You'd rather the druids just stood there forever chanting? That's weird.
Yes, until a quest choice is made that advances the story. For me that seems normal because that is how most video games I play work. It feels unexpected and cheap if a quest suddenly fails because a random amount of time passed.
It's not a random amount of time.
Let's say you learn it takes 7 days to complete the ritual. That would give you 7 long rests, one per day. If you don't stop the ritual, the ritual completes. Easy, simple, makes sense.
As opposed to a landscape forever stuck in time.
(As for @GM4Him's solution of something stopping the ritual, I'm fine with that *if* the players initiate whatever stops the ritual. Otherwise, not so much. I want actual consequences.)
And that's the thing, I suppose. Consequences, a sense of realism and progressing time. This idea of a static world of challenges that players can get to when they want doesn't sound like as much fun to me. It sounds like playing on super easy mode, whereas I'd prefer a challenge and reactions within the world that make reasonable sense.
I can stretch my disbelief just like anyone else, but it'd be nice if the game could manage to finish a ritual it started.
