from play.

So the first question is to get confirmation that you can pay a cost and cancel that payment

i.e. Euron's Favour

Any Phase: Discard a Warship location from play or from your hand to give attached character +4 STR and deadly until the end of the phase.

I assume I can discard a warship as per Euron's Favour's cost and then trigger Gormond's ability to cancel the location from being discarded from play?

The follow on from this relates to the card state - if my warship was kneeling and I discard it, then cancel the discard, does my warship remain kneeling or can it now stand

I assume it remains kneeling as it never actually leaves play?

The second part relates to stalwart characters and the timing of actions

The following scenario occurs:

a) I kneel Old Nan and give one of my stalwart characters the Night Watch trait

b) I play Yoran's Task (Discard 1 Night's Watch character from play to search your deck for 1 different Night's Watch character, reveal it, and add it to your hand. Then, shuffle your deck). The Night Watch character I discard is also stalwart

What happens next ....

Do I search my desk for a night watch character, shuffle my deck and then place the stalwart card on top of my deck or does it happen the other ways around (i.e. place the stalwart guy on top, search my deck and then shuffle my deck)

and what if the stalwart character was Kyle Condon

Response: After Ser Kyle Condon is killed or discarded from play, draw 1 card.

At what point would I draw the card

You cant cancel the cost of the effect without canceling the whole effect, in most cases the card has (cannot be saved) printed on it in instances such as this.

So unfortunately you cant use the combo of Eurons favor and Gormond Goodbrother.

If you could your 2nd assumption on staying knelt would be correct.

Now for your stalwart question.

Stalwart is a keyword and doesn't actually stop the character being discarded, it just changes the moribund destination to 'top of deck' instead of 'discard pile' so you can totally pay the cost of the event with a stalwart character and send him to the top of the deck.

Now in regard to your timing issue, you would play the event and search for the character and shuffle your deck then at the end of the action window the cost character would be discarded (in this example stalwart would kick in and they would go top of deck.

In the kyle example i believe you would play the event, nominate ser Kyle, and revolve the event, so search and shuffle, (assuming it is not canceled) then after any passives you would trigger Kyle's response and draw a card and finally Kyle would go to top of deck thanks to his stalwart

* I totally reserve the right to be corrected by ktom/anyone with more knowledge then me

So the first question is to get confirmation that you can pay a cost and cancel that payment

You can't. Costs are fully paid during the initiation of an effect (step 1 of the Action Window). Cancel responses happen in step 2 of the Action Window, after the initiation is complete, and prevent the resolution of the effect from occuring. That means that the cost has already been fully paid by the time you get to trigger a cancel. Saves work the same way. Bottom line: You cannot cancel costs, and you cannot save cards that leave play to pay a cost. The timing doesn't allow it.

The answers to your other questions follow from there.

EDIT: From hell's heart I stab at thee, Underworld40k!

As for the stalwart/Yoren's Task question, I think Underworld has it down pretty much, but I'll still try for a more detailed answer.

So, what happens is this:
1) Initiation of the effect. You annonce your intention to play Yoren's Task and put the card on the table. The event goes moribund immediately, but reamins physically on the table for the duration of the Action Window, like all moribund cards. You pay the cost and discard Ser Kyle from play. He goes moribund.

2) Save/Cancel responses. Let's say there aren't any here.

3) Effect resolves. You search your deck for a different NW character, reveal it, and add it to your hand. You shuffle your deck.

4) Passive effects. Let's say there aren't any here.

5) Responses. You trigger Ser Kyle's Response. It goes through the same Initiation-Save/Cancel-Resolution-Passives cycle as any other effect, but the only thing that really happens heere is that you draw a card.

6) Moribund cards leave play. Ser Kyle goes to the top of your deck. Yoren's Task goes to your discard pile.

That's interesting ... so you cannot cancel a cost, whether for my own benefit or to screw an opponent

Could I use something which does not cancel the cost but responds to the cost action -

(Where the cost of X is to discard a card from your hand) - such as Brightwater Keep

After a card is discarded from a player's hand, kneel Brightwater Keep to return that card to its owner's hand.

Final variation is where there is an alternative to the discard - i.e. Ser Jorah or Darkstar

If Ser Jorah Mormont is discarded from your hand, put him into shadows instead. Then, draw 1 card.

If Darkstar would be discarded from your hand or deck, put him into play instead.

I take it that Ser Jorah is discarded and therefore is legitimate payment of costs

Not sure about Darkstar ... would that pay a cost of discarding a card from hand or not count as a discard?

I think the stalwart response may need a second opinion (Sorry Underworld) - as the answer's timing suggests doing the effect (searching my deck) before paying the cost (discarding the character) ...is that correct?

Thanks Ratatoskr (re Stalwart update) ... our postings crossed

Could I use something which does not cancel the cost but responds to the cost action -

(Where the cost of X is to discard a card from your hand) - such as Brightwater Keep

After a card is discarded from a player's hand, kneel Brightwater Keep to return that card to its owner's hand.

Final variation is where there is an

I take it that Ser Jorah is discarded and therefore is legitimate payment of costs

Not sure about Darkstar ... would that pay a cost of discarding a card from hand or not count as a discard?

I think the stalwart response may need a second opinion (Sorry Underworld) - as the answer's timing suggests doing the effect (searching my deck) before paying the cost (discarding the character) ...is that correct?

Ratatoskr explains it a bit better then me but yes, kyle is discarded as a cost and goes moribund but don't forget moribund cards don't leave play physically till step 6 in the action window. As he is still in play his response is still available at the response window (and is met as he is being discarded). The response step occurs after the event is resolved (which is step 3).

EDIT: From hell's heart I stab at thee, Underworld40k!

Also, i ninja'd someone! And Ratatoskr to boot! The day is looking good!

Thanks to both of you for your replies .. the cannot cancel a cost is a ruie I will have to watch out for

Also useful to confirm about the replacement effect for Darkstar - still being counted as being discarded ... I run a Greyjoy milling deck with Corpse Lake and get a bit confused with characters like Darkstar (as to whether it actually counts as a discard)

Replacement effects are a little weird at first but the thing to remember is that while they may function as saves, they are not saves.

Retreat is a good example for this, the killed character goes to hand rather then the dead pile but for all game purposes that character WAS killed, so anything that triggers off killing a character would be able to trigger.

So a stark player with Harenhall (sp) and the house of black and white who killed a specific character with no quarter who had retreat played on them to bring them back to hand can still trigger both responses.

Like wise with darkstar or ser jorah, if they are discarded, they are for all game purposes, discarded. Their own text just says to do something different when this happens, so if you have corpse lake in play for your greyjoy deck they are discarded, so corpse lake can be triggered, They just end up in play rather then the discard pile.

I got a follow up question here. Yoren's Task lets you search for a "different character". What's "different" here? A character with a different title? Put another way - can I get another non-unique with the same title?

The ruling is "different by title."

That's interesting ... so you cannot cancel a cost, whether for my own benefit or to screw an opponent

You can certainly cancel an opponent's cost such as discarding/killing a character, location, or attachment in play (as long as the effect it's being used to pay for doesn't specify "cannot be saved"), thus they did not pay the cost. Bearing in mind, this will do you no good, as they can just initiate the effect again and discard/kill the same card you just prevented.

That's interesting ... so you cannot cancel a cost, whether for my own benefit or to screw an opponent

You can certainly cancel an opponent's cost such as discarding/killing a character, location, or attachment in play (as long as the effect it's being used to pay for doesn't specify "cannot be saved"), thus they did not pay the cost.

Um... where exactly in the timing structure are you triggering that effect to save the character that is killed/discarded for cost?

Said another way, since saves - by definition - have to interrupt an effect's intiation and resolution, and the character is killed or discarded completely as part of paying the cost (so it enters Step 2 of any action window already moribund), how are you saving something that is already dead/discarded?

It just never occured to me that you would not be able to cancel / save a card being discarded ... if that discard was the cost to some other action ... but as several people have pointed out, there is nothing in the framework to allow that

Cancelling the action itself, does not cancel the cost

I think this mis-understanding could be quite widespread

It is, for just the reason you express: It just never occurs to anyone.

It also doesn't help that FFG puts "cannot be saved" on some costs, but not others. The text is redundant when you look at the overall timing structure, but since the question comes up so often, it's hard to fault FFG put putting it in as a preemptive clarification. But since the clarification doesn't appear on everything, people tend to think "you can save when discarded/killed for cost" is the general rule and the "cannot be saved" carves out an exception instead of clarifying the real general rule.